Reassessment Over Redo Empowering Student Ownership

Welcome to your Morning Boost, your daily leadership advice to help you lead your school community, brought to you by AWB Education and sponsored by Grundmeier Leader Services, where together we are transforming education, one leader at a time. Now here's your host, Adam Bush. Welcome to your Morning Boost, the podcast dedicated to equipping you, all of our incredible school leaders with the insights and encouragement you need for a fantastic day. Happy Wednesday everybody. Today we are continuing our monthly deep dive into the Fitting five, and we are focusing on a critical aspect of school leadership, which is student motivation. We will be exploring a powerful strategy highlighted in an article from Edweek that suggests a simple policy change could fundamentally shift how our students approach their work. Today. We're going to take this a step further, adding a critical nuance to ensure this practice truly fosters deep learning and avoids a potential trap of simply chasing points. So our focus today is on a thought provoking article from Edweek titled what would motivate teens to work harder in school? The chance to redo assignments. The article presents a compelling argument that one of the most effective ways to boost student motivation isn't through stricter grading or more consequences, but through a thoughtful, well structured redo policy. And this is where we add our own layer of thought. We as leaders must ensure that through standards reference practices, we do not fall into the trap of simply redoing, but rather focusing on reassessing. The goal isn't to create a culture of students just chasing points. Instead, the most effective system is one that allows students multiple opportunities to show they have mastered a standard through multiple and varied assessments. For example, a student might initially fail a writing assignment on a particular stand Instead of simply letting them rewrite the same paper for a new grade, we could offer a different, smaller scale reassessment, perhaps a new short paragraph or an oral defense of their understanding if that matches the standard. This shifts the focus from the singular artifact to the demonstration of mastery itself, building crucial skills like accountability and true ownership over their learning. It's an approach that doesn't just improve grades, it builds crucial skills, all of which are invaluable beyond the classroom The article highlights that by giving students a clear path to improvement, we are empowering them to become active participants of their education, not just passive recipients of a grade, and we can do so with even greater intentionality by focusing on reassessment. So the key takeaway from this article is that well designed REDO policy can be a powerful lever for change in our schools, especially when we reframe it as a reassessment policy focused on standard's mastery. It's an approach that communicates to students that their learning journey is more important than their initial performance, and foster's a school culture where mistakes are seen as opportunities for growth, not as failures. The story comes to mind of a high school principal who implemented this standard's based reassessment policy across her school. Initially met with skepticism, the policy ultimately led to not only measurable increase in student engagement, but also a deeper understanding among students of what they actually needed to learn. This simple but intentional shift transformed the school's culture and more importantly, changed how students saw themselves as learners and what success truly meant. Thank you for listening. I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday. We'll be back again tomorrow and Friday to wrap up our deep dive into the Fitting five. If you do not already get this newsletter, please reach out to us here at AWB Education. We will get you on that mailing list so you get that again when it comes out on September first. Otherwise, have a wonderful day. Thank you for listening. We will talk with you again tomorrow. You have been listening to your Morning Boost by AWB Education in partnership with Grunmeier Leader Services. You can find out more about our services by clicking on the links in the description. Remember you are doing this vital job that only a few can do. So until next time, thank you for your service to your community,