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!) I have come across the same dilemma in my class. While under the grant our school is under, it has opened my eyes to other areas that can show me if my students understand the standards taught in the course. One method is formative assessments. It allows me to see their strengths and weaknesses. Then, it helps me determine what areas they need to work on during the work session. However, in your situation, there are a few things that can be used to help both students. For Selena, since she does well on classwork, then allow her test to be on the same level. Allow her to feel success when taking the test, then progressively up the level and show her that she can do the test at the same level as her classmates. For Shelly, you may want to try a different approach. Shelly seems like she needs to be challenge more. For the classwork, she may not feel any pressure and she sees that she can just do the test and succeed and still pass. Provide Shelly with more rigorous on her test. If she sees herself slipping, then she may start to pick up the slack on her classwork.