e-learning reflection and expectations

With all this talk about e-learning, one would think that there is no other option, that this new way is the best way. Kinks still remain in the system that keep it from being a smooth running machine. In the end, some kids like being in a class with other kids being taught by some weird guy or gal up front wearing a bizzare shirt. One of the unwritten roles (or is it written?) of public education is to provide a healthy medium for socalization for young people. Allowing many courses to be offered from remote locations is quite convenient for many people, but it could be the beginning of a slippery slope (I love that over-used phrase).

Could our teaching jobs eventually become grandiose software facilitators? Assessment will be determined through standardized rubric exemplars, where student work is actually evaluated by software that is constantly being tuned and tightened to mimic what an actual person would do if he or she had still had a chance? Will the teacher become like the goal judge: first replaced by a video camera, soon to be co-opted by technology altogther?

Certainly not! Technology is good, it's healthy, it enhances our lives, without technology we would not be able to communicate as well as we do; everyone has a cell-phone, people talk all the time and they text each other constantly. We e-mail all the time - that's real communication! We say stuff in our e-mails we would never dare say in public! Without technology we all would still foolishly using vowels, writing letters to our friends and reading books to learn things.

If I were in Grade 10 and had the chance, I would just sign up for ENG 2D with e-learning, then drink the kool-aid.

E-learning is here and teachers must adapt to its existence. If teachers are to remain teachers, we need guiding principals for e-ed to ensure that students continue to learn and we continue to teach:

• students must express what they learn, write reflectively about it, relate it to past experiences, and apply it to their daily lives
• expecting students to perform well becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy
• allocating realistic amounts of time means effective learning for students and effective teaching for faculty
• the curriculum of an online program must be designed especially for short-term, collaborative learning
• material should be presented in such a way that it is compatible with a number of learning styles

Huge advantages exist with e-learning despite any misgivings I expressed:

• access to research material
• ability to create diversely
• ability to publish student work
• increased capacity to submit more substantial work

E-learning is the future for learning and teaching whether we like it or not. Like wine and cheese, technology improves with age. In ten years we will find that e-learning has become second nature to us all. The need for governments to pay vast amounts for overhead costs in running schools will vanish; better guidlines for student accountability will be legislated. The on-line currinculum will consistently improve.

The vehicle that I would expect to use is D2L - "dare to learn". It is widely used now and promoted by boards and the Ministry. I have seen it in use recently and it is excellent! Teachers have had very good experiences with it. It does all that WebCT does, but with a more pleasant, user-friendly package. I have made up a small module that would work well with this vehicle.

For my module students would need to have basic wordprocesing software, access to google-docs, the ability to listen to .wav files and of course they need a very fast internet connection.

To view my 5-day Media module for ENG 2D, follow this link to my ENG 2D blog.

Media Awareness Network web-site review

The Media Awareness Network is a great site. As a rule, I look at all websites with suspicion – they are guilty first and must prove their innocence. This site shows authenticity, purpose, objectivity and accuracy. Its focus is clear and gives the viewer a sense of complete reliability and authenticity – with good reason!

The Media Awareness Network is made up of elected board members from various occupations: corporate and government representatives and private individuals. Its primary goal is to “promote critical thinking in young people about the media”. It just wants people to be media literate. The site has two main sections: for teachers and for parents. Each section is worded specifically and effectively for each audience.

Clearly this site is up-to-date. The home page contains links to thought-provoking links, including one to a blog that discusses the controversy surrounding the recent cover of “The New Yorker”. Following these various links does not lead one down some wayward path – the links are focused to thhe site’s intent. They all provide fuel for dicussion about media and its effects on the adults and children. Archived material is abundantly available – again all material is on track with the site’s thesis.

