[ot-caption title=”Sophomore Blake Kushner thinks for a few moments before beginning a test. (via Rachel Rutstein, Sophomore)” url=”https://pcpawprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/fairness.jpg”]

Pine Crest offers a multitude of classes to its students, but due to the  amount of students taking some classes, sometimes a specific course must be taught by multiple different teachers. Many complaints have been made as some students feel that the level of difficulty of tests in the same course varies from teacher to teacher. On the other hand, each teacher has his or her own style and method of teaching. Therefore, the assessments should reflect this varied coverage of material. So how do Pine Crest students feel about this dilemma?

Sophomore Rachel Rutstein thinks separate tests are fair, stating, “I believe that different teachers who teach the same class should have different tests because although the curriculum is the same, some teachers focus on one topic more than another. Therefore, the test should include the extra material the teacher talked about, not only what is in the standard curriculum of the course.  A test would be unfair for students if it had material that their specific teacher did not cover with the same depth that the other teacher covered.”

Sophomore Sydni Weisberg feels similarly, saying, “I feel like if two teachers teach differently, they cannot give the same tests because that would be unfair for the students. The tests should account for what the teachers taught.”

Sophomore Brian Meller brings up an interesting point, stating, “Different teachers should not have to make the same tests because some of them make different tests just for their separate periods. If one teacher gives different tests to different periods throughout the day, then they should try to test the same concepts to make it fair, but the same exact questions do not need to be used.”

Freshman Andie Weinberg feels that the tests should be the same, saying, “It would not be fair if the same information was taught and one class had an easier test than another class.”

Mrs. Ledbetter, the history department chair, elaborates on the topic, “It is the same course, it is a Pine Crest course, but ‘vive la difference’, each teacher brings his or her own methods, but the students are guaranteed that they will cover the same information.  Teachers collaborate very closely, they are constantly collaborating to make sure that the students are given the same experience.”

Dr. Miller teaches multiple history classes with other teachers, and he speaks of his experiences collaborating with other teachers, saying, “We regularly meet to collaborate and make sure that we are maintaining the same academic rigor. Also, we make sure that our assessments cover the same material and are formatted similarly. As a teacher, you have autonomy but you want to maintain the grading standards and academic rigor of the course. So, if you are teaching AP, the rigor and grading standards across your teaching team are the same. The key to that is communication and collaboration. Schoology makes it easier because it allows us to see each other’s courses, so I can be an administrator for the other teachers that I teach with so we can see what resources are being given to students.”

After finding out that many teachers are already collaborating about the topics being covered, possible solutions for fairness would be if one teacher wants to focus more on some material than the other, their tests could reflect that.  However, if the same material is being covered in the same exact way, then perhaps the tests should be the same, to ensure that the rigor is equal.