High school grading: Mastery v. handing things in
One of the students in my data-driven decision-making class (for discussion purposes, let’s call her ‘Jen’) posted this in our online discussion area:
Most grading at the high school level is more reflective of responsibility (just handing things in) and not on whether the student has truly mastered the content.
There are a lot of issues embedded in this short sentence. For example…
- What does ‘true mastery of content’ mean (or look like) for secondary students?
- Does high school grading really get at the idea of student responsibility?
- If yes to #2, is ‘handing things in’ a good measure of student responsibility?
- Does student regurgitation of low-level factual recall items on quizzes and tests constitute ‘handing things in’ or ‘mastery?’
What do you think? Do you agree with Jen’s initial statement?
