{"id":1550,"date":"2026-09-08T15:43:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T15:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/alternative-education\/2026\/09\/08\/updates-to-assessment-and-evaluation-for-grade-9-to-12-students\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T15:43:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T15:43:41","slug":"updates-to-assessment-and-evaluation-for-grade-9-to-12-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/alternative-education\/2026\/09\/08\/updates-to-assessment-and-evaluation-for-grade-9-to-12-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Updates to Assessment and Evaluation for Grade 9 to 12 Students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Starting September 2026, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ontario.ca\/page\/growing-success-assessment-evaluation-and-reporting-ontario-schools-kindergarten-grade-12\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ministry of Education<\/a> has introduced new requirements for how final marks are determined in Grade 9 to 12. These changes apply to all publicly funded school boards in Ontario, including the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB).<\/p>\n<h2>Changes for Grade 9 to 12 Students<\/h2>\n<p>Grade 9 to 12 students will continue to demonstrate their learning throughout the semester. The changes mean that final grades will now include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Classroom learning completed throughout each course<\/li>\n<li>Attendance and participation<\/li>\n<li>A final evaluation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Reporting Excused Absences<\/h3>\n<p>The updates from the Ministry of Education outline specific requirements for parents, families and caregivers when reporting an excused absence. Excused absences will not impact a Grade 9 to 12 student\u2019s attendance mark.<\/p>\n<h4>How to Report an Excused Absence<\/h4>\n<p>The parent or guardian of the student, or the student if they are an adult, must submit a request in writing requesting that the student be excused for a specified time frame. This could include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Illness<\/li>\n<li>A medical appointment<\/li>\n<li>Vacation or family obligation<\/li>\n<li>Holy\/Cultural day<\/li>\n<li>Sporting engagement<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Emailed absence notifications should be sent to the attendance email for each school, which can be found in the footer of their website.<\/p>\n<p>The written notification must include the:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Student\u2019s name<\/li>\n<li>Student\u2019s date of birth<\/li>\n<li>Date(s) of the absence<\/li>\n<li>Time or period the student will be absent<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Students remain responsible for completing any missed learning or assessments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"note\">Telephone calls or voicemail messages alone do not meet the Ministry&#8217;s requirements for recording an excused absence.<\/p>\n<h3>Final Evaluations<\/h3>\n<p>Most Grade 9 to 12 students will complete a final examination at the end of each course. Some courses will also include a culminating task, while others may use a culminating task instead of a final examination.<\/p>\n<h4>Final Evaluation Days<\/h4>\n<p>Most Grade 9 to 12 students will write one or more final examinations during the <a href=\"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/school-year-information\/calendars-and-important-dates\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">scheduled examination period<\/a> at the end of each semester.<\/p>\n<p>Parents, families and caregivers are encouraged to avoid scheduling vacations, appointments, or other activities during the examination period whenever possible, so students can participate in their scheduled final evaluations.<\/p>\n<p>If a student is unable to attend because of illness, injury, or another unavoidable circumstance, families should notify the school as soon as possible.<\/p>\n<h2>Questions?<\/h2>\n<p>Parents, families and caregivers of students in Grade 9 to 12 will receive additional information from their child\u2019s school about:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Final evaluations<\/li>\n<li>Examination schedules<\/li>\n<li>Course expectations<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you have any additional questions, please contact your child\u2019s school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Starting September 2026, the Ministry of Education has introduced new requirements for how final marks are determined in Grade 9 to 12. These changes apply to all publicly funded school boards in Ontario, including the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB). Changes for Grade 9 to 12 Students Grade 9 to 12 students will continue [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\" role=\"complementary\"><a href=\"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/alternative-education\/2026\/09\/08\/updates-to-assessment-and-evaluation-for-grade-9-to-12-students\/\"><strong>Read more about<\/strong> <cite>Updates to Assessment and Evaluation for Grade 9 to 12 Students<\/cite> &#187;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1143,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/alternative-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/alternative-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/alternative-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/alternative-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/alternative-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/alternative-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/alternative-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/alternative-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.wrdsb.ca\/alternative-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}