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!) It is wonderful that you as the teacher have come to the conclusion that there may be an issue with your grading system. Many times teachers today want to blame the students and not look back at their own mistakes. Although I do not know if your grading system is the issue. All of our students learn and test better in different situations. By saying that I would test Selena in a different way rather than just by a written test. You mentioned that you think that the only way to see if students have learned the material is by testing them. In my opinion, this is not the case at all. There are so many different ways that a teacher can assess the students other than giving them a major test over the material. Testing the students knowledge could be as easy as giving the students a ticket out the door or calling the student up to your desk and asking them a question or two. Shelly on the other hand seems to be a very intelligent young lady that does not have to try hard to do well in class. For this type of student you should first talk with them and see what the problem is. Next, parent contact would be necessary. Also, I would see about different forms of motivation. Rewarding the student could be something that helps the students pay better attention especially if they know they will be rewarded for their good behavior. I would first try these steps to solve the problems. As I mentioned earlier all students learn in different ways and we as teachers should do whatever needs to be done to engage our students in our classrooms.