It is definitely important to make sure that the student's grade at the end of the year is reflective of their meeting the criteria of the Program of Studies, as well as their improvement throughout the year. I think the best way to do this is definitely throught the use of formative assessment. If the school has a policy that all grades given must be recorded for the student's final mark, but I am sure that a student will work hard to improve on their knowledge and skills, then I think the best way is to give them feed back mostly, with a few informal grades if needed. This way, at the end of the year when the student has improved and met the learning outcomes their grade will actually reflect it.
It does seem that grading practices will have to change based on the subject that is being taught, because most of the subjects are set up in different ways. Math, for example, is set up in separate units, and what the student achieves at the beginning of the year is likely unrelated to what they are achieving at the end of the year. Language arts on the other hand, is a subject in which knowledge and skills are built upon and improved throughout the year, and are all related to each other. In this case, the subjects like math will not reflect improvement like LA will, because a student generally only improves in that specific unit, before moving onto a new one. So to counter for this, formative assessment will have to be done throughout each unit in math, not throughout the entire year like in english, with a summative assessment given at the end of the unit that will reflect the student's learning and improvement.
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