My sense is that this site would appeal to Liberal-minded people and might alienate many Conservatives – good! Providing a balanced forum for discussion precludes that contributors of this site consume a lot of media. Those involved with the creation of this site clearly enjoy media – it’s obviously fun to them. Despite this, the site is not biased. Those who find this site a little “left” for their tastes are likely not willing to discuss the effects of media – the enormous good it can have on our kids and the tremendous danger that lies under media’s pleasing veneer. This site cleverly balances the good and evil effects of media.

As far as being a teacher’s tool, this site really hits the mark. The front page of the teachers’ section contains a resource search engine that allows anyone to find material for any grade and virtually any media sub-topic. I chose “Senior Level” and “body image” and the site found a pretty good lesson involving Kellogs’ marketing campaign about being attractive on one’s own term.

One can also quickly find learning outcomes related to Media education with this engine for any province. Clearly the site’s authors want teachers to use this site – it is extremely user-friendly. When a specific course is selected (ENG 4C, for example) a list of appropriate lessons is also generated. In this case over sixty appropriate lessons are available. This essentially is a bank – teachers add to this lesson bank so all may benefit.

This site shows that the authors are committed in ensuring that Canadians remain Media Literate. Teachers are a key ingredient to Media Literacy as we provide a sense of balance to this very dynamic and important concept. A tool like the Media Awareness Network website allows us to more easily prepare young people to make sense of the inundation of messages that today’s media will heap on them as adults.

curriculum project

I chose to use Lord Of The Flies in an ENG 2D class. My goals of this unit were: to affect good collaborative writing so that students will write a polished 5-paragraph essay, an interior monologue and a novel excerpt.

To have a look at the assignment go to Mike's Curriculum Project.

literacy viagra for adolescent boys

Proposals:
- to increase interest in reading in Grade 9 boys
- to increase marks for boys in ENG 1D, 1P and 1L

To:
- English Department
- Literacy Committee


Overview of Problem:

Adolescent boys are falling farther behind girls in literacy and reading. Presently this is reflected in lower standardized tests scores and a greater male population in Applied, College and Essential level English courses.

Ironically, the numbers tell the tale of boys’ literacy over the past several years. With EQAO testing in Grades 3, 6 and 10, the trends are almost identical. In Reading and Writing, boys’ success is much lower than girls’ success percentage. In Grade 3, Reading and Writing success rates are 10 to 15 points lower than girls. By Grade 6, the differences in Reading and Writing success rates are even more noticeable: 18 to 22 points lower. This is cause for grave concern.

With the OSSLT, the results are more positive, but express the same trend. Boys have always shown less frequent success than girls. Each year since 2002, boys’ success rates were 7 points less than the girls. Both girls and boys have improved by 12 points over the last four years, but boys remain needlessly behind. EQAO results

Weaker literacy skills in males could eventually cause higher male under-employment or a shift so that more men work in lower status, lower responsibility jobs. Women could become more often the family bread-winner. With an increase in male career dissatisfaction, an increase in domestic violence could ensue. More obviously, as co-leaders in families, fathers with lower literacy levels could cause a cyclical effect where they pass on the same lack of interest in reading and literacy to their sons.

Certain teachers believe that if a boy arrives in Grade 9 English with weak literacy skills and a lack of interest in reading, it is very difficult to improve his standing. In my opinion, this is true – but it is not impossible. Drastic measures need to take place for improvement.

In all likelihood boys who are weak readers have had co-ed classes and were taught primarily by women from JK to Grade 8. Their instruction has been excellent, but women have been in primarily in charge of their literacy training. As small children, their mothers were likely the parent who read to them before bed. Many fathers do take lead roles in active reading at home and this makes the teachers’ jobs a lot easier later. Perhaps they have imprinted their sense what it means to be literate and what it means to enjoy reading as feminine constructs. For pubescent males who are discovering their own male roles in society, reading and literacy are typically not part of their personalized male schemas. Gender and Literacy As these boys start Grade 9 they will face continued challenges from their teachers, the curriculum expectations, their co-ed classes and growing apathy to the importance of reading and literacy.

