My twist on the great re-testing debate

       Recently, Edutopia, a popular website for educational news and opinion pieces, published a series of pieces on, what I have found to be, one of the most contentious trends in schools today - second chances on tests and assignments:

• Tips for Allowing Retakes
• Allowing Test Retakes Without Getting Gamed

      And, the one that got my attention,

• The Case For Not Allowing Test Retakes

    In my experience, there are large numbers of both teachers and parents on both sides of the second chances debate.  In general, I’ve found that the main talking points are generally as follows:​​
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       Additionally, there are common criticisms of each approach. Critics of second chance policies often point to a perceived trend in younger generations to be coddled and entitled, while critics of one-chance policies often cite factors like test anxiety and age-appropriateness as making those policies unfair and demoralizing.​
      I’m on the side of second chances.  While I could make an item-by-item defense of the practice, the truth is, the biggest reason that I favor second chances is one that I’ve never read or heard anywhere else.  It isn’t one that is particularly fun to admit (which might be why I’ve never heard it elsewhere), but if I acknowledge that it happens - and is going to continue to happen - it tips the scales definitively toward second chances for me:

"I think I misspelled 'sense of entitlement.'" 

​Sometimes, students need a second chance because of ME.

    I try a new lesson technique, and it bombs.  I don’t get that make-up session scheduled with the kids who were out with the flu.  I run out of time to properly check the practice work ahead of the test. We miss two lessons for [choose your favorite schedule disruption].  I get called in for a meeting when I planned on a lunch review session with the kids who missed class to provide hospitality on grandparents’ day. I just plain do a bad job of teaching something.  I try to squeeze something in when there isn’t really enough time to do it justice. And the list goes on.      

 In probably each and every teaching unit, I drop the ball somewhere, for at least some students, in some way. There are 200 best practices I’m supposed to perform every day, and I usually miss some.  And after this long, there’s no reason to think that it will ever be otherwise. If I give a one-chance test, I feel like I’m saying to every single student “I provided you the perfect situation to learn all of this at the highest possible level.  The only variable in performance on this test is YOU.”

​And that simply isn't true.

"How I feel when I have to re-take a test because my teacher just HAD to try out a new teaching strategy"

And that’s ok.

​Offering second chances is an easy way for me to offer an opportunity to make up for my own shortcomings, and it just so happens to come with a long list of positive side effects, too, like encouraging students to:

• Keep learning after a test is over
• Analyze mistakes in their work
• Not develop fatalistic mindsets
• Advocate for themselves
• Rectify shortcomings on their end

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not for retake-anything-anytime-as-many-times-as-you-want policies.  Second chances are essential, but they have to be rational. Some of my personal limitations include:

• Second chances are only for tests (the test can be your second chance for a preceding quiz or class grade)
• Second chances have deadlines
• Work, study, and/or re-learning occurs before a second chance.  I need a reason to believe your second chance will be better than the first
• Second chances are new tests with new questions

"Says here the re-test isn't just some free points picnic."

​In his Case for Not Allowing Retakes, I think author Anthony Palma misses the mark.  He dwells on extreme cases of students doing months of work at the end of the semester and claims that retakes encourage students to procrastinate.  They do not. Sensible retake policies have deadlines, too, and more importantly, they acknowledge not only the humanity of students, but the humanity of teachers as well. ​

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