When you live in a town like Westport, people are always obsessing over their grades. The idea that the GPA scale and its fluctuating digits can make or break one’s college career and set-up for life leave students hard-wired to be concerned solely on the information that appears on home access center, and not in their brains. The general attitude of “getting the grade” no matter what is unhealthy and, frankly, completely neurotic. There’s finally a policy being tested in eighth grade that might change this attitude.

Rick Wormeli, a renowned educator and author, talked to Westport educators in grades sixth through twelve about grading practices regarding tests and assignments, and, as a result, the “redo-retake” policy has made an appearance in some Westport middle school and high school classrooms. Though the details vary from class to class, the general gist is that students are allowed to retake tests or redo assignments in which they scored poorly due to lack of understanding of the material, as long as they follow the guidelines given to them by their teachers. In some cases, students are required to reflect on their errors and submit a response in which they describe in writing what they believe they did incorrectly, what they will do to improve or study differently, and submit a time frame for how they will study or learn the material and have their parents sign off on it.       

By asking students to reflect on their mistakes and conclude what they need to do differently, students get the opportunity to master the material and improve their grade by retaking the test or assignment. If a student completely doesn’t understand the material for a particular unit and bombs the test, it’s ludicrous for students to move onto a new unit that builds on past units have truly mastered the previous unit. Simply reviewing the failed test and moving on is an ineffective way for a student to ensure they have learned the material. It is imperative that this student have the opportunity to retake the test and test their knowledge to ensure they truly have learned from their mistakes. Test-taking is factually proven to be much more effective than other studying techniques, Studies show that people retain 50% more information by taking a test instead of reviewing notes, according to an article published by the New York Times.

Despite the positives, I understand that the obvious issue with this policy remains; what incentive do students have to do well on their first attempt? My answer to that is this: Considering that it takes time and effort to even get the opportunity to retake the test, it seems as if it would be in any student’s best interest to do  their best on their first attempt and not take the test again.  I know this policy isn’t such a bad thing, since it’ll relieve students of the pressure caused by the need to do well on every single test they take, and will save students from panicked, late night studying.  

The “redo-retake” policy is definitely a do in my book, and will hopefully wean students off their home access center addiction.