I'm stuck somewhere between my theoretical beliefs and their practical implications.
First of all, the premise. I have always tried to make my students' grades be a reflection of what they actually know, and not much else. I believe that's what we now lovingly call "Standard Based Grading." However, I operate under the same 90/80/70/60 grading scale that has existed since before SBG was a thing.
Conveniently, just as I was gearing up to write this post, my boss sent us an article on SBG. How timely!
Here's a link
TLDR summary: schools are trying to ditch letter grades and instead provide descriptions of what students are actually learning and check of mastery of learning targets as said mastery is achieved.
My school isn't there, yet. I'm sure it's just around the corner. Maybe even next year. I haven't been paying very close attention, to be honest. So far there has already been a big push for Assessment for Learning.
So, since this matched what I already believed, over the last few years, I've gone from occasionally allowing some students to prove that their test results don't represent their actual level of understanding, to actually encouraging everyone to retake everything. Some call this "holding them accountable" or "not letting them off the hook just because they failed a test." In theory, that sounds so great! And this is where my problems began.
At first, this was a pretty radical idea for students. They'd never been able to re-take tests before. So they treated it as a privilege. And when that was the case, it was very manageable. I would meet with a student, go over his/her mistakes, send them off to do corrections and practice, and meet with them again to listen to their explanations of the concept, ask questions, make up some problems for them to solve, and if I was satisfied, I just added however many points they lost back to their test grade.
Honestly, at first, I felt like I was a rebel! It seemed like a radical idea to me, too. But soon enough, it became the norm at the school. Everyone was doing it! And when it became the norm, my students' attitude toward tests changed completely.
Dan Meyer in his talk at NCTM, talked about minimizing the cost of failure. Well, this happened. My students would come in on the day of the test and say things like, "I'm not ready for this test, can I take it next week?" "I still don't get this stuff, so I'm just going to fail this test, is that ok? I'll do the re-take later!" "What do you mean I have to take it today? I'm just going to turn it in blank because I have to re-take it anyway!"
Yeah....that was an adjustment. Let's just say I'm still working on it.
And these re-takes? They were completely out of control. Toward the end of 1st semester, I was spending literally every free minute I had, including after school, with one or five students, going over material from as far back as Unit 1. I'll admit, there were so many AHA! moments, that I really did feel like maybe, finally, they're learning this stuff. And maybe that's better than what used to happen, which is nothing. They would just fail and then do nothing. Therefore, just maybe, this may be worth my time? But I also felt like I was being used.
So I figured that because I'm used to sophomores, and these were seniors, I needed to change some policies.
Second semester I instituted a new rule. The deadline for retaking a test is 2 weeks from the day after the test, aka the day they see their test results. This was a good rule, it really helped my sanity, but it wasn't enough. Fourth quarter I added another new rule. Before, in order to do the re-take, a student had to show me test corrections and a completed review packet. Now, in order to even qualify for the re-take, I want to see that review packet completed by the day of the test. Is it because I believe that doing the practice problems will help them prepare for the test? Yeah, it just might!
And now a challenge.
One of my darlings, who is generally very responsible, came into the test completely unprepared. She was absent, she never bothered to figure out what she missed. She was counting on the re-take, or on being able to take the test some other time. I made her take the test. The results were predictable.
Two weeks later, it's the last day for the re-take. "Can I have more time for the re-take? I was absent one day last week!" Um...no? And also, are you serious?
We talked. And during this conversation, here's what occurred to me.
It's not just about mastering the material. It's about mastering the material in some sort of a timely manner. Because, sure, if I have unlimited time and resources, I can learn anything. But that really isn't how school works. You need to learn this material this year, this semester, and you need to be able to balance that responsibility with all the other things that are going on in your life.
My resolve was shaken once again when I got this e-mail from the student last week.
Hi Mrs. Shafran,
I hope you had a good celebration with your family. While looking in the grade book I still haven't been able to accept the fact that I could be getting a 95 in trig, but I have to stick with a 75, because I wasn't able to get one more day to retake it the Polar test. I really think the amount of work I've put into this class and my ability to understand the unit isn't shown by a 75. What can I do to better my grade before the test on Monday?
Hi,
Your e-mail challenged me to really think about my philosophy of grading, and I am very grateful to you for pushing me to do that!
This was a tough call! On the one hand, I agree, your "ability to understand the unit" isn't shown by a 75. However, the conclusion I reached after a lot of thinking, reading, and talking to other teachers, is that there is more to the grade than your ability to understand. This grade isn't a representation of your ability to understand, it's a representation of how much understanding you achieved by the specified time.
You had two opportunities to demonstrate your understanding of this unit, the test, and for two weeks after that, the re-take. Once that deadline has passed, it's over.
Just like you can't go back and re-take a test that you took first semester, or last year.
I know you have a lot on your plate and it's tough to balance all of it. That's why the re-take opportunity is there in the first place. However, it is not indefinite.
Please focus your effort on the current unit as well as the last unit. Remember that your grade currently is only 3/5th of what it will be before the final exam.
Thank you for challenging me!
Mrs. Shafran
