Providing students the opportunity to demonstrate their learning progress and achievement is the cornerstone of the district’s approach to proficiency-based education, promotion, and graduation. All students are expected to demonstrate achievement of the knowledge, skills, and work habits articulated in the respective state content-area standards such as the Maine Learning Results and the cross-curricular, transferable skills outlined in the Guiding Principles. In addition to daily and periodic assessments administered by teachers, the Central School District supports and promotes deeper learning through performance-based assessments such as exhibitions, portfolios, and capstones. In contrast to other methods of assessment, a demonstration of learning may take on a wide variety of forms and should provide students with opportunities to design their own projects and connect their learning to global, national, and local issues, resources, and opportunities. Some examples include, but are not limited to, projects such as:

• Oral presentations, speeches, or spoken-word poems.
• Video documentaries, multimedia presentations, websites, audio recordings, or podcasts.
• Works of art, illustration, music, drama, dance, or performance.
• Works of fiction and nonfiction published in print or online.
• Essays, poems, short stories, or plays.
• Galleries of print or digital photography.
• Scientific experiments, studies, and reports.
• Physical products such as models, sculptures, dioramas, musical instruments, or robots.
• Portfolios of work samples and academic accomplishments that students collect over time.
• Presentations or slideshows that provide a summary of the knowledge, skills, and work habits students have learned and the learning standards they have met.