Some historical perspective:

In the early to mid-1990s, a mini-crisis existed with girls under-achieving with Math and Sciences. The gap in standardized test scored was alarming – this problem needed to be solved immediately Sex-Roles Stereotyping - OISE . Fewer girls saw careers in Math and Science as viable – they still believed it was the male domain. A lot of mentoring programs began. Curriculum did not change, but certain technology and science courses targeted girls. Girls-only classes in technology were began. Very quickly, test scores improved – so much so that young women’s test results exceeded the boys’ results in Math and Sciences in high school. This cycle of proficiency continued and perpetuated a growing dominance in Schools of Engineering, Medicine and in other professional schools once dominated by men.

As a Math and English teacher, I have seen first-hand the dominance of young women in both disciplines. The boys who share class space with them react by: trying to absorb their skills through osmosis, ignoring them either as a threat or as a non-issue or expressing apathy in that girls are just better and smarter than boys. They may even accept that these are now female domains and they have no business trying to be a part of them.

Societal Perspectives on Problem:

The Math and Science crisis in the 1990s with young women was relatively easy to solve. The challenges that policymakers faced were in fact opportunities and clearly not prohibitive. The present crisis with boys and literacy shares little with the girl-crisis.

For several decades, young women have been told by society at large that they could accomplish anything they wanted and aspire to any career – regardless of existing sex role stereotypes. Women began co-opting many previously male dominated roles – they did so without compromising any long-term sense of femininity. That is to say, there may have been some initial questions about female firefighters, police officers or CEOs, but they were not generally seen as less than feminine. Now society rarely views these women as wanting to be men or labels them as gay because they aspire to traditional male roles. Society rarely views “tom-boys” as little lesbians; however, if a man aspires to a traditionally female role society takes a very unfair and cruel view. Men are still routinely stigmatized if they decide to become “house-husbands”, hair stylists or RNs.

With the issue of literacy, the same challenges exist: compelling males to take on what many boys see as a female role – a role that many boys see as not important to success in a career and not financially rewarding.

Solutions:

One possible first step to bring a boy into the realm of reading is to place a male as the primary deliverer of literacy. This is clearly impossible half the time, but this would be a positive step for boys with severe literacy deficits. Creating a boys-only class for those who fared poorly on the OSSLT or in Elementary School Language and Reading could also be ideal.

Initially, the English Department will need to find out who their clients will be during the following year. Talking with the core teachers from the feeder schools and getting names of boys and girls who are weak in literacy. This is commonly done each Spring to prepare materials for the following year. If numbers allow, nicely asking or begging Guidance to schedule a ENG 1L or even a ENG 1P of just boys would be helpful. The Head could ask a male teacher to take this class.

In a regular class that is taught by either a man or woman, careful consideration needs to be given to the material chosen for the course. The assumption that all boys prefer a “blood and guts” theme to romance is both sexist and over-simplified. The “differences between boys and boys are as great as those between girls and boys” in terms of reading preference. Gender Equity in English - What About “What about the Boys?" Teachers need to allow a significant diversity in material choice for an English program. Collaboration within the department to choose traditional “boy books”, “girl books” and gender-neutral books will be necessary. Using “literature circles” with an appropriate mix of material can be extremely effective in bringing boys back to the books. Literature circles Getting boys up and moving for a few minutes or more in the class can do wonders for their focus. Getting them out of the school can frequently do even more. Could a field trip based on the theme of a novel or short story help their understanding or get them to read further?

Just as girls benefited from career mentoring to compel them into Math and Science programs, so can boys benefit from the same. Engineers, Doctors and Actuaries all can earn a lot of money; steps must be taken to find other professionals who have financially benefited from literacy – either directly or indirectly. They could come to the school and speak to English students about what literacy means to them as far as making money. Boys have actually said to me, “I ain’t gonna be no stupid poet! What’s readin’ this stupid play gonna do for me? Make me rich?” Finding successful male journalists, authors, politicians or business leaders whose livelihoods depend on all aspects of literacy and bringing them in to speak to all students would send a constructive message to boys that the opportunity to become happy, successful or even powerful may come simply from opening and reading a book.

