I got this oft-discussed question from a PLC member. It’s like a Zen koan. It’s good to revisit it from time to time:
Ben –
Do you know if any of the NT hard-hitters are working in a system that is locked into standards-based education? If they have to test kids on all of the standards, including presentational communication? and if they have to have formative and summative assessments?
I am able to fudge most of it, the principal is smart and flexible but VERY hard-core standards. The part that I have trouble with is the formatives and summatives. In the grading program, it is locked in that formatives (quizzes?) are worth 20% and summatives (tests?) worth 80%. I can’t for the life of me design an assessment that I can feel good about that is worth so damn much of the grade. It just flies in the face of everything we know and are doing. But the grading program is locked that way. I just end up writing them an original text and giving them true/false or something and calling that a summative, because it’s not a story that we made in class.