There is a moment in education where all the hard work pays off: the moment a student grasps the soul of a literary character or the moment a student “gets” a math problem. The Greeks called this moment “scholi.” We call it school. “Scholi” is an amazingly rich Greek word that means both school and leisure. For moderns this can seem strange, for the ancients it made perfect sense: to learn was joy. Of course, every teacher knows this. Whether you were discussing Hamlet or Blueberries for Sal, we live for that moment when school becomes leisure. Yet, we also know that the moment we pass out a test, it disappears. No longer is the child lost in wonder about the subject. Instead, he is lost in fear.
      Yet, we must assess. How can we know if a child is learning if in someway we do not assess learning? The problem of course is not assessments: the problem is how we assess. I find three characteristics of bad assessments: first, they do not assess what is truly important. When we assess only the mundane then it is all mundane. If, however, assessments point the child to the essentials behind the “mundane,” then even the mundane will become lovely. Secondly, assessments should be both for the teacher and for the student. A good assessment directs a teacher where to go next. Finally and something we need to develop, the idea of one-size fits all instruments of measurements is wrong.
      By instruments of measurement, I mean the tools that we use to translate a test into a grade. By one-size fits all, I mean the overuse of averaging of percentages. A child completes an assignment. The teacher assigns a grade based on the percentage of correct answers. Then at the end of the grading period, the teacher averages all of these percentages and the result is the child’s grade for the term. Is though the averaging of percentages method the best instrument of measurement for all types of assessments? Averaging of grades tells us what an average always tell us: consistency. For instance, if you want to know if a baseball player is a consistent hitter you look at his batting average. On the other hand, a batting average tells you nothing about a player’s ability to hit a home run. Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron are remembered for how many home runs they hit-- not the percentage of home runs they hit. The same is true in education; averages are the best measurement for some areas of learning. In others, they are completely unreliable.

     With this in mind, Regents has adopted an approach to assessment that allows teachers to use different instruments of measurements. To insure that we are truly assessing where a child is, we must not only think about the types of tests we offer but, also, the instruments of measurement that we choose.
     To this end, the teachers developed a list of skills that should be mastered in each class. The main categories of these skills are Language Arts, Mathematics, History, Science, Writing, Bible, Latin, and Penmanship. Each of these main categories breaks-down into sub-skills. In other words, these are the skills that must be mastered before the subject can be mastered. As teachers do their weekly grading of work, they will mark whether or not a child is progressing towards mastery. All work will receive the following marks: If the child has mastered the skills that are being assessed, he will receive an “E.” If he has not mastered them but is progressing towards mastery then he will receive an “S.” If the child is not improving at the rate expected then he will receive an “N.” Finally, if the teacher is convinced that a child is not improving and needs some immediate help, the child will receive a “U.”