At times, getting boys to do anything is a chore. It frequently requires cooperation and trickery. If they are enjoying the activity and it is productive, they don’t really have to be reminded that slowly and surely, their literacy levels are improving. Literacy is power – the sooner that young men re-acquaint themselves with this very appealing concept, the sooner teachers can expect gender equality in English classrooms.


Resources:

EQAO results
Sex-Roles Stereotyping - OISE
Gender Equity in English - What About “What about the Boys?"
Literature circles

Far From the Madding Crowded Curriculum

I spent the first year of teaching doing things the hard way - the hard, ineffective, long way. I would give students an assignment based on a certain expectation, mark it and return it. I would repeat this process throughout the semester varying assignments so they focus on different expectations. Things got crazy - I was covering material, but I wasn't really covering all the expectations adequately. I also was deluged by marking and endless stacks of paper.

About half-way through the 2nd semester I accidentally began to solve my big problem. My ENG 4A class (this was a very long time ago) was studying "Death of a Salesman" and I thought it would be good to present parts of the play. I realized that if they did this, they would be "creating media works" and "interpreting texts". They also would be "speaking to communicate". I should evaluate them separately based on these distinct expectations. This assignment took quite a long time - it darned well better hit more than one expectation if it takes four classes to do! Could this be done with a much smaller assignment in a much smaller time frame?

A lot of people have been upset about the new curriculum being to packed to effectively deliver a good, sound program to high school students. This is a valid concern. Unfortunately, we must deal with it but, as teachers, we are naturally creative folks. I am not terribly creative, but I like getting things done so that the end product is better than I expected.

As a "Simpsons" afficionado and as an English teacher - there comes opportunities in the classroom. It is a formulaic show, it has a primary and secondary plot which can be broken down into inciting incidents, various crises and climax (or climaxes). Conveniently, each episode is 22 minutes long. The episode that involved Apu [the convenience store manager] having an arranged marriage is a good example of a media text that can be "doubled up" when considering curriculum expectations. For a senior level university level course, this would be appropriate. The goal is to compare or a contrast a primary text a certain "Simpsons" episode in an organized piece of writing.

Before viewing the episode "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons" students would be asked to read the article http://www.asiansinmedia.org/news/article.php/television/1135 and consider the author's content and intent. In class they would watch the episode. While watching, each would make notes about racial or religious stereotypes in the episode: what were they? did they paint a negative view? was racial intolerance the main theme?

Students will choose someone they trust for editing. They can go into pairs after viewing and discuss whether the article represented the episode's theme. With a senior level class, a rousing class discussion could also ensue. The teacher can decide how to set up the in-class collaboration, the time line and the length expectations for the writing. Rough notes, peer editing notes rough copy and final draft are all handed in. Meta-cognition, Revision, Interpreting Texts, Analysing Texts are all measurable aspects of this small assignment. Speaking to communicate could also be measured with ny class discussion. Of course, rubrics for each of these expectations could be easily created. In fact, a rubric-team could have been in place to keep us all from re-inventing the wheel each time we see something valid that begs to be assessed.
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/secondary/english1112currb.pdf

Dealing with the crowded curriculum is all about killing more than one bird with one stone. The students just have to get used to receiving non-traditional looking results. Blending expectations is a huge time-saver and allows the teacher to get through the semester in a relaxed manner.

West vs East!

Introduction:

Alberta has a significant responsibility to produce quality high school graduates – the province holds a lot of the country’s economic currency and has a huge responsibilty to maintain its standing as a “have” province. Ontario is the traditional leader in terms of population and intellectual exports. But the two provinces have differing treatments of English curriculum and testing. How this affects graduates and their standing in university, college or the workplace remains to be seen.

