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, it is important to understand that your skills as a teacher can be identified many ways. One is being recognized by those who observe you and another is by the success of your students in addition to others. However, a single one of these measures of your abilities cannot be and is not definitive by itself. Instead it is an accumulation of recognition, evaluation, success rates, etc. that paint a more accurate picture of your abilities. As for your specific problem, I think everyone would agree one hundred percent that the ethnic background of your students has nothing to do with their grade differences. I do not know them personally, but I have seen the case where some good students simply do not test well due to various issues (anxiety, over thinking, lack of sleep, etc.) and some students are just gifted to the point they need minimum study time or practice. The reluctance to participate in group activity and assignments just may be a personality trait or boredom due to lack of challenge. A student feeling like they don't have to do work they feel like they already know how to do is nothing unusual. Selena might also need to be tested for any learning disabilities and have different testing accommodations pending the results. As far as the language goes, she appears proficient but is this verbal as well as written? That might be an issue to check into as well. If you feel that Selena is not receiving her fair share, then address that issue specifically with a participation grade factored into their test averages. This will provide Selena a boost and give her credit where she excels and perhaps encourage Shelly to become more active with classroom assignments and activities. However, you must be careful to not let this participation grade have more influence than it rightly should or give them a false sense of reality. After all, these students are going to grow up and in the "real world" results are what matters. There is no participation grade in the working world, only made deadlines and positive bottom lines. I would have a pointed conversation with both the students and parents to address your concerns as well.