13 Reasons I Don't Care About Test Scores

After studying persuasion (in the novel Animal Farm), understanding how audience affects form, and choosing an area of passion, my 9th graders have created some awesome products that show their level of mastery of our three assessment criteria (content, organization, and style and language use) and how they can work together to create powerful writing. Shout-outs go to:

• Katherine P., who created a pamphlet of common misconceptions about Breast Cancer to help educate her peers.
• Andrew D., who created a pamphlet for his community to promote donations to Crayons to Classrooms, an education non-profit.
• Beste A., who wrote to the school board, suggesting that they bring back Latin classes. They responded!
• Mollie E., who wrote to Sea World, suggesting a for-profit youth training camp program to help subsidize their costs rather than making the animals perform for ticketed events.
• Brandon H., who wrote to the principal, asking that he reconsider granting community service hours for an after-school activity.
• Sarah S., who wrote to MAC cosmetics, asking them to reconsider their use of supplier companies in countries where animal testing is not required to be made public by companies who participate in those practices.
• Reyad J., who wrote to Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, asking that he move forward with greater humanitarian aid in Syria, citing conversations with his own family who are trapped there and suffering from massive food and clean water shortages.
• Anna C., who wrote to the city mayor about her desire to see more sidewalks and improve community health. The mayor wrote back and has encouraged Anna to work with her further on the issue!

It is an inspiration to see what young people have in their hearts and can do with their minds!

For their final reflection, my AP Lit students had to answer a series of questions about their learning this semester. Some favorite responses include answers to the question, "Of which assignment are you most proud and why?".

• Hannah E: I am most proud of my impromptu on the novella. ... I was mainly proud of myself because my thesis was kind of “out there” and when writing it I was questioning myself. At the beginning of the semester Mrs. Teal told us if we had an original idea to just go with it and see where it takes us. This was the first time I had an idea and I had the courage to use it. 
• Ryan M: The assignment I am most proud of is the annotated bibliography and presentation because I found some really fascinating information that changed my view on Achebe and his novel; the forum allowed me a medium with which to share my findings.
• Anshu C: The novella introduced me to existentialism, and I enjoyed the chance to see philosophy explored and presented in fiction. The way Camus weaves his philosophy into the minutiae of his characters’ lives--rather, the way his characters are his philosophy--fascinated me. I was happy that I was able to notice some of the techniques he used in doing so. 
• Bryce M: Even though my best grade was on my original short story, I thought that that was one of the easier assignments we had to do so I was not as proud of that as I was my Novella Improptu were I didn’t do as well but gave it a full effort and did o.k.

Did those 9th graders all get perfect scores on their products?

Nope.

Are all those AP students getting A's?

Nope.

Do I think these are highly personalized and reflective measurements of what each student has mastered? 

You bet!

How does this translate to test scores?

I couldn't care less.

One of my seniors-Madelyn-wrote, "I want to take more risks. I am done caring about grades as a second semester senior, I want to deepen my understanding and the only way to do this is to first reflect by myself and then keep an open mind during group discussions. "

What if we had given her a place to be "done caring about grades" years ago?