“High School” is defined differently in the two provinces. In Ontario, Secondary Education is what happens after Grade 8. In Alberta, Secondary Education is “Senior High School” which is Grades 10, 11 and 12.

Time on Task:

The two provinces have similar time expectations. Alberta considers a full course to be 125 hours while Ontario requires 110 hours. In Ontario, four English courses are required to graduate. In Alberta, only two Secondary English courses are required; however, an extra course had to have been earned during the last year of Junior High School. The overall requirements are, in the end, the same between the two provinces.

Streaming English:

In both provinces three streams of instruction are available. In Alberta, “1”, “2” and “4” level courses designate what Ontarians recognize as “D/U”, “P/C” and “L/E” suffixes.

“1” level courses are academically inclined and emphasize higher-order thinking skills with a literary back drop. ELA 30-1 Expectations “2” level courses use similar skills but de-emphasize literature. These courses use more non-literary materials, but emphaisize similar skills. ELA 30-2 Expectations “4” level courses are workplace and literacy focused ELA 10-4, 20-4 and 30-4 expectations. Taking these courses do not earn a standard diploma, they earn a General Achievement Diploma.

In theory, these very generalized expectations match the streams in Ontario. However, a careful look at the expectations for the advanced exit course in both provinces shows that they are very different.

Standards in Grade 12 Advanced English:

Clear differences exist between what is expected in the two provinces for their advanced level exit course: ELA 30-1 and ENG 4U.

The expectations for the Alberta curriculum are vaguely worded and oddly, none of the large expectations use the word, “write”. This is troubling. Three of the five expectations are worded: “explore thoughts, ideas, feelings, and experiences” and “manage ideas and information” and “respect, support and collaborate with others”. These seem more like sub-headings – they don’t address the major skills required for post-secondary education.

The expectations in Ontario are clearer, succinct and focus on traditional needed skills for post-secondary education. Ontario has fewer specific expectations – this allows for much easier programming: “study literature in terms of style, genre and form”, “writing in various forms to an audience”, “use language to read, write and speak in formal and informal settings” and “create, analyse and assess various media forms”. These expectations address the key skills required to succeed in university or college.

Testing:

In Ontario, testing of English skills and knowledge is left primarily up to the teacher. In Grade 10, the OSSLT is administered by the Province and it is required that each student pass to earn a OSSGD. In Alberta, Diploma Exams, are adminsitered. These tests are worth 50% of the final marks. Those taking 30-1 and 30-2 level courses are required to take these exams in all core subject, not just English. The pressure to achieve a certain level of competency with uncertain curriculum expectations is counter-productive in this case.

Conclusion:

I prefer the Ontario system. Although our curriculum is perhaps denser, the expectations are clearer and better suited for success in post-secondary education. I am in favour of exit exams and I feel our students would do well if they were adopted. However, giving the exams a mark value of half the entire course undervalues teachers’ evaluation. Many students might feel that whatever the teacher does or says doesn’t really matter as it all comes down to a test that someone else has created and that someone else will mark.

One of my colleagues [an English teacher] who grew up in Alberta felt similarly about his preparation for university. He felt that he didn’t actually learn how to write an essay properly until 2nd year university. The expectations in the Alberta curriculum do not clearly recognize this as an essential skill that must be taught.

The Question of Accountability

I only have awareness of my immediate accountability. I am accountable only to students, parents and to a lesser degree, the department head. Any accountability I have to those higher up the ladder is indirect. Direct accountability to the individual student is reserved for those on the bottom of the chain: teachers, parents and students. Accountability to groups of students between twenty and 1500 is focused on administration and heads of departments. Board managers and policymakers in Toronto are accountable to larger groups.

