Rigor and Assessment

Truly Measuring Student Growth

It’s important to remember that student growth is never completely measured on a test. Suzanne Okey, a former special education teacher, agrees:

Achievement is supposed to be a benchmark of where students are so we understand where they are learning and where they are in development. We measure infants in every checkup: Are their heads growing enough? Can we assume they are getting adequate nutrition? It’s like that in schools; we measure whether or not they get adequate nourishment, are they benefiting from what we are providing or are we doing one size fits all model and leaving lots behind? We are in the business of nourishing children; nourishing their minds, bodies, and social development. Achievement looks at the tunnel of academics only. This means we are not doing observation necessary to see if a child develops in all aspects. Then one day, you have a bright child who is doing well academically who falls off the planet because no one noticed social problems.

Our job is to help our students be successful in school, but more importantly, it’s about helping them be successful in life. Great teachers define success as more than the test, and they provide multiple opportunities for every student to succeed frequently. They know that success breeds success and that all students can learn. Great teachers also teach their students that attempting something new is valuable, because even if you fail, as long as you learn and grow from the experience, you are not a failure.

Rigor and Assessment

Consider this: you’ve developed and taught a challenging, rigorous unit, with support built in to each lesson to enhance instruction and student comprehension. Now it’s time to determine the extent to which your students have learned and can demonstrate their understanding at high levels. Can you count on what and how you’ve taught to be enough? If only it were so simple.

You have to plan and implement appropriate and logical assessments. These assessments should be challenging, varied, and formative. Be creative, but in such a way that the assessments you develop support your students’ understanding that what they have been studying has real world applicability. Seek to move beyond question-and-answer tests. Guide your students to think, process, and make connections. Pose higher-level questions, and attempt to have your students pose some higher-level questions of their own. Have a purpose and think quality!

I will leave you with an excerpt of a story I share in Rigor. Scott Bauserman, a social studies teacher at Decatur High School in Indiana, shares an experience he had when he asked his students to develop a game to demonstrate what they learned from a social studies unit. His goals were for the finished product to teach about the topic, use appropriate vocabulary and processes, and be fun to play. His results were inspiring….

Students had to construct the game, the box, provide pieces and a board, and write the rules. I received a wide variety. One game I will always remember was about how a bill gets passed into law. We spent time [in class] talking about all the points where a bill in Congress or the state General Assembly could be killed, pigeon-holed, or defeated. The student took a box the size of a cereal box, set up a pathway with appropriate steps along the way, constructed question/answer cards, and found an array of tokens for game pieces. If a player answered a question correctly, he or she would roll the dice and move along the path to passage. But the student had cut trap doors at the points where a bill could be killed, and if a player landed on a trap door/bill-stopper, the player to the right could pull a string, making that player’s token disappear from the board. The player would have to start over. Not a bad game from a student who has fetal alcohol syndrome and is still struggling to pass his classes.

What is a creative assessment you have used in addition to a test?

Rigor, Grading, and Tests

If you've read Rigor is NOT a Four-Letter Word, you know I believe in a "not yet" or "incomplete" grading policy.  In other words, for key assessments, students should be required to demonstrate mastery.  I used this policy with my graduate students, and one of those students, Robin Madden, has transferred that to her students.  As she says, When most of her class scores below 85 percent on a test, Madden re-teaches the lesson before giving the test again. When just a few students fall under 85, they get extra practice and tutoring before they re-take the test. "I'm seeing the light bulbs come on for these kids," Madden said. "I see value in my work now that I haven't seen."

This epitomizes rigor.  She has high expectations, and pairs that with increased support so that each student is required to demonstrate learning! 

Here's the full article. 

Is there a place for extra credit in a rigorous classroom?

Just read an interesting article.  When I was teaching, I struggled with the whole concept of extra credit.  It never seemed to accomplish what I thought it would.  The students who usually earned it, didn't really need it...earning an A plus instead of an A or an A instead of a B.  It also seemed to overemphasize points vs. learning.  Last year, one of my graduate students was furious because I wouldn't give her extra credit.  She was on the border between an A and a B, and she wanted me to increase one low grade because she had done a good job "the rest of the time".  In effect, she wanted me to give her extra credit on a very poor assignment because....she wanted it.  I'm still not fully sure where I stand with this, but I do know that I don't appreciate an attitude that demands extra credit.  What do you think?