Evaluation Overview
At the beginning of the semester, students are given a list of course goals. During the semester students will receive progress reports and benchmark evaluations indicating their performance (in educational jargon, ‘formative assessment’). -- improve performance
Each student will receive a final grade (‘summative assessment’) indicating how well he met course goals. -- this provides incentive
- Both follow the same criteria, and are goals-aligned
- Conduct doesn't affect grades
The grade will be assigned based on a weighted average of
- Final portfolio of work – shortly before the end of the semester students will organize and submit the projects
and short works they have completed during the term as well as necessary organizational material. The portfolio
will include a reflection on what they’ve learned/accomplished/built and why it is interesting and important.
- Most of what's included in the final portfolio will have been evaluated one or several times during the semester
- Students are free to improve and resubmit portfolio work during the semester.
- Students can omit work they're less proud of.
- There are minimum number and quality standards that students must meet. Generally speaking, fewer works at high quality and more works at average quality will contribute similarly.
- Final exam – the final exam will include three kinds of questions:
- Open-ended, contextualized questions testing whether students can reason flexibly and apply their math skills in a real-world situation;
- Subject- and grade-appropriate questions drawn from past TAKS tests (the state exit exam); and
- Subject- and grade-appropriate questions drawn from the SAT.
- Class Participation: a measure of the degree and quality of each student's contributions to the classroom community. Students will receive several benchmark indications of how they're doing. If you meet reasonable minimum standards in participation you'll get full credit, and I will take into account improvements in participation that result from benchmark assessments.
- Student assessment – Students will be asked to recommend their own grade along with a brief justification of why that grade is appropriate.
Grades follow the following guidelines:
- A: Student not only met all course goals, but presented a large body of challenging work with high-quality analysis.
- B: Student met course goals and presented work that often exceeded minimum standards.
- C: Student met course goals; work met but didn't often exceed minimum standards.
- D: In several important respects, student fell short of course goals and produced work short of minimum standards.
- F: Student fell far short of course goals; work rarely approached even minimum standards.
The traditional means for reaching course goals is to attend class, study for tests, complete assigned homework and contribute eagerly to discussions and projects. While the formative progress reports will indicate both quality of work and how well students are meeting course goals, none of these factors enter directly into the final grade. The point of the ongoing progress reports is to help students understand how well they’re doing and how they might improve.