How to Benefit Most from our Evaluation Service
Part 4: What's in a Mark?
Last spring we started a series of posts to help parents help your children get the most from our courses and evaluation service. Here are the first three posts:
1. Introduction - Real People
2. Not Replacing Parents
3. Writing and Evaluation
We will return to the topic of writing and evaluation again, but this instalment will provide some starting points on the idea of "marking" by our evaluators.
Q: Why does Tree of Life provide a "marking" service?
A: First, we don't actually like to call it a marking service!! Marks aren't everything....and the most valuable truths, lessons, and skills in the grand scheme of God's Kingdom cannot be measured. That said, numerical marks are intended as one component of feedback (along with written feedback) concerning the thinking, quality, and depth in student work. We hope this helps with learning. Also, especially in the world of secondary and post-secondary education, numerical grades are part of the reality in our world. Marks are very imperfect evidence for college admissions offices that time was spent and things were learned.
Q: What if I don't like a mark on an assignment or test?
A: It is possible that a mark contained an arithmetic error or was unreasonable. You may ask/appeal to the evaluator. It might also be that there are a good reasons for the awarded mark; your evaluator can explain how this was given according to the standards/expectations of the course. Beyond this, the student is encouraged to learn from whatever weaknesses or shortcomings in the piece of work and seek to apply improvements for future work.
A: In some situations, this is possible but it is up to the discretion of the evaluator. Obviously, certain tests cannot be redone if the student has already viewed the questions. If a student totally missed the instructions or needs another try, we usually allow that. I recall a situation some years ago when a parent was requiring their child to achieve a minimum mark on every single assignment, and if that mark was not achieved, they had to redo/resubmit it. However, this expectation on the part of the parent placed an unreasonable demand for Tree of Life to remark work, which carries an extra cost. Instead, we encourage students to learn, improve, and progress in their learning/writing from one opportunity to the next, and accept (not approve) less than satisfactory marks along the way. This doesn't mean we accept mediocrity or hold low standards; it means our goal for students is to learn the standards and expectations (truth, goodness, and beauty - think Phil 4:8), and continue to aim for that. That just seems like life.
A: That may be. Many folks over the years has said Tree of Life is quite hard, while a few others have found some grades very generous. You know your child, their abilities, talents, and strengths better than we. Again, marks aren't everything. Teach your child to aim beyond mere marks. That said, you can also communicate with the evaluator on ways to expect more.
A: Yes, that may be helpful for us to be aware of. You can send a note to the evaluator directly in the course screen, or you can communicate with our high school administrator here.
A: Some of our courses have tests or parts of tests which are automatically marked. This includes certain multiple-choice and fill-in answers. From time to time, a student may enter a misspelled word or alternate wording that "the system" doesn't recognize. Our evaluators regularly review these tests and update the mark; if not, just ask.
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