It might be radical, and a bit controversial, but new practices handed down from the Saskatoon Public School Division are encouraging teachers to think differently. The division has given out a revised teacher handbook to the high schools that may seem like micromanagement to some, but an opportunity to others.
"The focus is on learning outcomes now," said Cory Popoff, principal of Humboldt Collegiate Institute (HCI). "Now the grades will fully reflect the student's comprehension of the material."
What he's saying is that students will be graded based solely on their understanding of the subject rather than their understanding and their behaviour. For example, not giving a zero for late assignments is so that the mark for the assignment will gauge the student's understanding alone without factoring in that it was late.
"We still have the same high expectations for our students' achievement," said Popoff. "But now the onus is on the student to meet due date expectations and attend class."
According to Popoff, by expecting students to take the initiative and accomplish what's assigned to them, it gives the teachers the opportunity to better engage with the students.
If a student isn't attending class or is handing in assignments late, the teacher can find out what's going on and help remedy the situation.
"The new assessment practices puts better supports in place for students to be successful," said Popoff. "It gives the students a sense of responsibility, but also provides them with opportunity and multiple chances."
The reasoning behind this is that students learn in different ways. The new assessment practices allow for teachers to give more frequent formative assessments (similar to practices tests that aren't marked) that measure understanding. They can then vary their teaching methods to accommodate all students.
"There are three aspects of learning: social, institutional, and intellectual," said Popoff. "All three are connected. If they're being bullied, for example (social aspect), they're less likely to be paying attention or participating in class (intellectual aspect)."
These aspects are important because they are all part of student engagement and student achievement. The new practices won't allow deducted marks for missing class, therefore teachers will have to work harder to engage their students.
"Lowering grades because of missing class is like a double tax. By missing class, they're already missing some of the material that's been taught, which will probably affect their grades. Taking marks off because they're late will just compound that," said Popoff.
For the people who worry that these new practices won't teach students about the importance of deadlines (for example), there are alternatives. Incomplete assignments will translate into missed marks that will still affect their grades.
Plagiarized work will have to be redone, which means the student will learn how not to plagiarize. Late assignments can still result in a zero if it happens too frequently.
"If students are going to choose not to attend class or hand in assignments, it's going to catch up to them eventually even without teachers being on their case," said Popoff.
Moreover, these new assessment practices are not law or policy. According to Popoff, they would've been thoroughly researched by the public school division and passed down in the form of a handbook, which is similar to a strong recommendation.
"The Education Act, regulations, and policy must always be followed," said Anne Sloboda, superintendent of curriculum and instruction at the Horizon School Division. She was not involved in the handbook's development. "But guidelines are a recommended practice. Each school division addresses assessment in its own way."
These new practices are a linkage between research and successful practice in the classroom.
"It was developed to create a comprehensive document that brought together all Ministry of Education requirements, administrative procedures and pertinent research," said a statement released by the public school division. "There are no new processes or requirements in this book."
It's to provide teachers with better guidelines that force them to think alternatively, instead of just giving out zeros. As such, Popoff said HCI has adopted aspects of the handbook that he and the teaching staff think are most suitable.
Popoff also agrees, however, that the only downside is the unfair situation it could create between some students. The students who occasionally hand in their assignments late might still receive the same mark as those that hand all of theirs in on time since the mark is solely based on material comprehension.
"But that's the same as a student who gets awarded extra marks because of the amount of effort he puts in, regardless of whether or not he fully understands the material," said Popoff.
By basing marks solely on the material and not on the effort put forward in class (or lack thereof), marks will be standardized across the schools and fully reflect the student's understanding of the material. According to Popoff, the new assessment practices have simply shifted the responsibility of attaining good grades onto the student.
