Standards Based Assessment
Philosophy
This class will be graded on a
system known as “standards based assessment.”
Grades will be assigned for content knowledge based on understanding of
the main standards needed in the course.
Thus, the grade for the class will accurately reflect the student’s
understanding of the material from the class.
This system has many positives for
the student, teacher, and the student’s family.
Grades will be posted based on the concepts. Seeing a 74% on the Chapter 4 test in the
gradebook is not informative to any of the participating parties. The student may have a wonderful grasp of
three quarters of the material while missing only a single key concept or he
could barely have a working knowledge of the entire chapter’s material. On the other hand, an 80% on Trig Graphs is
much more informative to all the stakeholders to show where the student may
need to improve his understanding.
The main goal of the class is to
teach students the mathematical material for the course. Thus, a student’s grade should reflect his
knowledge and understanding of that material without being clouded by
completion or participation grades, extra credit for material not related to
concepts from class, or behavioral issues.
Any behavioral issues, nonparticipation, or incomplete homework will
certainly be addressed, but will not be directly reflected in the grade for the
class.
Since mathematics often requires a
good understanding of a topic before being able to work well with the following
topic and because I wish for all students to understand all of the topics from
class, I will give students the opportunity to retake assessments over concepts
covered in class. No graded assignment
will be dismissed since every assignment is given for a purpose. Retaking an assessment can help students more
accurately show their understanding of the material and helps students to learn
the material before getting too far ahead in the curriculum. If a student has a bad day or does not fully
understand the topic on the day of the quiz, he will have the opportunity to
show his improved understanding at a later time. I care less about when the material is fully
grasped than the idea that it actually is understood at some point. That being said, grades and understanding of
concepts can be time sensitive, so students will need to complete all retakes
in a timely manner.
The new grade will completely
replace the original grade. Thus,
students should never give up on the class, no matter how low his grade
gets. As long as he is keeping up with
the material in class and working on reassessing the material for which his
understanding has improved, an F in the class can quickly become an A as zeroes
are replaced with better scores. The
grade is constantly in flux and should be viewed as such. Until the final grading period, parents
should concentrate on the individual grades to see what their child should work
to improve rather than the overall grade for the course.
Policies
- Students may retake only ONE section per day.
- Students must retake the entire section (even if it is more than one question)
- Students may retake each section two times (in addition to the original)
- To have the retake ready for the following day, students must sign up before 8pm (according to Google’s clock).
- Students should be able to show proof of work done to improve understanding since the original assessment to merit a retake
- Students may take it in during encore or before or after school.
- The new grade replaces the old grade entirely (whether it’s better or worse) to reflect the current understanding.
- Retake questions will assess the same concept, but may be drastically different in format or more difficult than the original. Students should be prepared to demonstrate mastery of the topic, not just hope for an easier question.
- Students must take all the retakes for this semester before the date to be announced.
Procedure
The procedure for signing up for retakes will be done
online. Students should look at the
teacher’s website for detailed instructions.
