This essay captures the full range of complexities teachers face when the grading system is interrogated for its own consequences for learners. Coming from statistics profs, the piece is astounding! I’m by no means a statistician, but I took the intro course and two research methods courses (ANOVA and Multiple Regression Analysis) in my doc program. We did a lot of ungraded quizzes, and because the course required collaborative analysis of data sets in class, we were all enthralled. The prof knew we had huge discrepancies in background as well as very different research futures and graded us using his observations of us (participation in class, growth, basic competence in interpreting results of statistical tests). We knew if we worked hard and participated in the thought processes, we would be good to go. We had the same prof for both courses. Assessment in mathematics must be designed by math teachers I think. My daughter is in a mathematics education PhD program and is deep in the weeds of the role of assessment for underrepresented minorities beginning in elementary school. It’s exciting to see you draw on a critical theoretical perspective. I have a colleague who worked with Kris G on her dissertation and learned to respect her wisdom. Thank you for this.
This essay captures the full range of complexities teachers face when the grading system is interrogated for its own consequences for learners. Coming from statistics profs, the piece is astounding! I’m by no means a statistician, but I took the intro course and two research methods courses (ANOVA and Multiple Regression Analysis) in my doc program. We did a lot of ungraded quizzes, and because the course required collaborative analysis of data sets in class, we were all enthralled. The prof knew we had huge discrepancies in background as well as very different research futures and graded us using his observations of us (participation in class, growth, basic competence in interpreting results of statistical tests). We knew if we worked hard and participated in the thought processes, we would be good to go. We had the same prof for both courses. Assessment in mathematics must be designed by math teachers I think. My daughter is in a mathematics education PhD program and is deep in the weeds of the role of assessment for underrepresented minorities beginning in elementary school. It’s exciting to see you draw on a critical theoretical perspective. I have a colleague who worked with Kris G on her dissertation and learned to respect her wisdom. Thank you for this.