Reflection: Grading Policy and Assessment Philosophy

Assessment
One of the professors in the music program at VIU loves to tell a story of how he used to have a
friend who worked for the security contractor on site; I know he loves to tell it because he told my
class at least three times over the course of one semester. Anyway, the guard was apparently had a
bad day and came to my professor to vent about it a little bit; the guard said something to the
effect of Yknow, this job is OK, but itd be so much better if there werent so many darnd
students!
The class found this pretty funny (at least, it was the first time we heard it); it goes without saying
that without the students, the guard wouldnt have a job at all. The same can be said for our
(future) jobs in the field of education, and its important that we serve our students in a nurturing
manner to help them learn and grow; students need ample opportunity to get feedback and
improve their work before it is summatively assessed. This practice results in fair and accurate
criterion-referenced grades. I feel like I have expressed these very clearly in my Assessment
Philosophy and Grading Policy.
Formative assessment is key to the development of our students; it is the most important form of
assessment we do as educators, and as such it has been given the most room in my Assessment
Philosophy. Diagnostic assessment is also represented; how do we know what we need to teach our
students without an understanding of what they already know? Summative assessment does, of
course, have a place in the grand scheme of things, but only after students have been given plenty
of opportunity to achieve mastery. All of this is expressed very clearly in my Philosophy.
The Philosophy is supported by my Grading Policy, which covers my feelings on five important
topics in Grading: Relevance and Context, Zeroes and Failing Grades, Summative Assessment Tools,
Criterion-Referenced Standards, and the Course Outline. A number of times in this document I
mention that student behaviour should not be taken as relevant to their grade unless contextually
appropriate.

Brennan Conroy (EDPB Yr. 5 Secondary)