The Best Assessment Strategy to Increase Achievement in Biology
One of my favorite models for assessing students in Biology comes from my current district. Even throughout my Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction, I have not seen a better method for assessing students and holding them to a high standard.
In the assessment model that we currently use in the Science department, we allow students to complete retakes on quizzes that consist of about one chapter/topic worth of content.
There are multiple versions of each quiz i.e. version a,b, and c which are all the same questions just ordered differently for quiz and exam security and authenticity purposes.
Note: Students have been known to take pictures of quizzes/tests and sell them to other students. Be vigilant. NO PHONE or DEVICES when a quiz/exam is being used.
In addition, there are re-quiz versions that are mostly different questions with the same content. If a student fails a quiz and wants to improve their grade they can. However, students must complete test corrections and tutoring one day and re-quiz the following day. (ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING)
Re-quiz Procedures:
- Students can only achieve up to 90% on a re-quiz.
- They can only re-quiz once.
- For me, re-quizzes are slightly more difficult because I want them to know their stuff if they are going to make me put time into regrading I want them to know their stuff. I let them know they are slightly more difficult.
- If they get a lower score they do not take the lower score but I mention that if it occurs more than once I may change that.
What can’t they redo?
After we cover a unit of study, usually 3 or 4 chapters/topics, we take a Unit Exam worth 3 times more than a quiz grade. These are NOT able to be retaken. This is where students demonstrate what they know. (ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING)
The Unit Exams offer me the ability to say confidently that the student knows their stuff if they get an A in my course which demonstrates mastery of the content.
This assessment model also holds them accountable for actually learning the content even if they do not do well on a particular topic.
A 2-3 day review/reteaching is done before the exam through labs and various activities such as Quizlet Live and Kahoot. Again, this is another opportunity for students to solidify their content knowledge or relearn areas they struggled in.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Students have an opportunity to improve their learning and their grades.
- It is extremely helpful at parent conferences to mention that re-quizzes are available to the student.
- Increase the pass rate for the state assessments.
- Puts the pressure on the students to achieve and takes pressure off of the teacher if they do not.
Cons
- Not all students care enough to take advantage of it.
- Some students care too much about a single point to get to the 90% and you will have to regrade a whole quiz for one point!
- It requires a lot of work and time up-front to create multiple versions of high-quality assessments.
- It requires a lot of regrading = more time. However, I rewrote many quizzes to use Zipgrade and it has saved tons of time.
- Your school schedule may not easily accommodate time for tutoring and re-quizzes. We have a 30-minute study period built in.
What are your thoughts or strategies? Comment Below.
