While sitting having lunch with some progressive, insightful
educators, the ideas around assessment were being bandied
around. The struggle between the quantitative and qualitative,
the balance between formative and summative assessment, and how
to find a balance of assessment that most benefits students.
This idea came to my head: A student’s final mark should never
be lower than their mid-term mark. I said it, knowing it may
sound crazy, explaining that I hadn’t fully thought it through.
However, here was my logic: A student’s quantitative evaluation,
according to Growing Success in Ontario, should be based on
“observations, conversations and student product.” (39) Nowhere
in Growing Success does it explain the necessity to calculate a
student’s numeric mark. In fact, if you read through the
document enough, there is considerable evidence to suggest that
teachers should be considering what students do as
demonstrations of their learning. And this brings it back to my
idea. As the year progresses, a student