Endings

The big test on a unit isn't necessarily the last time that a standard is assessed - that's one of the awesome things about SBG - so students aren't off of the hook after the test is over.  That 3.5/4 that you got on acceleration goes away as soon as you show that your understanding's shaky now, and I love that.

That said, the content standards don't come up as often after their initial big unit tests.  In this way, the unit test is a kind of "final look" at content standards - nothing's ever really final, but some of those scores may not come up again, and those may stick.  It's at this point that kids would reassess individually, if they didn't quite get a concept or two on the test.

What about the skills standards?

• We're talking about algebra, 'no numbers 'til the end', units, graphical and algebraic models, making predictions, presentation, concept synthesis, etc. here
• These come up a lot - maybe they should be averaged over the term, or maybe the last, say, three scores should be averaged.  I don't quite know how to do that last one in my Excel gradebook (we'll look at that later!)
• They're so universal that I'm never 'closing the book' on them, so there's not so much of an end to these

How about the lab standards?

• We're talking about experimental design, lab writing, lab report format, error analysis, measurement here
• Perhaps there should be a final 'big' lab planned each term, so that I'm pretty sure that the last look at these standards is a good one
• I'd love to get some of these 'in the raw,' - that is, not in a group setting.  That's easy for writing and reports, but the measurement and especially the expt. design are usually found in group settings.  I need to get them isolated, but it's hard in a class of 17 to do that.  Perhaps on the last test of the term, somehow?