Why We Exploded the Old Paradigm

I am frustrated that commonly we are not graded on our improvement.

This is the story of how a set of different paths converged on a single point, exploded into a supernova, and left something new in its wake.  Well, okay, not really, but I feel that way sometimes.

Converging:  I had a talk with Kelli, Matt attended a seminar, Sheila got roped into this in her employment interview, Will and Leslie drank the KoolAid.

We are too wrapped up in numbers that we lose track of theorist of learning

When the Colleyville-Heritage physics department decided to switch to assessing learning instead of dispensing ‘grades’, I was just starting the process of thinking about grad school. By May, I had been admitted into the Master’s of Education – Science Curriculum & Instruction program at the University of Texas-Arlington. At the same time, the CHHS physics department was knee-deep in planning to use standards based grading for the next school year.

My currents frustrations are that grades seems to be more important than learning. Grades should be based on WHAT you know and your ability to apply it, rather than how well you can take a test and who can get the highest score - because that doesn't show how much you actually know

By June, I was planning my research paper, and considering the undertaking of the other physics teachers, I decided to do a case study on the attitudes of AP Physics students towards the new grading system. If nothing else, my research would give us, the physics department, valuable data about our first year of implementation of this practice.

If you fail to turn in one assignment the grade goes in as a zero and ruins all the hard work for the other grades

Over the summer, I read many research articles, attended Rick Wormeli’s seminar, and brought the subject up in the AP Summer Institute. I talked to many people, followed a few on Twitter, and continued to read whatever I could find on the topic of standards based grading.  By the end of the summer, I had developed a research plan

Even when you don't know how to work a problem out on homework, you still have to turn it in and get the problem wrong and take a bad grade for something that you just didn't understand.

The first part of my plan was to survey all the AP Physics students before they were given the new syllabus with the outline of the grading for mastery system.  I asked them questions about their feelings about teacher bias, cheating, and the old grading system.

The student answers supported my conviction that the CHHS Physics department is doing the right thing.  I’ve included several quotes taken from the student responses to the survey. These are just a small sample of the student voices telling us to keep blowing things up.

The letter grade you get is more important to some people than what is actually learned

Our supernova is still echoing and we won’t know what it has left behind until the year is over, but I have hopes that it will be a bright light that . . . something, something, uh, something.  You get the idea.

The fact that grades are more important than learning. We are forced to do well in school not because we want to but because our future depends on it. Colleges look a lot on your rank and GPA. It is also unfair when one teacher of the same subject/class does something different from a different teacher. For example, one teacher may give out more extra credit or more opportunities to raise a grade than another which is unfair to the students in the other class who do not have the same opportunity.