WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT MISSING DEADLINES?

BY DANIELLE HARDER

A generation ago, a student handing in a late or incomplete assignment would face, at best, a deduction in marks and, at worst, a zero. Today, they're unlikely to receive any 'penalty' for a missed deadline. There's been a change in philosophy in Ontario over the past 15 years, in an attempt to increase graduation rates. Achieving that goal has meant separating what students learn from how they learn.

Students are awarded a letter grade based on how well they understand the curriculum. Any comments about homework completion, for example, would be found in the 'learning skills' section. The idea is to give parents and teachers an accurate picture of what a child truly knows. Just because your son is late handing in a project on the life cycle of a plant, does that necessarily mean he doesn't understand it? "We have to report on a child's ability and that we know where they are," says Luigia Ayotte, Superintendent of Programs with the Durham District School Board. "So, if a child is beyond the Grade 3 level and we know that child has that ability, do we now say, that's a failure (if they're late)?"

The provincial ministry of education recommends teachers find other ways of encouraging students to meet deadlines, including teaching time management, setting up student contracts or giving detentions for late assignments. Deducting marks is to be used "as a last resort."

Ayotte says the goal is to encourage students to finish assignments - no matter what the challenge - and to develop good learning skills in the process. "It's not just about what the mark looks like. It's about what you can do to get to that next level?" she says. Harvey Bischof, executive officer of the Ontario Secondary School Teacher's Association (OSSTA), says this is a "significant" issue for his members.

"To some degree, you get what you measure," he says. "If what we're measuring is credit accumulation and graduation rates, sometimes shortcuts are going to be taken in order to get there." He says while the ministry's policies are well intentioned, they're "not necessarily playing out well." Bischof says teachers are struggling to get many students to respect deadlines. "It limits the ability to deal with the behavioral issues around lateness," he says. "I understand the philosophy. I think in practice, it misses part of what it is that we're trying to educate students to do." Bischof says students aren't necessarily benefiting either, especially if they leave all of the assignments to the last minute.

"There's a failure to recognize that over the course of a school year, that knowledge builds on previous knowledge, that your next assignment builds on the assignment you've just done," he says. "If you haven't done it, and the teacher hasn't been able to provide you with feedback on it, you've missed the opportunity to build the base."

However, some educators argue that punishing students for being late is actually more detrimental. "In the past we were punitive," says Carolyn Anco, Superintendent for Student Success, Secondary Program, with the Durham Catholic District School Board. "It's hard to quantify what they do know if marks are deducted." Anco says learning was previously teacher centered, whereas today the focus is on students as individuals. She says there's a recognition that not every child learns the same way or thrives under the same conditions and this has created "an interesting challenge" for educators.

David Clegg, president of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario, agrees. "As a teacher, you're trying - as much as you can - to teach to the individual needs of a student," he says. "My experience has been that when students have an issue with deadlines, there are other things impinging on them." He says while his members are concerned that students see a positive reward for getting things in on time, the issue is not as problematic for them as high school teachers.

Bishcof, with the OSSTA, says secondary teachers feel their professional autonomy and judgement is being undermined. "If there's a belief that teachers want to fail students, want students to do badly, just want to hand out zeros, that would be completely erroneous," he says. "If there's a belief that teachers didn't already, in the past, take specific circumstances into account that would be wrong too."

The controversy is far from over. The ministry of education has put together a draft document, "Growing Success - Assessment, Evaluation, Reporting: Improving Student Learning" - a compilation of current research and guidelines.

It will be some time before there are any policies put in place and until then, Ayotte says there are still "no definitive statements" on exactly how school boards should interpret policies on assessment.

To find out more about this document, visit www.ocup.org/resources and click on "Growing Success."

Danielle Harder is a freelance writer in Whitby, who also teaches healthy eating cooking classes. You can reach her at danielleharder@rogers.com

06.03.08