"And another!" I was wrong. Very, very wrong. My students bombed the test. Maybe four or five scraped by with a passing grade. No As or Bs. Plenty of Fs well below 69%. With each test I graded, I became more aggressive in my grading, especially when I reached my 7th/8th period combination class. Four of the 12 students lost an additional 10% for talking while tests were out. The last test I graded earned an astounding 13% after the talking penalty.

 

"They couldn't even stop talking for a test!" I said. "They complain about getting warnings for talking, but they're obviously not listening to a word I say."

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As I thought about my graded tests, the questions started. Why had they done so poorly? Why couldn’t they pay attention in class? They were so unfocused! Why didn’t they ask for help when they worked on the assignments? I was there to provide support. Why couldn’t they retain anything I taught them? Everything I said seemed to go in one ear and out the other. Then I turned the questions on myself. What had I done wrong? Why wasn't I a better teacher? Had I provided enough practice opportunities? Did I not break down the topics enough? Was my modeling and scaffolding weak? Did the curse of knowledge prevent me from remembering how difficult it was to learn this material the first time around?

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And then I asked the most important question: What could I do differently to better prepare my students for the next test? That’s what assessment is about, evaluating student understanding and making adjustments. Not all students will pass a test, no matter how well you prepare them. But all your students shouldn’t be failing an assessment either. From this particular failure, I evaluated the results, adjusted my teaching methods, and vowed to include an abundance of scaffolding so that my students could support themselves two times over during the next round of testing. Hopefully, they would do better. And based on that next round of tests, I would make some more changes.