There's no other way to put it... This is good stuff!
As schools and teachers adopt the philosophies of Assessment FOR Learning, it's only natural that grading practices will begin to change. (Click here for more info on grading as it relates to AFL.) We need to realize that some of those changes will seem strange to some of the parents of our students. It's important that we can articulate why we make the grading decisions we do.
Rick Wormeli has composed an excellent and thoughtful response to concerns a parent had about grading practices that reflect the philosophy of AFL and Standards Based Grading. This response is recommended reading for all teachers. Not only will it prepare you to respond to people in your community who might question your practices, it might also help you explain to colleagues who are confused by such practices as well.
Click on the following link to read Rick's response: http://www.adams12.org/files/learning_services/Wormeli_Response.pdf
Comments
Good points, Justin. Education is not about sorting students. It's about educating them and enabling them to grow.
What an excellent response! I must say that I hear "That's not fair" way too often when talking about assessment and especially about grading. Students and parents seem to think that grading needs to happen based on how they did on an assignment in relation to the others in the class, and not on merit. The goal is to be better than others. Sadly, competing like this trains our young very well to participate actively in our political, economic and judicial systems, all based on competition. Getting this type of competition out of education would go a long way towards reforming those other systems and basing them on cooperation and merit. Thanks for sharing this!