How I Broke My
and Learned to
Structured choices
The conference, which my principal
at the high school where I then taught
urged me to attend, reinforced nagging
questions I’d long had about traditional
needed to change. As it turned out, one
of the assessment practices I had been
most wedded to was one I eventually
overturned.
© Michele constantini/Photoalto/corbis
for retesting can
motivate even the
lowest achievers.
Myron Dueck
Six years ago, a confer- ence on standards-based grading and assessment left me with the distinct and slightly confounding
sense that my assessment procedures
grading practices. During the first ses-
sions, I agreed in whole or part with
On my flight home, as I reflected on Rick Stiggins had presented. His model
nearly everything presenters said. For
what I’d learned, I realized how much made sense to me, especially the three
years, I’d encouraged students to make
retests would collide with the grad-
key questions he said students must
practice tests, so the concept of forma-
ing procedures I used as a high school know how to answer. At the begin-
tive assessment was familiar to me. Like history teacher. I saw two obvious
the presenters, I’d faced the conundrum stumbling blocks to offering retests:
of how to equitably grade the bright
( 1) My courses were very content-
ning of a unit, all students should be
able to answer the question, Where are
we going? After an assessment, they
student who did little homework but
heavy, and I had little time to spend
should be able to answer the question,
scored high on tests, and I’d felt uneasy on retests; and ( 2) I didn’t know how
Where am I? and after answering both
with the practice of reducing grades for to maintain an authentic measure of
of these questions, the student should
assignments that were handed in late.
Then a speaker prompted me to question one of my most entrenched rules:
Never offer retests.
learning if I allowed everyone to take
retests.
Pondering how to make it work, I
thought of the model of assessment
be able to answer, How do I close the
gap? 1 I used these questions as touch-
stones as I transformed my testing
policy.
