{"id":130,"date":"2016-04-23T23:17:53","date_gmt":"2016-04-23T23:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/?p=130"},"modified":"2017-03-15T15:13:39","modified_gmt":"2017-03-15T15:13:39","slug":"bryam-r-medina-matos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/bryam-r-medina-matos\/","title":{"rendered":"Bryam R. Medina Matos"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Bryam R. Medina Matos <\/strong><\/p>\n

I grew up in the Dominican Republic and attended school there for twelve years. During that time the school used a grading system that was simple for all students to understand: 10% attendance, 10% participation, 30% process and effort, and 50% tests. Process and effort involved factors like attendance and completing the assigned work. So if a student was diligent, his grade was impacted in a positive way.
\nI moved to the United States two years ago, and the grading system is completely different than the one I was used to. Here, grading is based on the results\u2014on test scores. It is a system that grades the student only on the outcome, not the process. Teachers and headmasters proclaim that if you are in school every single day, you will earn a better grade. But that\u2019s not true for every student. Students with special challenges\u2014like English Language Learners\u2014may attend school every day and work just as hard, or harder, than a student who has English as his first language. But it may take longer for them to do the assignment because understanding what the text is saying or understanding the instructions for the assignment is more difficult. They have to think, revise and summarize in Spanish, and then translate it into English. Even though they are working extremely hard, it may not show in the result because of the language difficulty. So assessments based only on results of student work is not an accurate indication of the student\u2019s intelligence, ability, or effort.<\/p>\n