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Students have the opportunity to re-take exam through reflective test corrections.

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Students can reflect on what answer they picked, and why they assumed this and then what the correct answer is and the reason why this answer was better. Students get 1/2 point per revision to get up to Proficient Score.

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The deadline for a project or paper is fast approaching and as we wait eagerly for our inboxes to fill, we are hopefully optimistic that those one or two students who don't turn work in on time chronically will get it right THIS time.

After all, I had a conference or two with the child and we made a time management strategy and I may have even spoken to his/her parents already.

Then finally, the day is here...

32 out of 34 submitted. Sigh.

So what do we do now?

My old inclination would have been to dock the students points for every day the paper or project was late resulting in a zero at some point. Or the zero would be issued in the grade book until the work was submitted, (you know as a motivating carrot to force them to do the work). If work was submitted too late, the zero was never removed. (Which creates all kinds of other issues with averages and the like).

Both of these older methods of punishing students for their late work were never very successful and ultimately only created a discrepancy in communicating mastery. After all, some of my brightest students were the ones that didn't do the work.

"Why?" I keep asking myself. Is it my work? Is it the expectation? What?

Over time, I've realized that there must be something bigger at work here. For example, I have one very bright student in my AP literature class who can't meet deadlines but when he turns the work in, it is brilliantly written. I spoke with he and his mother on portfolio night and the way I chose to frame it was to call him deliberate, not slow which is the word his mom used at first. Slow has a negative connotation where deliberate sounds more intentional and could be positive. After all, if more of my students were deliberate there would be less carelessness committed.

But there is more to the story. As I've gotten to know the student, he is deathly afraid of not turning something in that is perfect. He toils over words: the way they are put together, the specific diction of his choices and then the depth in which they convey meaning. Ultimately, he is doing exactly what I want him to be doing, it just takes him longer than other students.

As I have moved away from grades, one things I've noticed is that learning takes time and for different children, it takes different amounts of time. Doesn't mean they aren't learning. Doesn't even mean they are purposely not working. It just means they have a different process. Students like this require more time and there is no reason not to give it to them. The goal is by the end of the year that he will have achieved mastery in the skills and standards of the class. Not necessarily right now when the teacher determines it should be ready.

Of course there are other kids who will directly tell you they are "lazy" or that they just didn't feel like doing something. I've spoken at length to a few of my students like this and we've tried to work around. Some are afraid to look stupid. Some don't see the value. Some just can't get organized. It's our job to first figure out what we're dealing with, dig deeper.
So here are some ways to deal with the late work conundrum:

Evaluate the situation. Is the student a chronic situation or is this one time thing? Because the answer to this question really will determine where you go next. If the student is going through something right now that you may not be aware of, make sure to talk to the student before you start making accusations.

Evaluate the quality of the work assigned. I know teachers don't like to think that what they are doing can be part of the problem, but perhaps there's just too much or it isn't worth the time. Sometimes, we can do more quality than quantity and the students get more out of it. Either way, there are solutions that can help every student be successful. Know what and why you are assigning work and be flexible with some students.

Don't think in terms of fairness. Justice isn't a part of mastery. Every child needs something different to be successful and we need to provide each child with what he or she needs to find achievement. It's called differentiation.

It's important to teach students about deadlines and being responsible but at what expense? We can teach these lessons in a multitude of ways. We shouldn't punish students or penalize them if it takes them longer. We need to work with them to find out why and then help them make a plan to correct it.

Some students are extremely disorganized and what we need to do it teach them to manage their time better. Perhaps asking them to check in weekly for a while can be one way to ensure they are staying on track. One student this year, who has had a track record of not doing work has turned it around because I took the time to call him in, tell him I noticed and then recommend that we make a weekly date to check in. It wasn't a punishment but rather an accountability check in. He just had to stop by to tell me what he was working on and if he felt inclined to ask for help, he knew it would be there.

Do NOT give zeros or take points off when students don't do work. This will put them in a hole that will ultimately make things worse, not better. What does it really prove to give a zero anyway? (As a recovering penalizer, I can empathize, but we need to let this control go.)

Offer multiple opportunities for success. Students may just need a little push and a teacher who believes in them. Sometimes a negotiation is in order. We do what we have to do.

At the root of every challenge we face with students of all ages is a story. Our job as teachers to figure out what the story is. Some students will be an open book and others we will need to be detectives to figure stuff out. Don't give up on the kids. Giving a zero is giving up and almost expecting them to do the same.

Late work is always symptomatic of something bigger. So let's fix the bigger problem and cut it off before it ruins students' experiences in school and in life to the point where they start labeling themselves in negative ways.
How can we work with students and their families to ensure learning is happening at a pace that is conducive to optimal success? Please share

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The Perils of Late Work and How to Make It Count (Opinion)

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What do you do when a student chronically turns work in late, doesn't even try to get it in on time, at least it seems that way and you want to correct the situation without letting the kid "off the hook"?

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Targeted Retakes: Students only retake the portion of the exam they did not show proficiency

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Targeted Retakes: Students only retake the portion of the exam they did not show proficiency

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Debates about exam grades and retaking tests tend to coalesce, eventually, around the same arguments. One faction prioritizes subject mastery, the idea that it's more important to get students to take incremental steps towards proficiency than to punish them with bad grades. The other side emphasizes personal responsibility, insisting that there are very few second chances in life, and that regular opportunities to retake tests simply teach kids that consequences are negotiable.

