AHS Assessment FOR Learning and Sound Grading Practices: We have learned as a school that some things that have been used for a very long time in education as standard practice are not research based, actually damage the learning process and produce an inaccurate portrait of our students. This proves to be the case when it comes to many of the ways grades and assessments have been used historically. Since the goal is to always improve student learning, we want to try the most effective practices available to us, gather evidence of effectiveness, and make new decisions. We have been studying how to assess learning more effectively, have learned about sound grading practices via leading experts in the field, and now that we know better, we must do better. The following are six frequently asked questions. At the end of each section, links to related articles are available for readers. We encourage you to investigate these, as they contain excellent information and explanations concerning much of what we are moving toward at AHS. 1. Why are you making these changes and why now?? We are now in our third semester, and we have established a strong vision for our school. We are so committed to this vision, all of us (teachers, counselors, and principals) signed a "Commitment and Expectation Agreement" to enact our vision when we became employed at AHS. Among those commitments are:
a. Working, learning, and designing in collaborative teams to make decisions about teaching and learning; expectations are high for being a productive member of a professional learning community who demonstrates a willingness to learn and be part of the decision-making process. In order to enact our collective commitments, we have to do two things. First, we have to gather information about ourselves as a school and answer the question, "How good are we at who we are?" To do so, we gather data from TAKS scores, failure rates, attendance, discipline, classroom observations, parent surveys, student surveys, and teacher surveys to name a few. Next, we "hold up the mirror", look hard at these data as a whole school, and then make decisions on how to improve. We did that in the spring and summer of 2007 and discovered some startling things. For example, we discovered 21% of our students failed one or more class last year-over 900 credits were lost collectively. We had mediocre science and math TAKS scores, and while our other scores were above average, there is room for improvement. Also, student surveys from spring 2007 indicate several areas in the classroom in need of improvement. Two of these include students knowing why they are learning something (less than a third agree/strongly agree this is the case) and how to better know where they are in the process of learning (less than a third agree/strongly agree this is the case). More data drove our decisions, but one thing was perfectly clear. It is not acceptable to us to have such a failure rate, to have TAKS scores that we have, and most important, we HAVE to ensure students know why and what they are learning and where they are in the process of learning. We had to change and improve what we do in the classroom in order to see big gains in passing rates and achievement. Improvements via tutoring and TAKS remediation are after the fact and reactionary; we are after changing how we do business in the classroom so we can measure learning as it occurs, not when it is too late. The course of action selected to make these changes is becoming "assessment literate" as a school, and this requires substantial changes in practice. It involves changing how we grade and assess learning, and when done well as a school creates strong gains in SAT scores, higher achievement scores on achievement test, and most important, vastly improves student learning. (see resources at end of questions) We discovered our current practice is not creating an accurate GPA or class rank, and does not optimize learning. Now that we know better through our studies and professional development, we must act to do better now. One more semester of doing things that could be damaging to learning and to creating an accurate picture of student learning is not acceptable.
http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/menuitem.a4dbd0f2c4f9b94cdeb3ffdb62108a0c/ http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1362
Zeros and 50's do not let us know what a student actually knows and can do, and by figuring these into grades, we exonerate the student from the original learning and work that was expected. Not doing work or doing it late is task avoidance--a behavior--and not something to be measured in a student's average. We are asking students to make up this work on their own time and expect them to do all the work. A student's grade should be an accurate portrait of himself as a learner; when you figure in non-academic characteristics into the grade, the picture is no longer clear. Imagine a solid student who has received 85, 85, 85, 85, and for whatever reason, gets a zero. He might have not known how to do the work or was disinterested in the assignment. His 85 average is now a 72. Is that an accurate picture of him as a learner? What about the learning that was expected from the missed assignment? Should we just allow it to be ignored? We believe holding students accountable for the work and the learning is essential. We are committed to the point that if we feel students WONT do the work after teachers have asked, called home-when they actively choose not to do the work-that this will be considered insubordination and a consequence will occur. Next, let's say a student skips a class--that's a behavior. What about cheating? That's a behavior, too. She gets a stiff consequence. But she should STILL be responsible for the work she was not there for or did not do on her own. That's accountability. (If we don't send our taxes in on time, what happens? We get a penalty--but it's still due!) Of course we want all our students to learn good habits and behaviors. However, behaviors are not part of the state standards we are to assess in our courses and should not skew the grade tied to the learning standards tied to their courses. While giving a student a zero in either case muddies the picture of the student as a learner, at this point our school will adhere to our district policy for cheating and give a student a zero for the assignment and a disciplinary consequence for the behavior.
