Chapter+5

__**Chapter 5 Meeting Summary from Group 1**__


 * Major Points** from After School Meeting, March 12th and Sunday Meeting, March 16th:

Fix 13: Use ONLY summative evidence, no formative assessments and practice
 * Fixes to Support Learning:**
 * We discussed how, generally, this fix would change grades - the students who would be most affected are those who work hard but struggle to meet the standards and those who don't work particularly hard (practice, homework...) but do well on assessments anyway
 * Specifically we looked at Kathy's grades in several formats - 60% summative/40% formative; 70/30%; 80/20%; 90/10%; and 100/00% - we looked especially at those students whose grades we assume will be affected most - we found that they were - what are we going to do with the students who work hard but still don't score well? What will be our pyramid of interventions? We keep coming back to this.
 * Questions - Is it right that students who work their tails off and still don't do well on assessments should have lower grades than students who don't work as hard but score better on assessments? //That doesn't sit well for most of us.// Do students feel better about themselves and therefore perform better when their grades are higher (in reference to students who don't do well on assessments but earn higher grades due to other strengths)? //Most research says that is questionable. It is the actual accomplishment that makes students feel better about themselves.//
 * More questions (seems like we have more questions than we have answers)...If we mix formative scores with summative scores (which inflates grades for some students), are we handing out extrinsic rewards? and discouraging intrinsic motivators? How do we? or can we? help develop intrinsic motivation? Will it take changing our habits of lumping everything together into 1 grade? It seems apparent and we keep coming back to this - we need to start encouraging real shifts in attitudes, practices, and beliefs about how grades reflect and encourage learning rather than emphasizing the importance of collecting points.
 * The sports comparison - team members are expected to be at practice, even though they're not scored on their participation. Students are accustomed to this requirement and understand that it's part of being a member of the team. Records and reports on how teams perform are based on how they play in games, which is the summative assessment. We should take this model into our classrooms, using it as an example. Most students, especially those involved in sports understand this concept. One difference, of course, is that students are individuals who affect only their own learning; students, as part of a team, affect the team's performance.
 * Can adolescents handle this? They aren't adults, are we expecting too much? Should we consider a sliding scale of summative in relation to formative - examples: 60/40%-9th gr.; 70/30%-10th gr.; 80/20%-11th gr.; 90/10%-12th gr.; we can't forget the affective.
 * A program called AVID was mentioned as something that might benefit students who haven't established good study and learning habits. Is this an intervention we want to look into?
 * In the end, the author says that mixing formative CAN be done if a person knows what the effect is and uses good professional judgement - is it defensible?

Fix 14: When learning is developmental and grows with time, older evidence should be replaced with new evidence
 * This fix makes some sense but we have questions. Should all students be able to retake assessments, whether they be tests, exams, projects etc or should retakes only be open to those who didn't score well originally? What about students who came into the assessment unprepared, by their own choice?
 * A concern was raised - in the effort to help students meet standards and to replace older evidence as learning develops, we need to make sure that students themselves, with no help from adults, are asked to prove their learning. Teachers and others should, of course, be instrumental in helping the learning take place before the assessment, but the assessment itself needs to reflect what a student truly knows.
 * How does this relate to students who require modifications for testing?

Fix 15: Involve students - they should play key roles in assessment and grading that promotes achievement
 * Many of us have talked with students over the last 2 weeks about grades, what they mean, the flaws that exist, the perceptions of how formative activities currently affect grades, the idea of using only summative activities etc. Students definitely have opinions and seem very interested in the efforts teachers are taking to figure this out. We are all interested in finding out how we can continue to involve students in this process.