Grace-Filled Assessment of Students for Grades and Life
Dan Beerens | October 2008
Classroom grading is one of the best-kept and closely guarded secrets in many teachers' lives. As teachers, we somehow arrive at our own grading systems by one of several methods: trial and error, copying a mentor, or reflecting on how we were assessed as students. If we were to examine a teacher's grading practices, I am reasonably sure that we would gain a pretty clear picture of that teacher's philosophy about kids and education. As teachers, are we encouraging, correcting, or punishing students via the grades we assign and the data sources we use to collect grades? Are we able to separate our less than favorable impression, or even personal dislike of certain students or their evident flaws from our grading of them? Are we able to consider what is Christ-like and just—and how this is reflected in our grading?
The teacher has a tough task—sitting in both the role of coach and judge in the grading process. How can we give honest feedback in an encouraging way—"speak the truth in love?" How can we help students understand that, in the words of Rick Wormeli's book title, "Fair Isn't Always Equal?" Grading experts tell us that faulty grading practices have detrimental effects on student achievement, motivation, and self-concept. I would contend that in Christian schools, unfair grading practices can serve to discourage faith development in students. Effective teacher examples of modeling and living out faith can be undermined by perceived unfairness by students of teacher assessment methods and grading practices. Our challenge is to combine accountability and grace in ways that encourage students to reach for their potential, to move them from "have to" to "get to" in class work, to assist them to be actively engaged in learning and the discovery of God's truth.
So, what's happening in this issue? Bill DeJager gets down to the nitty-gritty of grading in his article "Report Card Time - Again?" Michael Essenburg suggests that good assessment methods help students to improve their ability to apply a Biblical perspective. I suggest that both of these articles are great faculty meeting discussion pieces and worthy of substantive conversation. While many principals seem to dislike discussing the issue of grading and assessment with their faculty, I suggest that it is a critical part of their work as an instructional leader. A terrific resource that walks carefully through these issues is Ken O'Connor's "How to Grade for Learning" (previously recommended in the fall 2007 Christian School Teacher.) In "Sparing the Buds", Bill Elgersma helps us to look long-term and see the potential in each student. David Mulder and Valerie Zonnefeld help us to consider how to meaningfully engage our ever-changing learner, whether through PowerPoint or YouTube.
I hope you enjoy Christian School Teacher in this new online format. Not only are we attempting to save some trees and ink and be more stewardly, but we see several advantages to this new format. We will be able to have truly clickable links in articles. It will be easier to forward CST to friends or to run off an article to discuss. You will also have online access to previous issues at your fingertips. Important note: we are hoping to be able to email each issue directly to teachers and principals, but still are in the process of collecting email addresses from schools. Please encourage your school to forward your email addresses to CSI if they haven't already done so—we want to be in touch with you!
This year we plan to publish issues in December, February, and April. You are invited to contribute articles to this online magazine. In December, I am looking for articles related to teaching Bible in the classroom—what are best practices and ideas that you are using? February's issue will look at worship practices in Christian elementary, middle, and high schools. In April, I would like to explore how we can help students discover how God's truth is revealed in math and science. I am also interested in science teachers who would like to review several new books particularly related to creation and evolution.
Praying for God's blessing on you as you nurture faith,
Dan Beerens
Editor, Christian School Teacher
Vice President of Learning Services