I gave my physical science class a test last week, and the percentage of scores were (rounded) A-44% B-11% C-11% F-33% Those that did fail, failed with low grades in the 30s and 40's. The average was a 71. I'm not sure what went wrong. We had a study guide that we went over, and spent a day and a half reviewing as well. I even had a fill in the blank graphic organizer on the test that I said numerous times was going to be on the test. Seeing the low numbers, makes me think I didn't go over the materials enough, but at the same time there were some A's as well. I'm trying to decided between test corrections for part of the pts back, or retakes and average the two. I could use any an all advice. Thank you so much
That is a really wide spread. Approximately how many students do you have? 44% As seems like is A LOT of A, but maybe not if you don't have that many students. Average of 71 is a bit low. I usually tell my students I'm happy with any where from 75-85% so that is just outside that. I don't like doing corrections for points, but I also don't love re-takes. I would probably force them to do corrections just to be eligible for the re-take. Make the corrections annoying too (i.e.copy the problem, write a sentence about what you did wrong, and correct it).I'd also make it clear this is a one time thing. Next assessment I would also collect what ever they did to study/review be it the study guide etc so I can see if they are preparing properly. Also make it clear that if they do the re-take and do worse the second time, their score can go down. You may be targetting the Fs, but find a larger percentage of those Bs and Cs are the ones showing up for the re-take. I would let them know it's at their own peril.
I would be reteaching if 1/3 of my class failed unless you're sure it was because of a lack of effort. Did the kids who failed complete the study guide? You could also look at questions that lots of kids got wrong and not include those & go over them separately.
Unfortunately, there are too many unknown variables for us to assess what went wrong. I would say to talk to your department head about it and then go from there. Hold off on handing the tests back, or at least on telling the kids anything about potential for grade adjusting, until after you and your department head have figured out a definitive plan.
This has 9 students, so 4 A's and 3 F's one each of B and C No department head, small private school. I'll try talking to some of the other teachers, and the principal for some suggestions.
I read something a while ago about making it harder for students to fail than for them to succeed. That's probably not worded right. However, it talked about how if students failed a test, they needed to take certain steps of action to get their grades up. Test corrections, an analysis of why they chose the wrong answers, and a plan for how they will study or review to do better next time. Then they were allowed to retake the test. It was an article about a high school science class, which seems particularly applicable to your situation. I don't do this to this extreme, but if I were you, I'd probably make the students who failed do extra work in one way or another. Perhaps they'd need to do test corrections, come in for an extra study session, and then get to retake a similar test on another day. In my experience, when half the class does well and half does not, the half that did well studied and the half that did not do well did not study. If you do have students passing, it means it's possible to pass, and the ones who didn't do well probably did not put as much effort as they could have into understanding the content. Of course, this is true as well:
I agree, I also teach a middle school class of 7 who also had a test recently. There I had one F, one C, and the rest A's Since it's such a small group, it makes it hard for me to figure out if it's my teaching or if it's students not studying.
What's their engagement like? Are the F students actively engaged during lessons, or staring off into space? Did you do any formative assessments before the test such as quizzes or exit tickets before they took the test so that you'd know who was struggling?
Have you taught this subject before, to this kind of a group? I find the first time I teach something, I always find the "weak spots" and end up having to cycle back and re-teach. This is also where formative assessments come in handy.
Update: I offered a retake to the students that failed, and they had to do some work first. 2 of the 3 did the work, and took the retest. One went up a little bit, but was still an F. The other did 20pts worse on the retest then they did on the original test.
Did you take note of what questions were missed? In a case like this one, I like to make a spreadsheet of the questions missed to see if the same concepts were misunderstood. I also like to see if the test had any weaknesses in its construction. Also, I'd survey how they prepared to help me ascertain the cause of the low grades.
Seems you need to find their information and skills gap that is holding them back. It could be content or it could be learning skills. The fact that 2 of the 3 tried again shows that they do want to do well. The other may have given up or have other emotional issues going on causing the student to no longer care.
They one that went down, I don't think wanted to take the retest, I think it was a parent making them. We have another test in the class tomorrow, and we have spent the past two days reviewing. I also changed a bit about how I taught this unit, so I'm feeling optimistic.
