Margie teaches physical education at Hillside Elementary School. Hillside is located in a very diverse community. Margie wants all of her students to participate and improve. Because she wants all her students to believe they can succeed in her class, she assigns grades based on skill improvement. At the beginning of each unit, she gives a pre-test covering basic skills. At the end of the unit, the test is repeated to see if students have improved. Grades are based on the amount of improvement made. For instance, she tests students on free throws at the beginning and end of a unit on basketball. Students must improve their shooting percentage by at least 10 percent to receive an A on the summative test unless they shoot over 90 percent on the pre-test. So, a student who shot 50 percent on the pre-test must shoot 60 percent on the summative test to earn an A. In her fourth grade class, she has an extremely competitive group of students. They all work very hard to do well on the assessments and often to outperform each other. One young boy, Tyler is pretty good at shooting free throws. He sank 80 percent of them on the pre-test. His friend Duane sank 60 percent. Throughout the unit, the boys alternately cheer each other on and talk good-natured "trash" to each other. Margie helped Duane correct his technique during the unit. This made a big difference in his shot. It is now time for the final skills test of the unit. Tyler goes first. He makes 85 percent of his shots. "Yes!" he exclaims. "I rule!" Next it is Duane's turn. He tries very hard to remember what he has been practicing. He sinks 70 percent of his free throws. "Nice job, Duane!" cheers Margie. "I knew you could do it!" When final scores on the skills test are distributed, Tyler is very upset. He got a B in free throws and Duane got an A. "How could this be, Ms. North? I got more of my shots than he did." "Yes, Tyler, but remember that I grade based on improvement. Duane improved much more than you did in free throw shooting. He increased his percentage by 10 percentage points. You only increased yours by five." "But Ms. North, I did BETTER than he did! How could he get a better grade?" "Tyler, we've discussed the grading policy. Improvement is what matters, not how well we did at the beginning." "This is a bunch of crap, Ms. North. I shot better than most NBA players and I get a lousy B." "Please don't talk that way to me, Tyler. You know the policy." "Yeah, and I'll bet that's how they graded you in college, too. You started out getting fifties and improved to sixties and that's how you got to be a teacher, right?" replies Tyler under his breath. The next unit is volleyball. One of the skills tests involves "setting" or tapping the ball repeatedly up against a wall. Margie tallies how many times students can set without stopping or letting the ball touch the floor. "You're up, Tyler," says Margie. Tyler steps up to the wall and starts. After just five sets, the ball hits the floor. "Darn!" he says with a big smile on his face. "Guess I'll just have to improve." Sure enough, on the summative skills assessment, Tyler sets the ball to the wall 105 times without missing. It appears he could continue all day. "How's that for improvement, Ms. North?" he asks. "Good enough for an A?" What are the issues in this case? What types of assessment is Margie using? Why does Margie base grades on improvement? What do you think of her grading scale? Why? What could she do differently? Is student progress more important than student achievement? Why or why not?