Fair Isn't Always Equal

I'm so excited by the content in this book. I saw a quote on Twitter and ordered the book. I have been reconsidering my school's grading policies & procedures. This book has opened my eyes to different angles of the traditional arguments for traditional grading. I have been sharing my book with my team. I'm excited about the conversations we are now having as a result. Definitely a must read for school administrators!

This is a must have resource! All teachers need to read this book. Every student who walks through our door is a unique individual. Giving every student the same thing is malpractice, not every student needs ____. What is fair is what that child needs. It can be challenging to navigate how to differentiate a classroom, we may not have experienced these practices when we were in school. This book is a must have.

Wormeli’s books definitely make you think about the way we do things in education. This book is fantastic in so many ways, and I have found myself going back to it multiple times and referencing it in conversations with other educators.

I had the chance to see the author speak at the NYSMSA conference at VVS high school. This is an eye opening read as we must begin to switch our mindset around grade reporting.

Easy read with detail steps to success. A very complicated process made easier.

Interesting and useful.

Love hearing Wormeli speak on sbg... but this book is SO DRY! I'll update my review if I can ever get into it... so many other sbg books that cite Wormeli but are more interesting

In full disclosure, this is written after reading the "look inside" portion of the book which includes all of Section 1 and the first part of Section 2. Also, I am not a teacher. The title peaked my interest because based on the woke BS going on in today's society and the title of the book, I had assumed it was pushing unequal standards based on demographics and an unfortunate common assumption that people of different races and backgrounds were assumed to have different abilities and needed special treatment in assessment for fairness. That is not what this book is about at all. At least not as much as I was able to read. It is about teachers meeting students needs to meet standards based learning objectives no matter where the students start from and what their particular learning skills are. i.e. changing your approach based on each students individual needs.As a life long learner and having one child in college and another in 10th grade, I believe the author is providing the teacher who will take responsibility for their role in the students success the tools and framework to make decisions to advance our next generation forward and optimize their chances for success. Even the most debatable of the practices suggested IMO has significant merit upon further reflection with the author's guidance. That practice being allowing students the opportunity to perform test and homework corrections and other methods of repairing a bad assessment. On initial consideration, this practice seems like it is just a bad policy adjustment which, like all policy adjustments, will be adjusted to by and modify the behavior of the person it was intended to help. In this case by a student not preparing for a test or learning the material because they can always "fix it later". And while there must be some of that, the other side of the coin is that this actually helps the student by taking away the excuse that they have blown an opportunity and with the opportunity blown, why continue the intense effort to learn. They can fix a mistake. Further, the mistake may not be the students. It may be a failing of the teacher to adequately prepare the students for the test or be clear about what is being assessed. It is allowing a student used to achieving a specific level of assessment to stay motivated and continue the diligent effort they have been putting in. My daughter, who has not received a B in any class in years, really benefited from this in her first "bad" test in years when she had her second test in AP World History. She went from being despondent over how she was going to learn all of this information to adjusting her learning strategies, putting in the effort, picking up the pieces, and is a stronger student for the experience. I had been concerned about how her first bad grade on a test would affect her motivation. These practices likely saved her future.If I was a teacher, I would read the rest of this book. As a parent, I am hoping our school teachers are reading this book.