Dolly Davis is a fourth-grade teacher who has set up her social studies activities on a mastery learning basis. Students are allowed to work through most of their social studies assignments at their own speed. Much of the social studies program in Dolly’s class is based on reading assignments, so students can move at their own pace. When students believe they are ready to demonstrate mastery of the social studies skills and knowledge Dolly has described in written documents she distributes early in the school year, students set up an oral assessment. Dolly then spends 10 to 15 minutes presenting a series of short-answer items students must answer orally. So students do not discover from previously assessed students what the items on the assessment are, Dolly selects items at random from a pool of nearly 50 items for each of the four major social studies assessments during the year. Although most students seem to appreciate Dolly’s willingness to let them be assessed when they’re ready, several students have complained that they “got a harder test” than some of their classmates. The dissatisfied students have encouraged Dolly to retain her mastery learning model, but to assess all students at the same time. Dolly is deciding whether to maintain her on-call oral assessments or to revert to her former practice of written examinations administered to the entire class at the same time.

If you were Dolly, what would your decision be and why?

Your response should be BETWEEN 250-300 words.