Our mark driven world

Before beginning my study in the College of Education, assessment and evaluation always fascinated me. I had no idea of how teachers were able to arrive at a numeric grade on an assignment handed. There were obvious differences in quality of student work, but to be able to pinpoint a number out of 100 that a student deserves mystified me. I feel like evaluating student work is such a subjective task that a student’s mark can vary so much based on the teacher. In a mark driven society, this seems to have real world consequences.

I have an example from my high school career of the subjective nature of grades. I was in a combined history English/History class with a different teacher for the two subject areas. History has always been my favorite subject area and I did well in this portion of the class. From my enjoyment of history, I was an active participant in class discussions and developed a good rapport with the teacher. My English class was a different a story. I often disagreed with the teacher’s interpretation and explanation of literature. He taught the English class in a way that I just could just not relate to. I could tell that the teacher did not think highly of my ability as a student. When it came time to hand in the term paper that was to be graded independently by each teacher, their interpretation of me as a student, and the subjective nature of evaluation became apparent. The history teacher gave me a mark in the low 80’s whereas the English teacher gave me a mark in the high 60’s. As a high school student, I was very confused from this experience. Now that I am in the College of Education and learning about assessment and evaluation, I understand this event differently and am able to learn from it.

  First off, the obvious is to be evaluating the work handed in by the student and not the preconceived ability of the student. Even if we have a notion of the work expected to be handed in by a student, we have to be willing to be surprised by the improvement a student makes in their class work. After all, the goal of school is for students to improve and learn for the lessons of the class.

I had a chance this year to visit a classroom that takes a different approach to evaluation. In this class, the teachers do not give grades on assignments. Instead, they give the students feedback on what they did well, and things they could improve on. The students are then given the opportunity to add to their assignment based on the advice of the teachers. This approach has awesome benefits. The students are not mark driven and give assignments their full effort because the assignment means something to them. With the teacher feedback, they are able to learn from their assignment and develop better skills as a student and lifelong learner. This is one of the goals of our educational philosophy and this no mark system is living it.