The Potsdam Central School District is beginning the third year of reforming its Grading and Homework Policy. This process began in Spring, 2009 with a district committee including teachers, parents, students, administrators, and a Board of Education member. After considerable deliberation and research, the committee crafted a draft policy and presented it to the Board of Education for consideration. Though normally most policies become effective immediately upon ratification, the Board provided the 2009-10 school year as a time for presenting the new policy to all teachers, students, and families for discussion and feedback. Training was provided during staff development days and a consultant was used periodically to guide the effort and present the philosophical basis for the new practices. As a result of this period of gathering perspectives, the policy was rewritten and adopted for full implementation in the 2010-2011 school year.
As with many changes in education, this reform-minded policy garnered substantial debate. However, one component stands out as being particularly controversial; not accepting zeroes as grades for missing, late, or incomplete work.
When I began exploring how this new policy might affect the middle-level, I found guidance from the Essential Elements of a Standards-Focused Classroom; most importantly that assessment and evaluation should promote learning and inform our instructional strategies. From this research and my own experience, I concluded that our traditional system for dispensing zeroes for missing homework did not allow students any learning opportunity past the due date. The idea of allowing a student to “opt out” of an assignment for the measured consequence of a zero certainly did not help a student develop personal responsibility and self direction (EE 2.12). Moreover, I found that the student who struggles with a concept only to be punitively assigned the zero deters a positive sustained relationship between that student and the teacher (EE 3.6). In many situations, the formative assignment for which a zero is given may be the last opportunity to practice/learn a particular concept. This may also be the only opportunity for the teacher to monitor a student’s progress and inform their instructional strategies (EE 4.14, 4.15, 7.10). The intention of our new policy is to allow the learning process to continue throughout the formative as well as after the summative assessment.
The basic premise for our policy is to accurately measure a student’s knowledge in a usable format. The policy states that grades should reflect achievement, in other words, what students know and are able to do. Assigning a score of zero indicates that the student knows nothing and is able to do nothing, which is most likely inaccurate. Furthermore, when computing an average, a score of zero in a percent system carries a disproportionate weight. For example, a student who earned an 80 on four assignments and failed to turn in a fifth would have an average of a 64 and fail the course, even though the four 80’s would indicate competency with the subject matter. The policy also states that allowing a student to receive a zero for incomplete homework is “letting them off the hook”. Personally, I have had many students say to me, “I’ll take the zero” or “Just give me a zero”. When we allow this option, we fail to hold the students accountable. I would rather have a student say, “I hate this. The teacher is making me do homework even when I don’t want to.” I would rather have these students whine all the way to the honor roll instead of failing a class for not doing their homework. Traditionally, most of our course failures were a result of zeros being included in grade calculations. If many of these zeroes were inaccurate measures of a student’s academic ability, then the conclusion would be that we are failing the student on their behavioral merit.
From this policy’s opponents, we have heard both parents and teachers claim that assigning a zero for work not completed “teaches responsibility.” They have also opined that extended timelines are unfair to the students who complete their work on schedule. While these arguments sound logical prima facie, the reality is that most students who are assigned zeroes in September are the same students who receive them in June – and the same who will probably receive them the following year. If we are “teaching responsibility,” we are not doing a very good job. I would rather have students be given a behavioral consequence for missing the deadline but be required to complete the assignment. This will indicate that zeros are not accepted and will have a greater potential to change behavior if it is known that the teacher will not give up on students by allowing their work to go uncompleted. Such a practice is not inequitable but rather creating the conditions for all students to meet the standards.
Inherently, the traditional approaches to homework and grading have forced teachers and students into adversarial relationships. If a student did not complete a homework assignment, justice was swift and sure – a zero. Teachers appeared to be insulted by the perceived slight and simply put, the learning opportunity was over. In many cases, there was no guarantee that late work would be accepted, so few students made the attempt. It was a matter of fact, if you didn’t get your homework done then you would earn a zero, and our students paid for this through continued poor habits and lack of knowledge assessment. With the new policy adopted at PCS, it is our goal to open a dialogue between students and teachers about the reasons why homework is not completed. Is the student just being lazy or are there other reasons, which, if uncovered, can lead to better practices and less angst? Though this will require some additional effort from administration and faculty, it could pay dividends in the long term through mutual understanding and a better environment for individual learning.
The new Grading and Homework Policy at Potsdam Central School also focuses on additional ideas for improvement, beginning with teachers not assigning a grade for routine formative homework. For the most part, formative assignments are designed for practice after the student receives feedback and additional practice, if necessary. They should be evaluated by teachers and may be graded. The overall grade for formative homework under the new policy may not exceed 10% of a student’s overall grade. This will ensure that a student’s grade is a more accurate reflection of achievement as it will be based chiefly on work completed under direct supervision of the teacher. Summative homework (homework whose intent is to ascertain the level of student achievement) will be assigned, evaluated, and graded by teachers. Teachers will decide which summative assignments to include in grade determination.
It is our intent that consequences are levied for students who do not turn in their homework. Consequences will be behavioral, not academic, in nature. After school detention, lunch detention, or loss of privileges should be dispositions instead of assigning an inaccurate grade of zero. Furthermore, natural consequences are enabled for our older students who should learn the value of practice. Students who fail to complete formative assignments often perform poorly on tests and quizzes. Per our policy, teachers also have the ability to assign an Incomplete for assignments/assessments which are so crucial that course credit should not be awarded if a student fails to complete them. With an Incomplete, the policy also encourages the teacher, student, and parent to collaborate and coordinate a process for completing the missed work.
From our perspective, a policy that does not permit a score of zero is raising the bar for student achievement. It also has the potential to create a more positive school environment which is critical for student motivation and learning. Though we know there will be challenges with any educational reform, it is our intention that this new policy will lead to more students meeting the standards and their potential.
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