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Case: Unfair Assessment
I have been a successful middle school teacher. I know it sounds strange when I call myself successful, but I have received recognitions at the school and county levels for the quality of my teaching. I have a big dilemma this year. I have two students who are not your ordinary students. Selena is a Hispanic student who is an English Language Learner, but her English proficiency is quite high. She fully participates in all class activities, she functions well in group and individual work, and she is always motivated. She is an ideal student. However, she never makes passing grades on tests. Her current grade is an F. Shelly is a White student. She shows no interest in course activities. You cannot even know if she listening or not most of the time. She chooses not to do group work. If I force her, she does not really contribute. She also does not turn in any assignments. What puzzles me is that she usually receives the highest grades in tests. Her current grade in my course is a high B. If she had turned in the assignments, her grade would be an A. The course grade in my class is determined mainly based on what students make on tests, because I feel that tests are the only means for me to know whether students have retained what they learned or not. Lately I have been thinking that my grading is not doing justice to Selena. At the same time, I think Shelly does not deserve a B with the attitude she has displayed. I need to revise my assessment system. Please help me with this.
Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!)
Shelly
She is obviously very intelligent and is showing proficiency in your class. Sometimes the most gifted students are not motivated to do tasks that they do not find necessary or important. In fact, they can validate that opinion by demonstrating excellence on assessments. Here are some ideas that have helped some colleagues of mine.
Place Shelly on a homework contract. Allow her to be exempt from turning in certain assignments as long as her test grades are above 95. Under the contract, once a test grade falls below 95, students are held responsible for individual assignments until they are deemed worthy to return to a homework contract. In lieu of the class assignments, have a meeting with Shelly and decide on some alternate assignments, enrichment activities, or independent assignments that will both interest and benefit her.
Shelly should not get off the hook for her behavior though. We are teaching beyond the academic curriculum. Parents/guardians should be brought in with Shelly for an intervention. There may be a root cause to her resistance to cooperative learning. There could be reasons for her apathy when it comes to work. It is important that you find out why Shelly is behaving in such a manner and to try to find ways to help her. However, apathy and laziness are also possible. Corrective action is still necessary. We want Shelly to be the best citizen she can be and there are obviously some work ethic issues that need to be addressed.
Selena
The first thing to do is seek out the person in your school or system that has tested Selena. Georgia is one of 34 states in the World Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) consortium. As a result, ELL students take the ACCESS for ELLs (Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State for English Language Learners). This test will give you a good picture of where Selena actually is in her language abilities. Has she tested out of your program for ELL's? There should be test data that will help you know just how high her abilities are. Perhaps you might consider her to be proficient in English, but a professional in that area of expertise needs to let you know what the data indicate. A likely scenario is that you have a mathematics student with high level of mathematical understanding that is being subject to a language bias on your tests. As a teacher, you are the one to make this diagnosis. Use all of your means for assessing her proficiency in your subject area. Think of all of the formal and informal formative assessments such as homework, performance tasks, oral responses, and class activities. If you are convinced that she knows the material and that the tests are a road block, then you have options to consider:
1. Use alternate assessments. Portfolios, performance tasks, and presentations give you a fair way judge what Selena knows.
2. Do some oral follow up with tests. You should discuss her solutions with her to make she understands the questions. Perhaps she is having trouble deciphering what the question is asking her.
3. You are a professional educator. You have the legal and ethical right to assign her a grade that you feel reflects her performance and mastery of the standards. You should not create a barrier to success, you should enable success. You can assign her an appropriate grade based on things other than test scores. |
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Rating
| The suggested solution is respectful of the individual (student) |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is relevant to the case |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is reasonable (easy) for the teacher to implement |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is likely to solve the problem/issue |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is original |
Yes
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| Comments: Excellent Work Brian - The responses to both students honor what each brings to the table. |
| Rated On: February 14, 2014 7:00 pm |
| Rated By: Will Melton |
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Rating
| The suggested solution is respectful of the individual (student) |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is relevant to the case |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is reasonable (easy) for the teacher to implement |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is likely to solve the problem/issue |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is original |
Yes
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| Comments: Very thorough. |
| Rated On: February 19, 2014 6:16 am |
| Rated By: Yasar Bodur |
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Rating
| The suggested solution is respectful of the individual (student) |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is relevant to the case |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is reasonable (easy) for the teacher to implement |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is likely to solve the problem/issue |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is original |
Yes
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| Comments: Very informative. Nice work. |
| Rated On: October 18, 2014 2:44 pm |
| Rated By: TuBuJy |
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Rating
| The suggested solution is respectful of the individual (student) |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is relevant to the case |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is reasonable (easy) for the teacher to implement |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is likely to solve the problem/issue |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is original |
Yes
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| Comments: This solution takes into account the strengths and weaknesses in both students and offers the best solutions for the both of them. |
| Rated On: March 2, 2015 4:40 am |
| Rated By: SeRuru |
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Rating
| The suggested solution is respectful of the individual (student) |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is relevant to the case |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is reasonable (easy) for the teacher to implement |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is likely to solve the problem/issue |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is original |
Yes
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| Comments: This was an effective answer. |
| Rated On: October 19, 2015 3:04 am |
| Rated By: aqaWuR |
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Rating
| The suggested solution is respectful of the individual (student) |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is relevant to the case |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is reasonable (easy) for the teacher to implement |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is likely to solve the problem/issue |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is original |
Yes
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| Comments: Lots of info! This is a good help. |
| Rated On: March 15, 2018 1:52 pm |
| Rated By: aJaTyb |
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Rating
| The suggested solution is respectful of the individual (student) |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is relevant to the case |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is reasonable (easy) for the teacher to implement |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is likely to solve the problem/issue |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is original |
Yes
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| Comments: If I were in this situation, I would do exactly this. |
| Rated On: February 24, 2019 10:19 pm |
| Rated By: yzysuZ |
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Rating
| The suggested solution is respectful of the individual (student) |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is relevant to the case |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is reasonable (easy) for the teacher to implement |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is likely to solve the problem/issue |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is original |
Yes
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| Comments: Thank you for your detailed and informative solution to this problem. The information that the solution contributed seems viable and it’s something that should be kept in mind for the future. |
| Rated On: October 19, 2019 3:47 am |
| Rated By: maVeqy |
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