Summative Assessment, is it a new “caste system”?

As we were comparing and contrasting formative and summative assessment, I thought of a conversation that I heard between two English Literature professors from a large New England state university several years ago. They were discussing their grading systems. The wife professor said that she only read the first paper that the students wrote, and that whatever grade the student received on the first paper was the grade that she gave the student in the class.

Her justification was that “A” students remained “A” students and “C” students remain “C” students. Her colleague husband stated that in grading papers he threw them down the stairs and the ones that landed the furthest away got an “A”, the closer ones got a “D”, basing his summative assessment on bulk of the work submitted.

It seems to me that students are put in categories of A, B, C students and so forth. Once a student is so branded, it is almost impossible for the assessment to change. Your are born an A, B, or C student and you die as one. Even becoming President of the United States doesn’t change the brand (Bush, the Second “C” student; Carter, “A” student). Technology doesn’t seems to help as it seems most often to facilitate summative rather than formative assessment.

What’s love got to do with it?

In attempting to construct a teaching statement, I am trying to combine information from the learning taxonomies with the seven principles with passion for the work. It is making my head hurt. I believe that being good at any career starts and ends with the love of the work. How to capture and reflect all this into a document is the question.

Have we become intellectually risk adverse?

via wikicommons

Since last week’s class, when we discussed “how people learn”, I have been wondering about my response to the question. My first response was stunned silence, followed by the thought, “what’s the right answer?” It is not like I haven’t thought about the process of learning ( although not to the degree of scholars represented by the handouts), but to be willing to shout out my thoughts in front of God,who is omniscient, the teachers, my colleagues and the devil gave me pause. Others seem to share my reluctance. What are we afraid of? We are future PhDs, professors, senior execs, scientists. The learning environment couldn’t be safer, I mean the basic requirements are “show up and speak up.” What in the name of ” Angela Davis” is going on here?