Morgan, Robert R. “Opinion | Hard-Pressed Teachers Don’t Have a Choice on Multiple Choice.” The New York Times, October 22, 1988, sec. Opinion. https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/22/opinion/l-hard-pressed-teachers-don-t-have-a-choice-on-multiple-choice-563988.html.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150525091818/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/22/opinion/l-hard-pressed-teachers-don-t-have-a-choice-on-multiple-choice-563988.html. Internet Archive.

Example of a teacher pressed into multiple-choice tests for evaluation for time constraints on grading.

He falls prey to the teacher's guilt of feeling they need to grade every single essay written. This may be possible at the higher paid levels of university teaching with incredibly low student to teacher ratios, but not at the mass production level of public education.

While we'd like to have education match the mass production assembly lines of the industrial revolution, this is sadly nowhere near the case with current technology. Why fall prey to the logical trap?

their = multiple-choice tests

Multiple-choice tests usually test for basic facts or simple answers, and aren't well designed for testing complex chains of reasoning, particularly at the lower levels.

Barzun places the multiple-choice test as the central feature of modern schooling. This has a bit of a hyperbolic feel, but it's certainly a modern invention which aims to evaluate a low level of learning while still making it simple for teachers to quickly grade student's work.

Because of it's incredibly low-level function, these multiple-choice tests should be used only for the lowest level functionality as well.

https://udenver.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcuceuspzkuE9VomnEaGva1HH1ra_iS4Eua?ref=jessestommel.com#/registration

Some related ideas that are suggesting some sort of thesis for improving the idea of ungrading: - We measure the things we care about. - In Education, we care about learning and understanding, but measuring these outside of testing and evaluation is difficult at best (therefor ungrading). - No one cares about your GPA six months after you graduate. - Somehow we've tied up evaluations and grades into the toxic capitalism and competition within US culture. Some of this is tied into educational movements related to Frederick Winslow Taylor and Harvards Eliot. - Hierarchies instituted by the Great Chain of Being have confounded our educational process.

https://www.jessestommel.com/open-online-office-hours-ungrading-edition/

https://www.jessestommel.com/open-online-office-hours-ungrading-edition/

A classic

Anagram: A War Cure Authenticity Wonder Autonomy Respect Curiosity Use Responsibility Enjoyment

pros and cons

Getting started with ungrading

Grading the study group project would not only undermine the values and motivational aspects of the course design but based on the data gathered in MDE 601 would not have a positive impact in terms of participation by learners or the quality of the work presented by the groups.

All performances are complex, and when coaching, it is impossible to attend to every minute detail. Formative assessment - active coaching - is individualized feedback to improve overall performance. Evaluating that performance, is to focus on the performance as a whole.

I think a performance focus in important in a lot of fields because, ultimately, education is about what folks are able to do. Knowledge of things is not useful until it is applied to some problem or task. A performance focus could improve assessment across the board and shift teachers away from merely testing "content".

Assessment of process is commonly formative; while assessment of performance outcome is often summative, though formative assessments do look at performance outcomes too - from the perspective of informing improvement.

Imposter syndrom is common as people move into more specialized fields. It's common to hear about it from PhD candidates and from PhDs.

Step towards Ungrading?

Would love to annotate this text with others interested in #ungrading, perhaps for a social #annotation session for the upcoming #Ungrading Edcamp in the fall!

Would love to annotate this text with others interested in #ungrading, perhaps for a social #annotation session for the upcoming #Ungrading Edcamp in the fall!

I'm especially attracted to the #ungrading work I've been watching from folks like Mary Klann and David Buck...and I know there are so many more people working with authentic and alternative assessment practices...

Quite honestly, I'm getting the impression the pushback isn't as virulent as it once was.

Does a rubric still create the same sense of arbitrariness, though? That's been one of my main challenges of ungrading:

• how to not shift the burden of the responsibility of judgment from me to my students?
• how to avoid rubrics that simply re-inscribe the values I'm trying to eschew?

Traditional grading, in which the gatekeeper judges the worth of student work, makes supportive, trusting relationships so much more difficult.

Or de-emphasize grading altogether. https://www.jessestommel.com/how-to-ungrade/

In my experience, it's often individuals teachers who're the first to challenge entrenched systems. Personally, I've found the courage to say no when I speak with other teachers at my school as well as connecting with teachers on Twitter. More strategies on ungrading in "Grades Can Hinder Learning. What Can Professors Use Instead?"