Hi Everyone! I wanted to share with you a challenge that our English department is currently trying to overcome. It is one that I think many departments – especially English – struggle with from time to time, so I would love to hear your input. I have outlined the problem, the context and my solution below…so please read and tell me your thoughts!

The Case Details

Recently, our English Department has been made aware by guidance that many senior students, particularly students in grade 12, have been requesting time table changes in an effort to avoid taking ENG4U with a teacher who is known for assigning low marks. On the other hand, many students have been requesting another English teacher who has a reputation for assigning higher grades. This issue must be addressed fully and involve all teachers in the department, as questions about consistency have become more frequent and have begun to divide the team. This issue must also be addressed with sensitivity to those directly involved, with careful consideration of their feelings, perspective, and rights as union members. 

The Context

There are a few policies and documents at the board and provincial level that can guide my response to this problem. Because this is an assessment issue, the first document to consider is the Ontario Education Ministry’s Growing Success. According to Growing Success, “Teachers will benefit from leadership by the principal to ensure that there is a common understanding among all staff about the process for determining the final grade. The principal will work with teachers to ensure common and equitable grading practices that follow ministry policy and board guidelines” (p. 39). This suggests that it is the principal’s role to encourage and enforce consistency in assessment within the school. This can be done with the support of department heads.

The Halton Catholic District School Board also provides Guidelines for Secondary Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting (2007) which provides a very detailed explanation of assessment expectations for all secondary teachers in the board. It outlines issues such as using professional judgements, assigning an appropriate level using the “18 point scale” and justifiable grades. The document states that teachers must ask themselves questions like, Have I considered evidence that is most consistent over the reporting period with consideration of more recent evidence, when applicable? Is there sufficient balance among the categories of the achievement chart? And have I collected sufficient evidence upon which to base my decisions? to determine if a grade is justifiable.

Another document made available on our board website is the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat (2007), which published a resource on moderated marking. It states that moderation provides “opportunities for professional dialogue about assessment practices bring coherence to those practices, nourish a climate of inquiry that supports student learning, and challenge teachers to focus future instruction on specific learning outcomes.” Each of these documents provide relevant context in determining an appropriate solution to this problem.

Leadership

For anyone interested in leadership, Don Clark has a great website that offers lots of great information on the subject. Here is the link to his site: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leader.html I also would recommend the Leader to Leader Journal, which has a great article by Marabella, available here: http://www.leadertoleaderjournal.com/sample-articles/serving-our-employees-and-volunteers.aspx I considered  both of these references when thinking about how to address this issue.

Department Heads have a unique role as leaders in the school setting. While they are on one hand classroom teachers, they are at the same time leaders of their colleagues under the direction of the vice principals and principal. I see this role as very much aligned with the philosophy of servant leadership, which is focused less on institutionalized power and more with commitment and empathy towards others. It is the department head’s role to provide insight, resources and support to their teachers as empowerment. Two of the ten principles of servant leadership include building community and conceptualization, or the ability to bring a goal to fruition by providing a bigger picture. Department Heads do this regularly, by acting as the link between the classroom and the administration. According to Northouse (2007), every leader must use several social judgement skills to guide their decision making, including social perceptiveness, which is insight into how others will react to change, and social performance, which is being aware of the perspectives of others and effectively adjusting your approach to acknowledge their perspectives.

In this specific scenario, it is important for the department head to acknowledge their role both mentoring and spirit-building these two teachers as part of the solution to assessment inconsistencies. Providing additional support and resources to these teachers will build confidence and motivation. If the department head approaches the problem as a positive learning opportunity, the teachers involved will be more likely to “buy in” to the solution and will fell less discouraged.

The Plan

Based on this assessment policy and leadership research, I can make an informed decision on how to best handle this difficult situation. The first thing I would do as a department head is discuss this issue with my principal. As the leader of the school, it is important for him to be informed and for me to have his support in addressing the issue, especially if he needs to step in later. He may also be able to offer a unique perspective or advice on how to proceed.

Next, I would also submit a proposal to Curriculum Services for a Collaborative Inquiry Project (CIDI) focused on moderated marking. If approved, this project will provide multiple days of release time throughout the semester for a group of teachers in our department. While I cannot force any teacher to participate in this extracurricular project, I would personally invite anyone teaching senior academic English, and therefore, will include both the teacher who assigns very high marks and the teacher who assigns very low marks. This way, no one is singled out as “the problem”. In the moderated marking collaborative inquiry, teachers would have the opportunity to review curriculum expectations and rubric success criteria for the comparative essays for ENG3U and ENG4U. They would also use student exemplars to discuss and compare their approach to marking this assessment piece.

Another valuable exercise I would lead in my next department meeting or PD day to address the issue is reflective practice. Each teacher would be provided statistical data showing their class averages compared to the overall course averages. This data would not be shared with any other individuals. In the exercise, teachers would be asked to consider their averages to the class averages and reflect upon the results. I would provide guiding questions for consideration, such as: How do your averages compare to the overall course average? Are you surprised? Why or why not? What are some potential reasons for this result? In what ways could you influence or change this result? Explain. Teachers would then have the opportunity to share their reflections if they wish. This exercise is an effort to allow for thoughtful and practical reflection on teachers’ assessment practices. Again, it does not center any one out, but is designed to encourage teachers whose averages are much higher or lower than most to critically examine their approach to assessment of learning.

If these two measures are unsuccessful, or if the teachers do not participate in the CIDI project, I would consider changing these teacher’s timetables so they are teaching more junior courses rather than senior courses. If these teachers are unhappy with this change, I would explain to them that there were several other teachers who also requested teaching the grade 11 or 12 courses, and because they participated in the Collaborative Inquiry Project, their dedication is being rewarded. If the problem persists, I would ask that the principal become involved for further discussion around proper assessment practices.

So – that’s it for me! Let me know what you think of this solution – and if you have any further ideas that could be applied to this situation.