Oxford Learning’s Dynamic Assessment is a proprietary combination of licensed testing activities designed to give insight into your child’s academic performance (academic skills) and how he or she thinks and learns (intellectual and potential skills).
What To Expect During A Dynamic Assessment
The test takes place in one of our assessment rooms, away from the main classroom. This way, your child can think clearly and is not distracted by other things happening in the centre.
The test is interactive. Some areas require drawing, some require manipulating objects, and some require repeating sentences back to the assessor.
The test can take up to two hours for older students—but it doesn’t have to be stressful!
There’s no need to worry on test day: the assessment is not so much a test as it is an opportunity for your child to demonstrate what he or she knows, and what intellectual skills he or she possesses.
What Makes Oxford Learning’s Assessment Different?
What The Results Tell Parents
We measure academic and cognitive skills so that we can understand not only where a student stands academically, but why a student is at that level.
The test can tell parents what academic skills their child has a firm grasp on, what skills he or she may be missing, and what learning strengths or weaknesses are present. It also gives insight into how the student reacted during testing, whether he or she was calm, nervous, anxious, upset, or confident.
The Dynamic Assessment gives parents and instructors insight into:
- Academic skills
How your child performs in certain subjects, as well as skills like concentration, auditory processing, visual distractibility, short-term memory, and reasoning skills.
- Cognitive skills
The level of your child’s cognitive skills, including listening skills and how he or she integrates, retains, and recalls information.
- Learning strengths
How your child learns best, and how he or she can apply these strengths to improve learning skills and learn most effectively.
- Areas of weakness
Areas where your child can use some improvement, whether it’s organization, time management, confidence, or in a particular subject.
The end result of our Dynamic Assessment process is an ability to show parents where their child is currently functioning, why the student is at that level, and how his or her full potential can be achieved. It also helps us understand the student’s current level of motivation, self-esteem, and active mind.
How The Results Create A Program
Using our individual Dynamic Assessment, we are able to pinpoint your child’s learning strengths and weaknesses.
Knowing how a student learns allows us to present academic material in a way that is best suited to each student’s understanding. Even though every program at Oxford Learning has a particular integrity and follows a logical structure, each student’s program is completely individualized.
The Dynamic Assessment helps us customize your child program, including:
- The pace of the program
- Areas of focus (learning skills, subjects)
- Which instructional methods to use
- How to make learning fun for your child
Your child’s results help our education coordinators choose the best starting point for him or her, and build a program that will help your child develop and strengthen academic and learning skills.