One Week of Work

As the school year wound down this year, the same scenario unfolded as happens every year, students start to panic during the last week.  They chase points trying to get the grade they, or their parents, wanted them to get.  They look for extra credit, dig into the depths of their backpacks and pull out crumpled papers and ask, "Is this something I am missing?"

What is interesting to me is that those kids work with purpose for one week each semester, except it is for the wrong reasons.  At no point does the goal of that week have anything to do with learning. Maybe it is just my perception, but thinking back on the school year, many of the kids who are the one-week-of-work-per-semester kids are the same ones who answer, "To torture kids," or "To boss kids around," when asked about the purpose of school.

Would removing grades from the picture lead to more learning throughout the semester for those kids?  Would students be freed from the pressure to perform and seek knowledge?  Would they do even less than they do now because there would be no letter on the report card to be scared of?

Does removing grades and increasing desire to learn only work when coupled with more student autonomy? If so, how much autonomy? I suppose it varies with the student, but for those who only give their all during the waning days of the semester, something must change.

On a similar vein, Goldman Sachs is no longer taking their employees entire year of work and defining it with one number. They are restructuring their employee evaluation system to provide regular feedback and coaching.   It seems like work performance being a conversation between bosses and employees would provide more possibility for fine tuning throughout the year, ultimately more success for both the employee and the company.  I am sure they won't be the last company to switch over.

How long will it take for education to make the switch to feedback instead of a single letter to represent performance?

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.