Are there corrective strategies you use before the second test? If so, why not use those strategies before the first test, so the second test is not necessary? If we teach effectively once, we don’t have to do it over and over (and it actually saves us time!).

Let's break this down logically. If I have corrective lessons available, but I only use them after students have shown learning gaps in a particular area, it means that I am actually planning for my students to fail. A corrective strategy, if you end up needing to use them at all, they should be a repetition, a "B" form of something the student has already been expected to perform. Introducing new activities or concepts after evaluation means that you did not expect your first round of teaching to reach everyone.

Pull out some of the strategies you have set aside for "low-achieving" and "special education" students, and use them for everyone. What is necessary for some students is good for all students.

This also allows us as teachers to stop planning for the middle 60-80% of our students, and allows us to plan for the top 10%. If we are going to allow retests, and we are going to give enough repetitions, and we are going to use varied strategies, all students have the potential to reach a "B" level or higher. We can now begin to plan for success, and our goal for each class we teach should be 100% passing rate at a "B" level or above.

You may think this is an unrealistic goal. However, what if airlines planned for 1% of crashes, or restaurants planned for 1% of their dishes to have food poisoning? What if 1% of tires were faulty? We cannot afford to plan for even 1% failure. We must continually ask ourselves, "What if this were my child?" and "Have I done everything I can?"