A major focus of my professional development in the last ten years or so has been the role of evaluation in the education of high school students. Hi. I'm a high school math teacher. Want more? I am a math teacher at a prep school. At an intense college preparatory secondary school. So, kids are sent here to go to college. Or so it would seem. And I am part of that.
Now, I want my part at my school to not be just as a tool that students use to get to the next place. No teacher wants that. So, I question everything I do, and the biggest question that looms over me, especially at the end of each quarter is what the heck am I doing assigning a grade to these kids. I mean, how does giving a student a grade really benefit that student?
I wholeheartedly (yes, I mean that, with every ounce of my heart) reject the "positive reinforcement" idea. Quickly, if you think negative reinforcement is bad, then why should positive reinforcement be any better? Both are used as a means of obtaining compliance. Don't do this, or you will go to your room. Do well on this test and I will give you a token that helps you get into college. Same thing. Don't trust me, trust Alfie Kohn who exhaustively researches his writing. Check out this article first.
But, I am obligated to pursue this practice given where I currently teach. Really, this would be the case at the vast majority of secondary schools, so it's hardly surprising.
At the end of each quarter, at the end of each project, at the end of each test, and so on, I assign a letter grade to evaluate the quality of the student's work. This simple letter grade only conveys how one has done compared to one's peers. It does not offer any suggestions as to what is "good" or what "needs improvement" or if a student has improved or regressed or been stagnant. And, given the high stakes involved - Yale? Carleton? UC Santa Barbara? - students learn that these tokens are what they need so that is all they pay attention to. Yes, I am generalizing, but it is a valid generalization.
My proposal: Eliminate with great haste and with great contempt the letter grade. Evolve as a teacher, evolve as a school, and evolve as a student. Who knows, maybe evolve as a society?
Thanks for joining the project. I blogged today about my dream course, one with several elements that I think would appeal to you: ungraded project-based, inquiry learning experiences with constructive feedback and a reflection portfolio to demonstrate learning.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you in what I take to be the gist of your post--that educational experiences should be about teaching our students to think successfully, solve problems creatively, and understand what it means to reflect and learn. If I were to design an education system from scratch, I don't know that I would use letter grades or an equivalent metric as a tool in the way we presently have it.
ReplyDeleteBut given that it is an existing condition, I believe we can make it be less about the positive-negative duality that I think you correctly diagnose. (As an aside, I do think that the need to make standard--i.e., to standardize--makes some sort of comparative metric inevitable. We're especially aware of it in the college prep game because there are so many brass rings to grab at, but even leaving that reality aside, it seems as though we do need some measure of completion or mastery.)
I remember years ago reading an admissions folder from a Waldorf School. It was comprised solely of lengthy narrative comments by the same teacher, grades K through 8. I could see that they would have been useful and even gratifyingnto receive as a parent. The guy clearly knew his student, and something of value had plainly taken place. But I was at a loss as to how to make meaning of the information for my purposes. I remember a long conversation in committee about the folder. In the end, I'm now just a little ashamed to say, we went to the student's standardized test scores. They were strong, so we admitted him.
Jamie,
ReplyDeleteI'd be very interested to know how the Waldorf alum did at Poly. I know something of the system and it would be interesting to learn how they fared. But I do take your point that standardized scores can be useful for such admissions decisions. But I still don't think they justify the use of letter grades in the way that I presently use them.
Hey, Josh:
ReplyDeleteBeen wanting to comment on this for a long time... sorry for my tardiness in coming to the party!
For me, all rating systems--whether they be letter grades, scores on a paper, written comments, or "stars" on a Netflix movie--boil down to the same thing: an evaluation or recommendation of one form or another. And it's clear to me (who has on occasion watched a one-star movie on Netflix, just to find out that yes, it really WAS that bad) that these evaluations are absolutely useful, both as a means of measuring progress, and for students, as a means of inspiring additional studying, or encouraging greater mastery of the material. (See the research in Science magazine, at http://www.sciencemag.org/content/330/6002/335 , for at least one facet of this effect.)
