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 think there are several aspects of the assessment system that can be examined. The first question that I would ask is whether or not what you are teaching aligns with the assessment. Does every assignment bring you closer to the culminating activity? Another aspect of the assessment that you may to look at is whether or not the test contains vocabulary in which Selena would be unfamiliar. Even if she knows the answer, she may not know new vocabulary associated with the correct answer especially if there happens to be a false cognate. If this is the case, then you might want to give Selena and other struggling readers a list of vocabulary words to be familiar with prior to the test OR build those vocabulary words into the lessons. Also, is there one particular power standard that she does not meet that would effect her performance in many other standards? Does anyone read the test to her? Does her IEP, 504 or ESOL plan provide for extra accommodations? If everything is being done to address these questions, then I would look at adding some performance based assessments, authentic assessments, portfolios, and the like to the assessment category. A portfolio would help Selena and "catch" Shelly in not doing her work. At the end of the day I probably would re-work my grading protocol to be more reflective of the type of grade a student like Shelly should have at the end of the semester. I know that our grading protocol in the English department where I work is tests - 30%, writing - 25%, daily/quizzes - 25% and EOCA/SLO - 20%. Does your grading protocol at the middle school level look similar? If not, then you may want to consider aligning your protocol more closely to the high school level since that may better prepare your students for high school days. These are just a few possibilities to consider; however, I know that there is not one quick and easy answer to meet the needs of both students.