We have all seen students who are constantly not passing a class because they are not turning in their assignments; but they get C's or D's on the tests - summative tests of knowledge. The way I see it - if I give a knowledge test and a student passes that test, then the student is grasping some of the knowledge, which means that student should be passing the class. To have a kid fail because they're absent minded, because they are distracted, because they are frustrated, because they are anxious, because they are in a state of mind that is causing them to procrastinate is unethical and ineffective. And when these kids fail over and over, they eventually give up; it is a common human procedure to avoid stress.
So if that is the case then a schools grading procedure should not be to give a student a 0 for missed formative assessments; but instead not giving any points at all - I hypothesize that this simple process would benefit the students development as a student. And so a student's grade is based on only their test scores not there assignments and tests scores. If they do all of their work, they get credit for the work and if they fail a test their work will provide a buffer to prevent them from failing the class but if they do none of their work and pass the test then they should pass the class.
So, I hope to be able to begin a system of unofficial observational note taking practices to see if my hypothesis is accurate enough to stem further investigation. (I will also do some research to make sure it hasn't already been done)
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