Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         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!) First of all, I think it is excellent that you are unhappy that your current assessment system creates problems and unfair situations for your learners. It is extremely important that educators are aware when grading policies are not conducive to all learners. Grading systems can make or break a student because often times students are so grade oriented. A good grading system is set up where all learners are successful after participating in casework, assignments, and assessments. I think the best way to make sure that your Hispanic student is treated fairly is to count assign equal weights for your casework, discussions, and assessments. Even if you don't make these areas equal, you should make sure that once doesn't dominate the other. For instance, make casework 40%, homework 10%, and tests 50%. That's only one possibility. Explore the many different arrangements and even asks other teachers how their systems are arranged. When you have your system arranged appropriately, make sure each category has equal representation. For example, if you have 5 casework grades; there should be more than one test grade. I believe that a system that is set up in this matter will be fair to not only the two you are concerned with but it will be fair to all learners as it should. Also, this is an area that teachers should assess periodically and consistently; therefore congrats on your continuous evaluation of your practices.