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!) My school district has a required grading system that all teachers must follow. 60% of the grades are tests/projects, 30% are formative assessments/class work, and 10% is homework. Unfortunately there are some students who do not work well with others and do not participate in class but will perform extremely well on assessments. On the other hand, there are some students who work really hard in class but struggle with testing. Several options can be considered before revising the assessment system, if one has the authority to do so. ELL learners sometimes struggle with testing and understanding test questions. One question I would ask is: Is Selena receiving any testing accommodations and support in the classroom so she can better understand the content? Many ELL students at my school receive read aloud, use of dictionary, and extended time testing accommodations. Also, if Selena is working extremely hard but struggles with testing, one can give her grade a slight boost to reflect her efforts. One other option is to assess the level of differentiation of lessons. Lessons should be differentiated so that all learners are able to grasp the material; In addition, lessons should capture the interest of all students.