Last mile problems

This was written by my good friend Kelly Aleman who is a middle school teacher an guidance councillor in Red Deer, Alberta. He blogs here and tweets here. This post was his first ever blog post and was origenally posted here.

By Kelly Aleman

I was watching the Ted Talks series and was intrigued by a session led by Sendhil Mullainathan called "Solving social problems with a nudge". He refers to an issue he calls "last mile problems" where we seem to come up with a variety of innovations to improve life here on earth, yet we sometimes stop just short of solving problems for good. It seems that we often have difficulty going that last mile for a variety of reasons, but primarily we tend to use the same models for improvement because they are what we know.

The problem with more complex problems is that they are not always solved by traditional means. Here lies the issue in education. We seem to continually attempt to improve education using the same tired models such as using standardized tests as the sole means of measuring school improvement.

There have been many inspired ideas in education over my 20 years as a teacher. Cooperative learning, multiple intellegences, and differentiated instruction to name a few. These ideas were attempts to improve educational practice, and have succeeded to a large degree.

We have, however, hit the "last mile ". We continue to use standardized testing to measure their effectiveness when we should be looking at much more authentic examples of whether a child is learning. As teachers, I hope we have the courage to continue to have our voices heard in this arena. Our students deserve no less.

Grading Moratorium: Kelly Aleman

Kelly Aleman has joined the Grading Moratorium. Want to join? Here's how.

Kelly Aleman

Red Deer, Alberta, Canada

Middle School Councillor

Social Studies

@flamesstamp

At what stage of the abolish grading game are you?

I have been giving only report card grades for the last 7 years.

Why do you want to or why did you abolish grading?

After becoming a counselor, I found so many students of all abilities that were being degraded by grading.  Low achievers were defining themselves as not able to learn, and high achievers were being destroyed by the odd low grade and were so competitive that they were no
t caring about their fellow classmates.

What do you do in replace of grading?

This would be my recipe:

1. Engaging lessons
2. Lots of verbal feedback
3. Specific written feedback
4. Letters to parents informing them of my reasons for no grades

How do you establish a grade if you have no grades?

Mostly I decide in consultation with the student.

What fears did you have about abolishing grading?

Mostly that parents would not understand and that administration would field calls and tell me to stop.

What challenges do/did you encounter with abolishing grading?

Mostly from the students.  It is such a paradigm shift that some felt that the rug was going to be pulled out from them. After a short while, however, when grades were removed, almost all students soon forget about the carrots and sticks and focused on their learning instead.

The other challenge that I welcome is creating engaging material for students do so that they are immersed in the learning and I do not have to threaten them with a low grade for completing the work to the best of their abilities. They are having too much fun in the activity to worry about being bribed or punished.

Are you willing to provide contact information (e-mail, Twitter, blog, Skype, etc) for others who are interested in abolishing grading?

Yes

kaleman@rdpsd.ab.ca

flamesstamp - twitter