Rubrics

For years there has been outcry which states, "We should run schools like a business."  In publicly held business, the CEO is charged with maximizing shareholder profits. Many times to maximize what shareholders earn, businesses do the minimum to accomplish the task they were hired to do. When was the last time anyone was wowed by a  burger at McDonalds? The story of dealing with business today is defined by the fine print found in any dealings with business be it an advertisement, instruction manual or on some other paper which was to be found somewhere. For the consumer, the fine print does not enhance the experience of dealing with the business. It is a list of excuses why the business cannot help but decline to dazzle the consumer with their customer service along with the quality of their product.

In schools, rubrics are the equivalent of the fine print in dealings with businesses. Rubrics cause students to do the minimum to get a grade.   They allow a kid to say through the assignment they turn in,  "We've entered into an agreement. I've done each of the parts  you said must be done for a(n) _______, so give me my ______ (fill desired  letter grade in the blank)." 

Teachers use them as a way of saying to the district and the state, "I am supposed to teach these kids certain things asked for in the standards and benchmarks so, look, here are the standards and benchmarks we've covered with this assignment." Rubrics make grading papers not an activity performed by a professional, but more like repetitive assembly line work in a factory where no thought or experience is required to accomplish the task. In neither example does the fine print of the rubric encourage or expect the maximum from either student or teacher. 

What the rubric cannot assess is what the student is truly capable of doing if they were encouraged to make the project as creative, deep, fun and worthwhile as possible. Rubrics discourage kids from taking an area of interest to a deeper level or to learn or do more just to learn it. This statement is not a knock on students. It is my perception in a given situation, whether it is in athletics, academics or in another realm, 99% of all people, adults and children alike, will do enough of the activity to make it look good to others but not be totally invested in the activity.  Rubrics and fine print perpetuate the keeping up of appearances with no buy in and no soul to back it up. 

For the teacher, rubrics appear to make grading objective, which makes it easier to justify why a grade was given and to match what was taught to a standard or benchmark. For the student, rubrics appear to inform the student on what they will be graded and what they are expected to do. Sounds great, except rubrics are not good for either students or teachers.

A Modest Proposal For Teacher Evaluation--Hopefully Swift but not Swift

In the spirit of the Diversity Fair, which took place at Neenah High School yesterday, I have a modest proposal. When I think of a Modest Proposal, the first thing that comes to mind is the Jonathon Swift version. My modest proposal is for education. Teachers spend countless hours helping students, whether directly, by meeting with them, or leading the class, but also outside of class time by planning, researching, grading and collaborating with other school personnel and community members.

Instead of giving teachers boxes to fill in with contrived examples and a rubric to follow and check boxes in an evaluation, what if we create an authentic experience and encourage them to experience productive failure?  What if instead of creating "goals" they are going to set for themselves and students, which are safe and easily accomplished, teachers were encouraged to make their goals big, hairy and audacious?

These moon shots should be documented in a way that is able to be shared publicly with other teachers, administrators and the community such as in a blog, website or some other method that is appropriate for the subject matter and the teacher.

One of the coveted things every teacher wants is time to share ideas with their colleagues. Setting up a time during a Professional Learning Day for teachers from different departments, grade levels, and buildings to truly share what they are doing, to encourage each other, and possibly pair up on some unit or learning and then reporting results would yield greater results and make everyone feel valued and encouraged. But that is not audacious enough, because that can be achieved through scheduling and more checking of boxes.

Goals which might be easily accomplished by one district may be moon shots for others. For my school, I am thinking something like taking a week of the school year and having every member of  school, adult and student, go to another country to do humanitarian outreach.  A couple of other ideas which quickly come to mind are: building houses or ensuring that every member of the school is truly imbued with skills which will help them throughout their lives, like building,  automotive, electronic and achieving balance by playing music, doing art among other options.

Maybe those goals aren't big enough, but they are a start.  They are better than trying to raise some behavior some amount, which is great, but in the end, I feel it is not enough.