Assessing and Evaluation Students' Learning and Secondary Standards-Based Grading and Reporting Handbook

The article "Assessing and Evaluation Students' Learning" acknowledges a legitimate problem in classrooms: the struggle between different types of assessments. Some students do best with an essay test while others struggle to pass an essay test. The same applies to objective tests. The suggestions for alternatives to "'correct answer' tests" are useful and valuable. While I do agree there should be alternatives, correct answer tests have their use too. I, personally, would prefer a test that uses multiple methods. For a test, I would mix in some objective questions and some essay.short answer type questions. For shorter assessments, the recommended journal/blog writing is a great idea because it allows students to formally or informally respond to a prompt in a comfortable way. If you do a blog, it gives a public voice to the students and they are then able to share their opinions with others without having to do it face-to-face. If they prefer a more private writing, a journal works great and the teacher can later collect their work without any fear of judgment from peers.

The handbook made many good points, but I have trouble agreeing with the handbook regarding giving students zeros for grades. I do agree that the drop in grade can impact motivation and does not provide an accurate description of the student's learning. However, if a student does not do an assignment, that should not be overlooked. If a student turns in one of four assignments and gets a 100% on that one assignment, why should I give the student a 100% grade in the class when they only did 25% of the work. We must remember that often times, grades in school do not reflect learning, but the amount of work done. There needs to be a different way of handling grades if you expect to not punish students for not turning in work.