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What do you think of standards based grading? In particular, the practice of giving kids as many chances as they need to pass a standard?
While we don't yet do standards based grading, as is done in standards based grading, we allow students to retake sections of tests that they did not get the first time. I'm finding that my students do not take the first test seriously. The better students take the attitude "What I get I get and I'll fix the rest on the retake" while the poorer performing students treat it like a pre test and apparently don't study at all and then often don't bother showing up for the retake (after school). I'm seeing a lot more A's and a lot more failures with retakes like this.
This is the direction we are being pushed. We will have standards based grading across the board at the high school in two years. Select 9th and 10th grade classes are already doing it. The administrators are praising standards based grading but feedback I've gotten from parents is that kids don't take tests seriously and that they don't like the fact that if their child gets an A the first time that is no different than a child who got an A the 6th time (translation, too much competition for the two dozen or so expected valedictorian positions ).
In theory I agree with standards based grading but in practice I'm finding that the idea you can retake the portions of a test that you missed until you get them right demotivating for my students. The day of the test as I'm passing out the tests they ask "When is the retake?".
So, do you think that it is good that they eventually demonstrate they learned the material or do you think this is demotivating? I have a lot more A's in the classes where we do the retakes but I also have a lot more E's and I have no reason to think this will change when we're testing by standard since they will be just retaking what they missed as they are now. One nice thing is that it generates fewer parent complaints when kids do fail because we gave them every opportunity to succeed.
I guess I always practiced that. The difference was they could retest for half credit recovery and if they got below a certain grade it was mandatory. I also limited the number of retakes and if they still failed the second go around, it was mandatory tutoring. It also helps if the retest has different questions of equal difficulty that assess the same mastery. I was more concerned that they learned the material than what grade they ended up getting. They and their parents did tend to be more concerned about the grade.
One thing to keep in mind, if they get it right without studying it means they actually know it as opposed to cramming in order to learn the right answer for the test.
In real life though we do many things multiple times until we get it right.
Why not in education as well ?
Not everyone "gets it" the first time and may need several tries before they can pass.
In real life there are also times when you get one chance to get it right, so that argument can go both directions. However, contrary to what people tend to think, since the purpose in education is to learn the material, not receive a grade, I am all for giving second chances.
This is garbage. While there are some kids who will always have trouble mastering the material, the vast majority of kids who do poorly on tests do so because they are lazy, unmotivated, undisciplined, and don't take school seriously. The opportunity for retakes does nothing but reinforce their worst traits. Kids need to learn how to study and prepare before a test, not after it. And if they don't know how to do that or won't learn how, they can damn well fail. That's life.
This is garbage. While there are some kids who will always have trouble mastering the material, the vast majority of kids who do poorly on tests do so because they are lazy, unmotivated, undisciplined, and don't take school seriously. The opportunity for retakes does nothing but reinforce their worst traits. Kids need to learn how to study and prepare before a test, not after it. And if they don't know how to do that or won't learn how, they can damn well fail. That's life.
That has not been my experience. My experience has been that the vast majority of students who do poorly on tests do so because they just aren't as intelligent as those that do well (yes, I know, so unPC). I do not support giving full credit for retakes, because I think that does encourage most kids to not even bother studying, but I certainly do support doing it for partial credit recovery. My experience has been that it does help some of the kids. One of the things that makes kids unmotivated is thinking that they haven't got a chance to pass, so why bother.
Although it wasn't identified as standards based grading, the middle school implemented a policy when my daughter was in 8th grade that is similar. Anyone who made less than a 70 on a test would be required to retake the test and have to attend tutoring sessions before that retake. The tutoring session was either before or after school, not during school hours. Also, anyone who made less than 80 (or maybe it was 90? not sure now) could choose to retake it. They also stated it was to enable the students time to actually learn the material.
That was my daughters last year in middle school and it was generally unsuccessful.
The kids who studied, did their work on time and made A's were upset that others could get the same grade by getting more time and more help.
The kids who didn't care about what grade they made and didn't want to work that hard were upset because they were forced to attend tutoring and retake the test out of their own time instead of during school time.
The kids who benefited from this policy by learning more material and coming out with a better grade were limited in number and some were also upset they had to go to tutoring and retake the test.
The admin and teachers tried quite hard to make it all about learning the materials, but the bottom line was that was overshadowed by the actual grade they got in the end and the forced tutoring and retakes before/after school.
The following year they modified the policy to eliminate the forced tutoring, allowing the students to decide whether they wanted to retake or not and by lowering the top grade that could be attained. They had a very small percentage take advantage of the extra help offered and retake the test.
The next year, they eliminated the policy all together. My inside source left that school that year so I don't know what they did last year. My son goes to middle school next year so we'll see what's new and different then. :-)
The way I see it, the only way it will actually work is in an environment where the grading is either mastered, working on it or not mastered. As long as there are letter or number grades it's not going to be easy to be successful.
This is garbage. While there are some kids who will always have trouble mastering the material, the vast majority of kids who do poorly on tests do so because they are lazy, unmotivated, undisciplined, and don't take school seriously. The opportunity for retakes does nothing but reinforce their worst traits. Kids need to learn how to study and prepare before a test, not after it. And if they don't know how to do that or won't learn how, they can damn well fail. That's life.
And people are hungry and homeless because they don't work hard enough...ROFLMAO...
In my years of teaching high school (primarily in residential and urban schools) I find the reason is most do not do well is because they have had very little success in school.
We have standards based grading through grade 6. Grades are not percentage based. It works well, but it is definitely more work for the teacher as far as assessing and tracking student performance.
In real life though we do many things multiple times until we get it right.
Why not in education as well ?
Not everyone "gets it" the first time and may need several tries before they can pass.
We do? So, if a doctor amputates the wrong leg, does he get a do over? If a plumber puts the plumbing in a house wrong, he gets a do-over? If a teacher flunks an A student because he doesn't like that student, does he get a do-over? I don't think so....they get fired or worse....that's real life.
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