Why Teachers Shouldn’t Grade Their Own Students
Michael Horn,
Forbes,
Dec 09, 2019
This article combines two parts mythology with one part fact to come to a conclusion that is accidentally a good one. The purpose of the mythology (in my view) is to appeal to readers who already believe these things. The myths? Carol Dweck's comment that, "When teachers are judging [students], [they] will sabotage the teacher by not trying." Also, Jessica Lahey's assertion that "parents and teachers have become adversaries." Even more, the assertion that "Teacher grades, for example, are subject to grade inflation." You can paint a picture of who the article is appealing to here.
But the conclusion - that the acts of teaching and evaluation should be separated - is a good one. Not for any of the reasons listed here, but because it allows students to learn in any way they wish. The danger of this model is that it could create a commercial evaluation industry. And this article (whose author is an advisor for one such company) is an example of the spin being produced to support this idea. So we need to be careful about how we separate the functions of teaching and evaluation. There needs to be an ethical standard here that the commercial sector has heretofore failed to demonstrate that it can meet.
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