Student-Centered Approaches to Assesment

Where does college composition fall in the shift away from outcome-based educational programs like No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top? Though these are programs that the federal government instilled in elementary, middle, and high schools, they directly affect student performance in college composition. The stringent requirements set forth by restrictive educational policies like Common Core and Standards of Learning (SOL) divert student attention and passion away from the act/experience of learning. These outcome-based programs emphasize product over process, elevate the significance of test scores (and the importance/necessity of high test scores), reduce student critical thinking skills, kill curiosity, and imply that grades are accurate representations of student intelligence and potential.

In the article entitled The Case Against Grades, Alfie Kohn details the damaging effects of assessment via grades on students. He claims that assessment creates a classroom environment conducive to cheating, promotes feelings of anxiety (even with "high-performing" students), "diminish[es] student interest," "create[s] a preference for the easiest possible task," and "tend[s] to reduce the quality of [student] thinking." Kohn also stresses that grading in itself is problematic because it forces students to rely on extrinsic motivation (external rewards or goals- e.g. a high grade on a paper) rather than intrinsic motivation (internal rewards or goals- e.g. enjoying writing or producing writing they are proud of). Assessment also interferes with student sense of achievement; essentially, grading causes students to be more concerned with how well they are performing rather than how well they are learning and applying the concepts taught in class. Finally, assessment is only effective insofar as the curriculum is effective; Kohn mentions that when teachers align their assessments with their curriculum or learning objectives, they tend to be inaccurate in that they simply measure the degree to which students master, but never question, a certain group of data, facts, and skill sets.

Finally, Kohn clarifies what a revised approach to assessment does not include: replacing letters or numbers with vague labels, informing students of specific expectations in advance, adding narrative/reflective analyses to every assignment, using "standards-based grading" methods (elaborate formulas, rubrics), or grading on a curve.

The likelihood of me getting a position any time soon at an institution that supports non-traditional approaches to student assessment is pretty slim. However, I thought of a few ways that I can negotiate between Kohn's wise points about the pitfalls of grading/assessment and the harsh reality that most institutions will require some form of numerical grading for quite some time.

• At the beginning of the semester, I assign the following freewrite prompt: What are your strengths in writing (in both the process of writing and your final papers)? What are your weaknesses in writing? What causes you the most anxiety in an English course? Then, I have them read over the expected outcomes for their section of composition, summarize them as best they can, and indicate both what assignments/expectations they are confident about (and why) and what assignments/expectations they are worried about (and why). I take these up and hold on to them until the end of the semester. I have the students answer the same questions on the back without looking at their original answers. These freewrites inform much of our conversation in end-of-semester conferences. Ultimately, this acts as an informal method of self-assessment and keeps the students aware of the outcomes and focused on their own development.
• I assign a lot of peer review and group work. These are structured activities. For example, the class before a peer-review session is spent compiling a checklist of higher-order concerns and lower-order concerns that peers should focus on when reading over their partner's paper. During group work, I make sure to visit each group and take note of who is participating and engaging in the activity (in case I need to make group adjustments). 
• During presentations, both individual and group, I have each student rate their own presentation and participation within the group, as well as their peers presentation quality and level of participation within the group. 
• I am considering adopting a portfolio approach into my composition class in which students are able to experiment with different genres. I am still working this method out. Kohn emphasizes the importance of the portfolio replacing the grade rather than yielding it, but I'm not sure how I can manage that in a conventional, assessment-driven institution. 
• If I am ever lucky enough to teach smaller sections, perhaps a specialized literature course, I would like to try having the students grade each other's participation.This was suggested recently in my British Romantix class and it seems like it's worth a try.