You ask "how does giving a grade really benefit that student?" I'd say that for that student, and in my own evaluations of work that *I* do, a grade or assessment gives me invaluable feedback that I can use to make midcourse corrections in what I'm doing. From course evaluations from my students, to written observations from my boss, to "we need to talk" discussions with my girlfriend, grades/assessment/feedback help me understand what kind of progress I'm making.
And by the way, don't tell Alfie but I *love* positive feedback. Is that guy serious? Who doesn't want to hear that they're doing a "good job," and making progress in the right direction? Whatever drugs that guy is on, I don't want any of them! ;)
Perhaps one of the most interesting and tragic effects of NOT measuring one's self against a large population was something I observed year after year in Yucca Valley: reasonably smart students from YVHS, big fish in a small pond, became somewhat lax in their efforts to improve. "Why should I study MORE?" I heard one say--"I'm working pretty hard, and I'm the best in my class!" Big fish graduates, big fish goes to college, and is all of a sudden a very small fish in a very large pond, and being compared (like it or not) with bigger, faster, hungrier fish. For the vast majority of YVHS students, the outcome was a near immediate return to beautiful, downtown, Yucca Valley. It was tragic to see the same thing happening year after year after year.
Re: the Waldorf school/philosophy, you might be interested to see my most recent post on some experiential stuff that I did with my AP Physics class a few weeks ago. We don't often have the luxury to do that kind of thing in a course with a set curriculum, but I've carved out the time for this one lab, and the students have responded very well to it. Check it out!
Richard,
ReplyDeleteOne quick reply (maybe I'll get to more later), but Alfie Kohn's drugs come by reviewing numerous empirical research studies that show again and again and again that positive reinforcement can have the same negative effects as negative reinforcement. He doesn't wholesale throw out evaluation, but, he does present heaps of evidence to show that gold stars and grades have a detrimental effect to intrinsic motivation and that the quality of work ultimately drops.
He also notes that positive reinforcement for adults is different than for children and adolescents.
I may write my next blog post as a response to some of what you wrote...
One of the biggest mistakes we can make as a society is the fallacy of similar affect as I heard it called once. The ways in which things affect adults cannot be assumed to affect children in the same way. Where are systematically from younger and younger ages killing intrinsic motivation and replacing it with extrinsic motivation. All students get from your letter grade of them is where YOU think they stand. Sorry Richard, read one, just one book of Alfie's and then we can talk!
ReplyDeleteAnd when Josh says numerous, we are talking thousands and thousands. Personally, I think Kohn's drug is common sense.
Oh, great. So now BOTH of you are mad at me...! ;)
ReplyDeleteRichard,
ReplyDeleteOne more note is that Alfie does not suggest eliminating praise. Rather, Alfie discusses the overuse of praise. Telling a high school "good job" for doing their homework, for example. Such praise makes it seem like doing the homework was some noteworthy accomplishment, when, in fact, it is a standard expectation. The research discussed by Alfie (and yes, when one's name is "Alfie", it is appropriate to refer to him in such a casual manner) shows that such praise can reduce the intrinsic motivation, meaning students may start doing homework for the purpose of being told "good job" by their teacher and not to actually understand the material.
More appropriate praise, according to Alfie, would be a teacher remarking when a student does exceptionally well on a homework assignment. This praise must not be used t as a means to coax more such work, but as a pure response to work that the teacher found notable.
Alfie's most relevant work on this area is his book "Punished by Rewards." It's broken into sections on the use of rewards in business, parenting, and education. One can easily read only the parts pertinent to their interest. http://www.alfiekohn.org/books/pbr.htm
Oh, and Richard, I do favor the use of letter grades in one area for sure: restaurant evaluations. I definitely wanna see that A.
ReplyDeleteNice blog and absolutely outstanding. You can do something much better but i still say this perfect.Keep trying for the best. medical marijuana evaluation long beach
ReplyDelete