I believe that it is impossible for educational accountablility to exist in any other way but a down-loaded chain of command. At the bottom are all the students, to whom all teachers are accountable. An empathetic teacher will naturally feel some responsibility for a student’s success or failure. Decades ago, imparting material effectively, answering the odd question, then reporting student achievement would be the extent of teacher accountability. It would then be up to the parents and students to ensure success. Accountability would be pushed down the chain. Now policies are in place that increase teacher accountability.

We are accountable to students through credit recovery progams. We are compelled through administration and our heads to share accountability with the student and parents. If a student repeats a course or decides to drop out, the checks and balances are in place to ensure that we have had shared accountability for that student’s educational choice.

Teachers can’t recommend that students be disciplined for behaviour or attendance by adminstration until adequate parental contact has been made. We must document each attempt at communication and we must make ourselves reasonably available to parents. We have a responsibility to communicate with the parents regularly – especially to parents of at-risk or identified students. Teacher accountability to student success is now shared with parents.

The head of department ensures that teachers are accountable to students. This responsibility has always been down-loaded to the teacher through curriculum workshops, documents and through subject leaders that guide. I am really only accountable to the head in that periodically I must report what I teach, what my marks are and which student has which text book. This type of organization allows for greater student success, but shifts accountabilty to teachers.

None of these policies are intrusive to me. I have complete faith in my present administration that all top-down policies from the board will be handled in a way that does not affect my job and the students. I am lucky – I have colleagues do not feel the same way about their administration. The increase in the paper trail of accountability is the one down side I have.

I don’t have faith, however, that the Ministry of Education will create policies that are in students’, parents’ or teachers’ best interests. The use and skewing of data to create crises is a skill that governments commonly have. When the vehicle [ever-changing stadardized literacy and numeracy tests] that creates imperfect data is also created by the government, a dangerous precedent is set.

According to the article, the accountability experience in Alberta is adversarial – a lot like the the history of educational accountability in the US: with cut-backs, there was a greater emphasis on outputs; standardized tests were mandated and the data from these incomplete student snapshots were used to inform citizens about the state of their education system – often for political leverage.

I learned from this article that the real need in Alberta is to create a climate of accountability that is shared and fair. The author [a member of the Alberta’s Teachers Association] created axes of accountablity which I found valuable. I can imagine a similar rubric that evaluates a system’s level of accountability. The options the author came up with were even-handed and fair. The government would be hard-pressed to refute these findings.

The focus of Lorna Earl’s article was on teachers’ direct accountability to student learning. Unlike the Alberta article, it is focused on what teachers can do to improve the situation.

She dissects teacher accountability – she even outlines the type of learning teachers need to ensure accountability. She plays to teachers’ beliefs that we are capable of effecting positive relationships between all levels of the educational hierarchy. The ball, she believes, is in our court. She outlines ways for teachers to effect improved accountability: forging partnerships with parents and students, being literate and up-to-date on all aspects of pedagogy, being empathetic with all members of the learning team.

Lorna Earl effectively argues against teachers who want immunity against accountability and argues for keeping teacher accountability. It is a powerful tool that teachers can use to effect positive change to education.

The Rubber Hits The Road - Leadership Project

A Case Study

Two sections of ENG 4U are running in the first semester. 44 combined students are registered in the two sections. Several changes to teacher scheduling occurred in the last week of August so that two previously unscheduled teachers would be teaching the ENG 4U course. Both are seasoned, confident veterans with 16+ years of experience each.

Within the first week of classes, around fifteen students requested to change from Teacher A’s section to Teacher B’s section. A few of these changes were made, then Guidance realized that these students were “teacher shopping”. Students generally felt that Teacher A was an excessively “hard marker” and that Teacher B was an “easy marker”. Several students have dropped the course altogether, then registered for night school. Student movement and growing unrest are becoming serious concerns for the Head of Department and all department members.

