How to Create Student Digital Portfolios Using Evernote. Standardized Testing and Its Victims. September 27, 2000 Standardized Testing and Its Victims By Alfie Kohn Standardized testing has swelled and mutated, like a creature in one of those old horror movies, to the point that it now threatens to swallow our schools whole. (Of course, on "The Late, Late Show," no one ever insists that the monster is really doing us a favor by making its victims more "accountable. ") But let's put aside metaphors and even opinions for a moment so that we can review some indisputable facts on the subject. Fact 1. Fact 2. Fact 3. Fact 4. Fact 5. Fact 6. Fact 7. Fact 8. Faced with inconvenient facts such as these, the leading fall-back position for defenders of standardized testing runs as follows: Even if it's true that suburban schools are being dumbed down by the tests, inner-city schools are often horrendous to begin with.
Let's assume this argument is made in good faith, rather than as a cover for pursuing a standards-and-testing agenda for other reasons. *The tests may be biased. My standards based grading policy – No seriously, there are no numbers. | laid-back science. So after many hours of reading (see blogroll), discussing, thinking, editing, thinking more, trying, rethinking, reediting, and setting up ActiveGrade…I think I am finally comfortable with the grading system I plan on using this year…and seriously, there are no numbers…anywhere.
Below are the details in FAQ form So what are your ‘grading policies’? They are outlined in the document below. Cool, so what are the learning goals for your classes and how will students keep track of them? You can see these on another post I did here. After an assessment, students will write down their score for each goal so they know what they have to continue to work on. What grading software are you using? ActiveGrade - This software is standards based grading oriented, easy to use for teachers and students, and the staff is very responsive and helpful. What I see: What a student/parent sees: Okay, but most teachers are required to use their school’s grading software…are you still going to use yours? Like this: ActiveGrade - Standards-Based Assessment Gradebook. It's time to hold tests and grades accountable. My assessment simplified post received the following comment: I think we have to be really careful to assess based on criteria and not just what looks "cool" in the classroom.
If as teachers we are not willing to teach and assess curriculum, then we shouldn't be teaching in the public system. Furthermore, we need to have a realistic idea of what grade-level achievement looks like and be willing to accurately report it to parents when the time comes. I agree that traditional grades can hurt a student's ability to learn, but at the end of the day, teachers need to be accountable to parents, and ultimately the students, by reporting accurately.
This is a classic cookie-cutter response that I regularly receive when discussing the abolishment of grading and testing, and I would like to respond with a few points. Testing and grading have not existed forever; they are modern day technologies that educators and education systems adopted relatively recently. Grading and Assessment with @tomschimmer | The Wejr Board. Are Grades Utterly Useless? One of my all-time favorite assertions about grading in schools comes from Grant Wiggins. He writes: “The most ubiquitous form of evaluation, grading, is so much a part of the school landscape that we easily overlook its utter uselessness as actionable feedback. Grades are here to stay, no doubt—but that doesn’t mean we should rely on them as a major source of feedback.” I’m starting to think that Wiggins is right, y’all: Maybe grades ARE utterly useless as a form of feedback.
Here’s why: In the minds of many students, learning stops as soon as a grade is given. For too many students, grades are end points in the never-ending rhythm of traditional schooling. Grades have created a world where students have forgotten that THEY can assess their OWN growth towards important academic goals. The crazy part is that BEYOND schools, students assess their own progress all the time.
His behaviors look familiar, don’t they? There’s a lot to think about, right? Related Radical Reads: My Struggle With Letter Grades. Much of my teaching experience, prior to becoming a vice-principal was teaching primary students. When teaching primary students, we do not assign letter grades. Instead, we look at each prescribed learning outcome for each student on a continuum of learning: not yet within expectations, approaching expectations, meeting expectations, and exceeding expectations.
I very rarely indicated a student was “exceeding expectations”, unless a child is quite far above in certain reading, writing, or math learning outcomes. When I became a Vice-Principal, I had the opportunity to teach a variety of classes, some of which had to be given letter grades. I wasn’t all that comfortable giving letter grades, but I did it the way many teachers did at that time – gather many, many assignments, and give them each a score (I had a 1-4 levelling system – not letter grades), then add them all up at the end of the term and then average them all out, etc… and come up with a letter grade for that subject.