Doing "Okay": On the Multiple Metrics of an Assessment

Abstract

This article examines "okay" deployed as an assessment of student performance in parent-teacher conference interactions. By elucidating what is being done by a speaker who terms a student's performance "okay" and a recipient who accepts or resists it so termed, this investigation shows "okay" to be directly and overtly relevant to and for the parties and the activities in which they are engaged. Data drawn from 35 videotaped and audiotaped conferences are presented to demonstrate that "okay" participates as a value in two distinct metrics of assessment-one binary, one gradated. Analysis reveals parties' organized, systematic means of recognizing which metric is being made relevant in and through their talk on a local, moment-by-moment basis. By interactionally situating "okay" as a value within a binary or gradated metric, parties imbue it with a locally calibrated valence that can directly impact the social and educational lives of children.