But in a recent Facebook and Twitter poll about whether our teachers allow makeup tests, the discussion took a more practical turn. Most teachers agreed that retesting was sometimes appropriate, but expressed concerns about setting clear limits around the practice. A widespread problem: When given the option of makeup tests, students often gamed the system, failing the initial exam to see what it looked like-and then simply regurgitating the correct answers later. Under those circumstances, it's a net-zero game: Neither subject mastery nor personal responsibility is achieved.

"This has backfired on me so many times," lamented teacher Misty McClaskey in a comment that drew hundreds of sympathetic reactions from our audience. "Students don't study more. They do just as bad or worse on the retake. That's a waste of my time and theirs. And I have found if they know a retake is available, they actually study and prepare less."

Still, teachers weren't giving up on mastery or on makeup tests, and clear solutions emerged in the course of the back-and-forth. A consensus emerged around some key guidelines for retesting:

Consider partial credit: It remains controversial, but most teachers withheld full credit for retakes-though a wide range of standards for partial credit emerged. Some averaged the two grades, while others established a maximum possible score. An interesting wrinkle: a few teachers replaced the initial grade with the newly earned grade, even if it went down.

Make parents aware of the retake: Dozens of educators suggested looping in parents when retakes were requested by students. In some cases, teachers asked students and parents to cosign contracts setting out the terms of the retesting.

Keep the rest of the class on track: Don't slow the march of progress in your classroom to accommodate students who need to retest-unless the exam reveals a broad lack of mastery. Instead, most teachers conduct reteaching and retesting during study halls or before or after school.

Don't give the same test: Yes, it imposes more work on the teacher, but our educators agreed that if you're going to allow retesting, the second test should be different from the original-and just as challenging.

Require students to relearn: Students often fail tests because they haven't put in the work to master the material. Retakes should not be another spin of the roulette wheel-students who want another shot should demonstrate that they've made a genuine effort to study.

Don't assume all subjects are the same: In subjects like foreign languages and math, which rely heavily on sequential skill building, the need for retakes is crucial. Prohibiting retesting can strand students at a critical juncture with no good way to recover. Allow retakes and use the guidelines above.

Finally, a few of our teachers suggested more comprehensive approaches to retesting that seemed to work-and garnered lots of follow-up questions from experienced teachers looking for tried-and-true methods to use in their classrooms.

Mastery Quizzes

It takes some extra teacher time-most of these retesting alternatives do-but math teacher Laura Kirschenbaum offers what she calls "mastery quizzes," which are tailored specifically to "what the students failed to master on the original exam." These quizzes are short, often consisting of only two to four questions, and can help students earn back up to half the points they lost on the original test.

An advantage of this strategy? Students are retested only on what they didn't know. As Kirschenbaum explains, "It seems silly to retest them on topics they already understand."

Reflective Test Corrections

In Christina Gregory's eighth-grade math class, students are required to reflect on, and write about, the questions they miss on tests. Marked exams are returned with the correct answers, and students then "explain the process they went through" to arrive at their incorrect answers, identify their mistakes and show how they affected the outcome, and share how they intend to "correct this misconception or mistake on future questions."

According to Gregory-who received dozens of enthusiastic responses and questions from interested teachers-these "reflective responses" are about one paragraph long and have several clear benefits: They show students that so-called bad answers are often just a simple, correctable glitch in their processing; they reduce math anxiety by demonstrating that even hard-to-master problems can be solved with more effort; and they get kids to verbalize their thinking and thereby scaffold tough mathematical concepts with language skills.

A Peer-to-Peer Approach

There's a lot of research that suggests that teaching a topic to someone else is one of the best ways to learn it. Preparing to impart knowledge, it turns out, forces teachers to identify holes and weaknesses in their own knowledge, creating a mutually beneficial process of learning for both teachers and students.

Spanish teacher Karen Vargo is on to something, then, when she asks students who did well on a test-usually it's just for the larger, end-of-unit exams-to create a lesson and teach it to those who didn't perform as well. If students who retake the test pass, both the peer student and the peer teacher receive extra points. Vargo credits Sal Khan of Khan Academy for the idea, and says that her students have embraced the approach, which she loves because she sees that "both students are improving."

Metacognition Has Me Thinking...

In Ohio, high school teacher Theresa Grossheim Mengerink allows retakes, but only after a student has submitted a form that asks them to reflect on the past, present, and future of their testing efforts. Kids are asked to reflect on "why they failed and what they are going to do to improve" on the retake, and "how to prevent failure in the future." Questions might prompt students to look at how many hours they actually studied, what strategies they used to master the material, and where and under what conditions the studying occurred.

Research suggests that this kind of metacognition is important for high school students, who are still developing long-term planning skills and benefit from opportunities to practice. According to Laurence Steinberg, one of the world's leading researchers on adolescence, one metacognitive strategy that's remarkably similar to Mengerink's shows great promise: High school-aged students who are taught to plan for a long-term goal, imagine obstacles, and consider strategies for overcoming them show improvements in grades, attendance, and conduct.

The author of this article is the chief content officer at Edutopia. You can follow him on Twitter @smerrill777.

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Allowing Test Retakes-Without Getting Gamed

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Hundreds of teachers discussed the best ways to guide students toward mastery-without being taken advantage of.