Evaluation

One of the most difficult and frustrating things about teaching English is grading a student's writing. No matter how hard I try to make it objective, it always comes down to a feeling. This essay feels like a B+, but this one only feels like a B. How can I justify that?

Lisa Cochran, who co-teaches Honors Freshman English with me, feels the same way. So we came up with a new idea for grading writing. We told the kids we would read their papers carefully, correct grammar or spelling errors,  and make comments about style and content. But we would hand them back without grades. At the end of the quarter, we said, we want you to choose the paper you think represents your best work. Give it a grade of your own -- we'll supply a rubric. We'll grade it, too, using the same rubric. Then we'll compare our grades. If we agree, that's your writing grade for the quarter. If not, we'll have a conference and try to come to agreement on the grade.

They hated it. We hadn't asked them if they wanted a new grading system, and the change scared them. Their whole writing grade based on one paper? That's too much pressure, they argued.

This is better for you, we pointed out. You get to throw out bad work. You can concentrate on the writing instead of the grade. You'll be a partner in the process. Trust us!

"But it's our future!" one of them said.

Sheesh, we thought. We come up with this great plan, with all sorts of advantages and safeguards built in, and they don't appreciate it, the ingrates.

I'm beginning to understand their feelings. The school board has also come up with a new grading plan. It ties the evaluation of teacher performance into the teacher recertification process. It may be a great plan. But the board didn't ask us if we wanted it, didn't include the association in its design, and won't put the details of the plan in our contract.  Trust us, they say.

Like my freshmen, we're scared. As one veteran teacher explained to me, under the current system  a bad evaluation could cost a teacher her job. But she could always go to another school. Tie evaluation to the recertification process, and a bad evaluation -- maybe the result of a personality clash -- might cost her not only her job, but her livelihood.