Creating Assessments
In the last twenty years or so a disturbing trend has taken hold in American schools. Grade point averages among high school students have taken a large jump while scores on college entrance exams have improved only slightly. Goodwin and Hubbell (2013) note, "Between 1991 and 2003, mathematics grades of high school students taking the ACT college entrance exam rose from a GPA of 2.80 to 3.04, while their scores on the math portion of the ACT rose only slightly- from 20.04 to 20.55 on a 36-point scale." (Be Demanding, Item 4, I measure understanding against high expectations, para. 4)
This trend indicates that perhaps students are not performing at a higher level. Rather, the bar is being lowered for them by teachers through the use of grade inflation. Although grade inflation is nothing new, and the circumstances and motivation behind grade inflation are debatable, the fact that a clear discrepancy in grades exists makes it clear that students need to me made to take ownership of their learning while teachers need to enforce higher standards.
In order to do this teachers should create challenging assessments that assess deeper concepts and critical thinking, use open-ended response questions to assess critical thinking, and use multiple-choice questions appropriately (Goodwin & Hubbell, 2013). Furthermore, Goodwin and Hubbell (2013) encourage teachers to "minimize the portion of the final grade that is attributed to homework" (Be Demanding, Item 4, I view homework as practice (and assign grades accordingly), para. 5) and shy away from rewarding students for effort. Formative assessments are a good way for teachers to challenge students while assessing their learning, and they can often be a fun change of pace in a classroom. Wees (n.d.) provides 56 formative assessments HERE.
This trend indicates that perhaps students are not performing at a higher level. Rather, the bar is being lowered for them by teachers through the use of grade inflation. Although grade inflation is nothing new, and the circumstances and motivation behind grade inflation are debatable, the fact that a clear discrepancy in grades exists makes it clear that students need to me made to take ownership of their learning while teachers need to enforce higher standards.
In order to do this teachers should create challenging assessments that assess deeper concepts and critical thinking, use open-ended response questions to assess critical thinking, and use multiple-choice questions appropriately (Goodwin & Hubbell, 2013). Furthermore, Goodwin and Hubbell (2013) encourage teachers to "minimize the portion of the final grade that is attributed to homework" (Be Demanding, Item 4, I view homework as practice (and assign grades accordingly), para. 5) and shy away from rewarding students for effort. Formative assessments are a good way for teachers to challenge students while assessing their learning, and they can often be a fun change of pace in a classroom. Wees (n.d.) provides 56 formative assessments HERE.
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