Assessing Student Work

corrective instruction designed to help students must present concepts in new ways and engage students in different learning experiences that are more appropriate for them (Guskey, 2007/2008). Your challenge will be to find a new and different pathway to understanding. The best corrective activities involve a change in format, organization, or method of presentation

Students do not have equal resources for completing homework. (computer or internet, time, study space, privacy etc…) Homework that is busy work is often copied just for completion. If homework is summative then it must be graded. Often homework is merely checked off. Student homework assignments are the most likely to receive zeroes which can negatively skew the total grade that may be indicated by summative assessments. Homework should never be assigned over holidays thereby interfering with family plans. Kids do need a break. Many students have nights with hours of homework. Could students more out of 15 or 20 minutes of well planned practice rather than an hour of busy work? If homework is based on course standards then not doing the homework should naturally affect their grades on summative assessments. For this reason no separate grade should be necessary. Zeroes in homework followed by zeroes on summative assessments is punishing the student twice for that content. Failure to complete homework is a responsibility issue, and, as such, should be treated just as inattentiveness, not bringing materials, disruptiveness and similar issues. Many home help sites have blossomed in the past decade, casting doubt on how much work the student is actually completing.

An increased emphasis on having students work in teams may also have played a role.

Numerous projects and research studies have shown that frequently reinforcing standards, to both students and teachers, can lessen cheating. But experts say most schools fail to do so.

“When you start giving take-home exams and telling kids not to talk about it, or you let them carry smartphones into tests, it’s an invitation to cheating,” he said.

have found that most college students see collaborating with others, even when it is forbidden, as a minor offense or no offense at all. Nearly half take the same view of paraphrasing or copying someone else’s work without attribution.

“everybody went to the T.F.’s and begged for help. Some of the T.F.’s really laid it out for you, as explicit as you need, so of course the answers were the same.”

The exam instructions said it was “completely open book, open note, open Internet, etc.” Some students asked whether there was a fundamental contradiction between telling students to use online resources, but not to discuss the test with each other.