Identify the areas in which the student will be evaluated, depending on how far along the student is in his academic career. For example, in Pennsylvania, an elementary student must be evaluated on his knowledge of U.S. and Pennsylvania history and as he moves into high school, the focus of Social Studies evaluation shifts to his knowledge of geography, civics and world history. Get curriculum maps detailing the areas to evaluate from your home district to align with the educational standards of your home district and your state's Department of Education.
Gather the materials the student has produced or completed within the content area in which you will be writing the grade level evaluation. Save and collect these materials - quizzes, tests, in-class assignments, homework assignments, essays, memos and notes - in a student portfolio over the course of the year.
Review the quizzes, tests, in-class assignments, homework assignments, essays and notes from the content area in which you are evaluating your student. Make notes concerning her improvement or decline within the subject. For example, if your student often shows her work in her math notes and on math quizzes and tests, write "shows work." If your student frequently misuses commas in her writing and her notes, write "comma errors."
Outline your evaluation. Include at least the following sections: an introduction or overview, a list of areas of improvement, a list of areas of decline, objectives for continuing areas of improvement, objectives for improving areas of decline and an a summative evaluation of the student's overall progress in the subject area. Record standardized test scoring use an overall grading scale - A, B, C or a point system, for example.
Introduce the subject area on which your evaluation will focus. Describe the material covered from the beginning of the year to the end. Offer a brief recap of each unit studied over the course of the year. State the level of competence the student demonstrated in this subject at the end of the prior year. For example, in evaluating the student's progress in 7th grade English, provide a detailed curriculum map of the year, describe each unit covered, list various writing and reading assignments completed and summarize how the student's writing, reading, listening and speaking skills improved over the course of the academic year.
List all the areas of strength or improvement demonstrated by the student over the course of the year. Focus on several areas of competence, including demonstration of knowledge (tests), demonstration of good habits (studying, self-motivation) and demonstration of connection (applying knowledge to real life or other subjects). Identify areas of strength or improvement as areas of excellence or areas of demonstrably increased ability. For example, for a student who performs well on tests, write "Strong ability to retain and recall information during assessments."
List all the areas of deficiency or decline demonstrated by the student over the course of the year. For example, if her ability to remember specific dates and times in her history lessons declined from the previous to the present year, state "Requires remediation in remembering significant historical dates and times."
Outline objectives for the student to maintain his areas of strength and improve his areas of deficiency. For example, in outlining objectives for a math evaluation, write, "Show every step of your problem-solving process" and "Use scrap paper to complete all problems." These objectives can be simple, like "study more," or complicated research plans with specific tasks and goals pertaining to remediation and enrichment. For example, to encourage his strong math skills while simultaneously improving his weak writing skills, write in your math evaluation "Translate number problems into word problems and vice versa."
Summarize the evaluation by assessing the student's overall success or failure over the course of the academic year. Assign an evaluative grade and explain your reasons. For quantifiable assignments (tests and quizzes), simply tally up the total points the student received and divide that number by the total points possible. Multiply the remaining number by 100, producing the student's performance percentage. This percentage will fall on a percentage grading scale (for example, 90% to 100% is an A and 80% to 89% is a B). For non-quantifiable assignments (essays and projects), use a grading rubric to evaluate the student's performance. Use online tools to generate rubrics or use rubrics that accompany the teaching materials from your home district or state.