We Are Grading Students, But Are We Grading Ourselves?

As this whirlwind, unprecedented school year comes to a close, many schools are grappling with how to close out their gradebooks for the year. I have seen a variety of approaches to assessing students during this time of emergency remote teaching. These span from consolidating grading terms to marking work complete/incomplete, to more traditional grading practices with strict deadlines and penalty for non-completion. Many of the policies (thankfully) lean toward only improving student grades during the pandemic.

I wonder, though, how many schools are taking the time to assess themselves? We are in this for the long haul, and remote teaching and learning is not going to magically disappear in the Fall. How are we collecting data on our own approaches and practices during this time so that we can improve them for what will, no doubt, be an unpredictable start to the school year?

This is the perfect time for schools to be asking guardians, students, and teachers about their own experiences with learning during this time in order to streamline processes and information and improve practices.

Here are some questions to ask:

Guardians

• How easy was it to locate your child’s schedule and daily expectations?
• Do you think that…