Assessment and Grades - a student's view

This semester I am teaching Grade 11 Biology and Grade 9 Science. During the Covid 19 Crisis I have spent many hours making activities and assignments to engage my learners. During the third week I posed a few questions to them:

• How do your teachers know what you've learned?
• Why do you complete school work?
• Are grades important to you and why?
• Think about your last big test. If you took that right now being off from school would you preform as well? Explain

My first question was why they completed school work. Their answer stated that overwhelmingly with 76.9% that school work will help them learn and they will earn a grade. I can't help but think if many of them really see the value of understanding content taught.

Of the 27 students who answered the survey 92 % feel that grades are important to them. They responded by saying that they would be better at success later in life if they had good grades.  Many of them felt a sense of accomplishment when they receive a good grade. None of the students felt that grades were not important to them. Students  all felt that grades were important for success later in life.

Performance on a test they wrote earlier would at some points be better.  Courses where  parents have taken an interest in the learning and developed discussions around the topic. Students said that they would preform better and have more recollection of facts. Others subjects that are more memory based and difficult. They would have trouble writing now without time with the content and the teacher. That leaves me with the question: What are the values in tests? Do students have to feel the pressure of a test to feel success? Does the practice for the test help them to remember?

I asked students about their parents perception of  their learning and grades. Students responded by saying that parents seem very interested in students learning at school (5) however when it comes to grades (3-5) parents are not as concerned.  I think that is a consistent consensus with parents who know, and have come to understand that marks are not a reflection of intelligence.

This is a copy of one of my student's responses to creating an imaginary school. I really love that his vision aligns closely with mine. And that even from their point of view Learning is the epicenter.   

"In my ideal image of school, the focus is centred more on quality over quantity in terms of schoolwork and testing. It is no secret that students receive a lot of homework (especially in high school and post secondary) and it causes lack of sleep and a negative mindset towards school. Not only that, but students have no time to pursue their own interests in learning. For example you might be really interested in biology and want to do some extra research in that field, but you can’t because you don’t have enough time due to all of the homework, and grades come first. The same goes for testing. Being assessed constantly is draining and beyond stressful. Especially when you have a lot going on in each class and you do not have enough hours in a day to balance the work. This is especially true if you are a particularly hard working student who spends hours perfecting assignments and is constantly studying. That being said, there would still be grading the way it is today, with weighting and so on. The difference would be what we are graded based on. In my opinion, exams are a useless feature in schools as they are not only given to students at the same time (meaning 4 huge tests worth huge percentages of your grade in the same week), but students must also complete CCA’s or large assignments in addition to any busy work or other last minute lessons that are given in the last two weeks of school. 
The solution would be to have a school system more reliant on taking charge of your own learning. There would be less homework and less testing (when possible) so that students can have more time for their own interests. At the end of the year, teachers would pick either to give an exam (perhaps in subjects like math that have limited assignment options) or have their students complete a CCA, and there is no homework assigned in the last 7 days leading up to the exam (if an exam is chosen), so they can take some actual time to study. As for ensuring students don’t take advantage of this more lenient school system, perhaps they would need to write a report of what they have done and how it has helped them grow as a student and young adult, which would count towards their final grades. To ensure students are still understanding the material as well, school days should be extended to 7hrs and 30 Mins (or something along those lines), increasing class time in order to have more time with teachers. Furthermore, classes would be smaller and teachers would have more time to work 1 on 1 with their students. Because there is less work and more time with teachers, assignments would be graded more harshly, as well as more practically (With immense consideration towards life past school and the standards in the workplace), and students would have to have meetings with their teachers after every assignment in order to receive constructive criticism and help. I strongly believe that this is a more effective way to teach students and it will better equip them with skills for the real world. Of course, there are subjects that will require more work than others and the harshness of grading and amount of work given will increase year to year, but this will be easier on the wellbeing of students and help them stop going to school with the mindset of just getting a good grade or just make it to the next test, and rather help them love learning and help them retain their information past the test day, and into their futures. Of course, this is just a small snapshot of my ideas and there are other details that might be lacking, but this is the general gist of what I think school should be like."In summary I believe that students are motivated to learn, their parents are interested in their learning. Students need support to be excited about their learning. Grades are important however there needs to be a way to measure learning that doesn't include only grades. Work ready skills are also important. Students feel the need to be in charge of their own learning and that it should be reflected in their final product not the snap shot an Exam provides.