Rethinking Assessment: An Administrators Perspective

I recently led a book study on Carol Dweck's "Mindset" that created a lot of discussion around assessment, feedback and the mixed messaging that staff are feeling about priorities at this time. With the current focus on innovative instructional practices, my goal is to investigate how assessment can be better aligned with 21st Century instruction to promote student achievement while meeting provincial requirements. 

One of my goals for students is to help them develop independent problem solving ability and a love of the process of persevering through challenges.  The research of Alfie Kohn suggests that there are three consistent effects of giving students grades:

1) When focusing on grades instead of growth, the learning diminishes.

2) In order to be "successful", students come to avoid taking risks and choose easier tasks. 

3) Students think in a more superficial fashion and do not retain information. This reminds me of when, as a student, I would do well on a spelling tests, but would forget the correct spelling of most of the words within a few days.  

As a school administrator, I have the unique opportunity see what feedback and assessment look like in multiple classrooms each and every day.   I look forward to co-learning as we explore this topic together through the #scdsbTTOG inquiry! 

Suggested Reading

Kohn, Alfie, "The Trouble with Rubrics"   

Kohn, Alfie, "Turning Children into Data" 

Kohn, Alfie, "The Case Against Grades"