Assessment Integrity

I believe people can learn a lot from mistakes—improving and growing after failures. In my opinion, it is a crucial part of any successful life.

I also have children in the public school system.

These two things go hand in hand, right? It seems to me that one of the best places to learn from our mistakes would be school—a LITERAL building of learning. However, a few weeks ago one of my kids had an experience that makes me question the entire philosophy behind our schools.

One of my children had an exam in English. It did not go as well as she hoped. A retest option was offered and accepted. I love the idea of a retest. YES! When she clearly didn’t understand something, a retest gives the option to learn and try again. However, things got a little nonsensical at this point. While the school embraces retesting, they won’t let the kids see the test already taken. My daughter could only see the original score.

Wut?

How is the score helpful? I couldn’t wrap my head around it. How do you except the students to correct mistakes and learn if they cannot see where the errors were made? I pushed my daughter for answers.

“Do you know what you missed? What did you not understand?”

“I don’t know. My teacher won’t let me see the test.”

My daughter went to the tutorials required and went over the test information again. She felt confident as she took the retest. Guess what? There was no change.

Was that surprising? Absolutely NOT. Was it maddening??

You bet it was.

A retest only works when the student can identify and correct their mistakes, learning as he goes. This retest was a perfect example of wasted time and a total lack of learning. UGH. When I was in school, I got my tests and assignments back, graded and often marked with red to see what I needed to do differently. It was so valuable to my learning.

In the sixth grade spelling bee, I spelled the word molecule wrong. There were only a couple kids left, and my spelling of M-O-L-I-C-U-L-E brought the bell of shame. However, I learned how to spell M-O-L-E-C-U-L-E correctly that day. I’ve never forgotten it. I remember talking to my dad afterward, and he told me how to spell the word right—and what I had done wrong. The analysis of my errors is how I made improvements! You can’t see your own test???

Feeling as frustrated as ever, I emailed the teacher and asked for help. While I was grateful for a prompt reply, I was struck by one of the last sentences she wrote:

“While we don’t return graded tests to maintain assessment integrity, [insert kid’s name] progress is our priority.”

Um.

Nope.

The school has a priority, but it is definitely not my child. The most important thing is clearly the assessment integrity. So…the test? The test has to be protected and cherished and guarded above all else? Even above the learning of the kids who attend the school? Can we take a step back and remember WHY kids are going to school? It’s to learn, correct?

In my opinion, schools should be teaching kids to be lifelong learners…to think critically and analyze information. Nothing—nothing—is more valuable or instructive than seeing your mistakes and learning from them. But this only works—and it really feels like I am stating the obvious—if you can SEE your errors.

At this point, most people understand the value of failing. Failures teach us the most! Making mistakes is a part of life, the part where we learn. So why did this messaging skip the schools?? I understand the desire to protect the assessment integrity. I do. However, I have learned something about that—cheaters gonna cheat. And by putting the assessment integrity above all else…the schools are actually cheating the students out of valuable learning opportunities.

Sigh.

How ironic.

I want the students and their learning to be the highest priority of public schools—not the assessment integrity.

It’s time for an update.