Both teachers are aware of the student perception, but neither sees it as a problem. Teacher A thinks that Teacher B’s class median is generally too high and sets a bad precedent for other teachers who want students to see exactly where they stand as university level students. Teacher B is concerned that students won’t be able to get to university if their marks are artificially low. She also feels that certain students do better in university than in high school – she wants to give them this chance. Both see their assessment techniques as strengths.

There is reluctance to intervene in this situation as both teachers are respected and valued in the department. Alienating one or both teachers based on student perceptions is an unpalatable prospect, but as the tension in the department grows, it becomes clear that the Head will needs to act.

Context

The OSSTF negotiates the duties of a Head of Department in each collective agreement. These duties are essentially of a supportive nature: to be the local expert for all questions about curriculum, assessment, classroom management and course materials. They also can be called upon to resolve conflicts and be mentors. Heads of Departments, however, never evaluate teachers in their department. For this case, the concept of teacher assessment must be tread on carefully.

The Ministry’s document “Program Planning and Assessment” gives a clear description how to assess in a “valid and reliable” manner program and assessment. Using the achievement charts provided by the Ministry 11-12 curriculum guidelines along with the specific curriculum should give all teachers the basis for consistency.

In this case, it appears that one or both teachers are not doing this effectively

Leadership

A heavy-handed top-down approach is not what is required in this situation. In order to maintain a collaborative environment in the department, neither teacher must feel like he or she is being attacked. The head must act collaboratively, not coercively or unilaterally.

Two assumptions are necessary for a solution to this case: that the two course teachers recognize that inequity exists in the student assessment and that both teachers are receptive to a collaborative approach of leadership.

If the Head is focused on the long-term goal of having consistent assessment throughout the department then the “problem” does not even need to be actively addressed. The three articles I looked at talk about leaders changing “challenges to successes” (Spence 2004); leaders and followers acting “for the collective good” (Brungardt 1998) and leaders “sustaining trust though competence, candor, caring” (Bennis 1999). These three authors treat leadership as a continuum – not as a series of singular acts, but as on-going relationships.

Partnerships within the department need to be created or strengthened. Course leaders need to communicate regularly with all department members. Most importantly, regular assessment workshops need to be held to ensure consistent assessment.

Plan

The two teachers in question must be flexible and willing to work collaboratively with the department. This is not a problem that can be solved instantly – it will take time and planning as a seasoned teacher may have to change how he or she thinks about assessment. Conversely, someone may just need a simple adjustment. In most departments, policies are in place can be taken to ensure congruity between consecutive courses and between sections of the same course. Each step (except the final optional step) involves the entire department – no course is taught in a vacuum. For this challenge as Head, I would:

1) Ensure that all teachers submit mid-term and final marks to the Head. This allows for a short-term and long-term snapshot of all teachers’ assessment histories. It is a preventative tool that, in this case, the Head would use diagnostically to determine whether either teacher’s marks fall into the norm.
2) Ensure that each course with more than one section has a subject leader that co-ordinates subject material, scheduling of modules, exam material. This teacher would also collaborate with colleagues about instructional approaches to material and assessment methods. In this case, the course leader would be another check to ensure assessment congruity.
3) Every two months or so, organize an assessment workshop. Using the Ministry achievement chart and sample work (either teacher-generated or through Ministry exemplars), teachers pair up and work independently and together to create assessment base lines for the courses they co-teach. I have been involved with assessment workshops - they are productive and eye-opening. In this case, I would see if the PD committee in the school would be able to give up two hours during the first PD day to allow for department work – the department could have its workshop then.
4) The Head could ask the Principal to convene a meeting between the two parties only if discrepancies and incongruities with the subject assessment continue for an unreasonable period. The Principal could ask to see their evaluation plans to ensure the formative and summative assessment and evaluation were reasonably identical. This is a last-gasp solution and only one I would consider if both parties were totally unwilling to collaborate as subject and assessment partners (steps 2 and 3). Going to the Principal ensures that a climate of discord and coercion exist in the department.