Lindsay's Article

OSSTF Growing Success Policy Workgroup Report

This article is a guideline for clarification and teacher responsibility in regards to the implementation of the Growing Success Document in 2010. The OSSTF workgroup wanted to clarify and organize the aspects of the policy that the OSSTF members needed to be aware of and to incorporate into their practice. The purpose of the article is to reflect the teacher and student responsibilities in regards to assessment, in order to create a clear understanding of the policy guidelines.

The article summarizes the seven fundamental principles of the document and connects the responsibilities required for members. The emphasis on professional judgement rings clearly throughout the document, especially in regards to assessment "of," "for," and "as" learning and self and peer reflections, as written in the document. The expectations of how a teacher is then expected to report final grades and submit information about the student’s progress is outlined in the document, clearly, to explicitly show where the responsibility lay in regards to student achievement. This is important, because in Special Education practice, students need to be assessed in modification or through accommodation and this article clearly outlines the teacher’s professional judgement in regards to those accommodations and modifications. The article clearly outlines how this is to be utilized for exceptional students, and the supports they are offered for success.

In my experience, implementing the Growing Success policy has been confusing (at best) and there have been many conflicts over the definition of "teacher responsibility" and "student responsibility," in regards to work completion (or the lack there of). This article argues that it is solely the student’s responsibility to complete work, on time, and the teacher simply needs to use their professional judgement in following non-outlined steps to assist that student in work completion. Schwatrz and Bone’s Retelling, Relating, and Reflecting discusses the importance of the foundations of learning for exceptional students and the article emphasizes the Growing Success document’s encouragement for modification and accommodation in regards to time, ownership (of the student), response (as and for learning), and celebration (of learning). (http://www.markville.ss.yrdsb.edu.on.ca/mm/UBC/510/Retell.pdf)

This article argues that the Growing Success policy allows, in every stage of assessment, professional judgement, as long as it is in the best interest of the student. This is a poignant argument to me, personally, because I feel that the onus is becoming more and more teacher centered when a student is unsuccessful in completing an assignment or, ultimately, the credit. If the student is not completing the work (for a myriad of reasons) and the teacher uses their professional judgement in every day activities (extra help in/out of class, having the student work with an LRT, having the student referred to administration or Student Success, specific IEP modifications) and the student is still unsuccessful, there should be no judgement toward the teacher when the student is unsuccessful.

Yet, even with the interpretation that the teacher’s professional judgement should be trusted, administration is still questioning that judgement by asking the teacher what steps they followed to ensure the student was receiving the help that they needed. Even if the teacher has recorded the every day steps, and followed through with their professional judgement, administration can continue to ask for a summary and explanation as to why the student was not successful in the form of a final failure report. After all of this is said and done, the administration still has the right to overturn a teacher’s decision in promotion meetings and ignore the teacher’s professional judgement.

This is frustrating, since the teacher’s professional judgement is that the student earned a specific mark based on an entire semester’s worth of work, keeping in mind all of the accommodations and modifications given to the student, but administration makes a call based on numbers or percentages, or a number of other reasons, beyond the professional judgement of the teacher.

Bibliography

- Black-Meddings, Lisa et.all. OSSTF Growing Success Policy Workgroup Report: A Resource for Local Leaders to Assist in the Implementation of Growing Success.  OSSTF, June 25^th, 2010

(http://www.osstf.on.ca/adx/aspx/adxGetMedia.aspx?DocID=dd052ff6-447a-49b1-a86f-5aeb921e864a&MediaID=81f783c5-a8a3-4f71-b5a5-aa693df87c36&Filename=growing-success-policy-workgroup-report.pdf&l=English)

- Schwartz, Susan & Maxine Bone, Retell, Relate, Reflect, http://www.markville.ss.yrdsb.edu.on.ca/mm/UBC/510/Retell.pdf