Hi Liz -- 'Sorry I haven't responded before now. I was out of the country and on spring break with my wife and children. I purposefully left the laptop and e-mail behind. :-)

You did the right thing. Ask yourself if it does any good to give students a test they are not ready to take. My answer: It doesn't. The grades don't mean anything -- they're not accurate or useful as declarations of final proficiency, and you just confirm one more time for insecure students how dumb they are, or at least that's their perception of it.

In addition, you're basing your worries on the few students who may not have studied all along or took the time to prepare for the test. If this actually happens -- they do something less than responsible, it's not the end of the world that they got away with it. It happens. If it's a pattern, however, that's when you need to act, changing whatever you're doing with them. You're right, too, to not make those other students go through more review when they've already proved themselves regarding the topic. Thanks for doing that.

If you want to do so, in these situations go ahead and give the test to everyone, regardless of readiness and call it a summative assessment for some, a formative assessment for others. The data gained from the struggling students' sense of the topic will be helpful for planning and feedback. This is basically what we do when we allow re-takes and do-overs.

Students have an innate wish to be productive, to progress. We have to accept the premise (because it's true) that students want to avoid being left in the shallow end of the pool. As they see their classmates move forward, they will want to do so as well.

Fairness is not really the issue. On the pretense of wanting to teaching accountability, we sometimes do unfair things such as test students when they are not ready to be tested. Most of our students are sincerely trying. We should design our instructional policies around those students, not the exceptions to the rule who occasionally test the limits. Of course, we come up with adaptations of policies for those who need them; one size policy doesn't fit all situations.

'Not sure if this helped or you others agree, but it's my initial response. -- Rick Wormeli
 

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