It comes down to our belief that grades should not be used as a form of punishment, but as a way to accurately illustrate what a student can know and do at any point in time. While grades have been traditionally used as a form of punishment, no research exists to show using them this way helps students improve; in fact, research does exist to show just the opposite. http://www.ncpep.org/sail/Case_Against_Zero.pdf
We know there are concerns about consistency with our new practices, and we are working on that hard. Unfortunately, (and removing any of the new practices we now are trying) teachers are already inconsistent in how they currently practice grading. Few are consistent when it comes to retests, whether students got a 50 or not, how long they have to make up work, who gets bonus points and who does not, who uses the HISD 50 and who does not, who gets a zero or not--it truly varies from teacher to teacher in actual practice. We have been on an unfair playing field for decades. Ken O'Connor, one of the foremost experts on grading in the world, finds GPA and class rank as two of the most inaccurate statistics used in education because of these far from consistent practices. For example, Texas has the highest percent of students with an A+, A, or A- GPA in the nation-49%--who take the SAT, yet we have one of the lowest SAT averages in the nation, about 1050. We want a student's GPA and class rank to be as precise and accurate as possible, and these practices allow us to do that. It also allows you and your child to have a much better picture of him or her as a learner. More important to us, though, is that these practices increase student learning and achievement. What we can also say with confidence is we are replacing some of what was actually bad for students with what research proves to be best for them. When we (principals, instructional coaches) see things that are not being done well, we are addressing and correcting. It is truly a learning process for all of us, and our goal is to spread the use of these practices across the school as consistently and deeply as possible. We have structures set up to consistently monitor use, to deepen professional development across the school as time goes by, and to make corrective interventions if we see teachers who need help with implementation. Also, we want ALL students to take advantage of improving their learning and to the degree they wish to. No one is excluded from improving his or her work. Related Articles: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/30/AR2007103000537.html
First, we are not allowing everyone limitless times to correct work or retest, and students still have deadlines and accountability. Teachers have developed policies in teams to ensure this. Rather than one-shot, "do or die" experience for students, assessments should be part of an on-going effort to help students learn. If teachers offer good feedback and/or corrective instruction following an assessment, then students should be offered a second chance to show their new level of competence and understanding. For example, writing teachers have known for a long time the benefits of a second chance because students rarely write well the first time-drafts are completed with feedback before a final copy. The LEARNING is what is important here--how to write, improve work, and create a solid final product are skill needed by all students. And, actually, we have many examples of "redos" in the adult world. People often have to take their driver's exam multiple times, with feedback, before they get a license. Our students retake the SAT and often TAKS numerous times before they get a score they want. All people learn in different ways and at different rates, and this is particularly true for our students. Our students are not yet in the work place or in college, so if we can teach them to learn from their mistakes, we are giving them valuable skill of "learning-to-learn" to use WHEN they get to college. Mistakes do not mark the end of learning--they more often mark the beginning. Using this approach makes students work harder and holds them accountable for the learning. In fact, a recent study on college readiness (see link below) states that a critical academic behavior for students to take to college is self-monitoring skills:
Self-monitoring is a form of metacognition, the ability to think about how one is thinking. Examples of metacognitive skills include: awareness of one's current level of mastery and understanding of a subject, including key misunderstandings and blind spots; the ability to reflect on what worked and what needed improvement in any particular academic task (Conley, 2007, p. 16). Related Articles: http://pdonline.ascd.org/pd_online/teachbehave2/el200302_guskey.html http://www.s4s.org/upload/Gates-College%20Readiness.pdf
No, students should still be receiving homework, but we are trying to move away from a simple completion grade, check mark, etc... Again, we want their learning assessed, and turning in something for a 100 just because it is complete does not give you or your child a true picture of his or her learning, nor does it create an accurate grade. Instead, we want homework to be an extension of the expected learning occurring in the classroom as a form of practicing new skills or acquiring new knowledge. Homework is still expected to be done so teachers can give descriptive feedback BEFORE it is graded. Many students don't complete homework simply because they do not know how, in particular if a new concept or learning target has been introduced. Giving the student descriptive feedback helps the student take the next step, and, allows the teacher to gauge where students are in the process of learning. Think of homework in terms of athletics, choir, band, theatre, and orchestra. Students are certainly expected to practice, but the moment they walk in class, they don't receive a 100 or a check mark. The coach or director watches, listens, and observes and gives descriptive feedback so the student knows how to improve and do better next time. We want the same thing to happen in academic classes. The practice isn't for the grade, the final product is AFTER descriptive feedback is given and/or corrective instruction occurs. The pieces along the way are monitored so when a summative assessment occurs-like a test-(or a concert, game, etc...) the teacher and student know where they are in the process of learning and can perform as best as they can. Again, if students do not do their homework, we will determine if it is a "won't" or a "can't". If it is a "won't", we expect our teachers to hound and prod for the work. If they are unsuccessful, we want them to contact a parent for support. If push comes to shove, we will begin assigning a "homework d-hall" where he or she will be expected to do the homework and/or any other work not completed by choice. If a student CAN'T do the homework, then we will work hard to determine why and give support. This is another benefit of assessing the way we are-we distinguish the "can'ts" from the "won'ts" and move forward from there. Related article: http://www.ascd.org/affiliates/articles/cl200309_checkley.html 6. How do you know this helps students learn more and achieve at higher rates? What is the research concerning this? There have been some landmark studies linked to the assessment strategies we are using in our school and the effects they have on student learning. Some of these studies are meta-analyses-they conclude from the analysis of many studies. The first link below is one of these studies on using the strategies we are implementing, and the bibliography at the end of this article cites more research. The second link mentions additional studies and explains some of the strategies in good detail and has additional sources cited. http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kbla9810.htm http://www.assessmentinst.com/AFLDefined.pdf We hope perusing these responses and viewing the related links helped you understand why and what we are attempting to do to improve student learning and achievement at AHS. If you have more questions or want more clarification, please contact us via e-mail. |
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