Grading PracticesEDU 300 | Newberry College | Jennifer Morrison

Grading Practices

• What do grades mean? What are your experiences with grades?

• What are the problems with traditional grading practices?

• What are four different grading practices/systems? What are the pros and cons of each?

What does this grade mean?

595C

Lines of Opinion

• When you were a student, how did/do grades make you feel? (horrible excellent)

• How important are grades to learning? (not important vital)

• What would happen if we stopped using grades? (peace chaos)

Grades only makes sense…• when you know the scale. • in comparison to others.

Traditionally, grades…• are about control. • are about comparisons. • create competition.

What’s the problem?

• Student makes an A in Math and “fails” the end of course standardized test

• Student behaves badly all year long and fails the course

• Student does absolutely no work but aces the tests and makes a C for the year

• In a class, students generally attend and do class work, then 75% of them fail the course

• Show learning (standards and objectives)

• Show effort • Motivate students to learn more • Encourage students to enjoy learning • Encourage high expectations • Reward and encourage hard work • Create commitment to life-long

learning• Set a standard for comparison

What do we want grades to do?

We are going to look at 4 grading systems. What are the pros and cons of each?

• Grading by Standards (Marzano, Wiggins)

• Median Grading • “Not Yet” Grading

(Power of I by SREB)• No Grades

Grading by Standards

Robert Marzano

Classroom Assessment & Grading That Work• Traditional grades give poor feedback and

are high variable • Recommends focusing measurement on

standards (+ life skill topics like participation, work completion, behavior, and working in groups)

Grading by Standards • Recommends targeted assessments of many types evaluated with

4-point scoring scale • 4.0 Advanced – In addition to Score 3.0 performance, in-depth

inferences and applications that go beyond what was taught• 3.0 Proficient – No major errors or omissions regarding any of the

information and/or processes (simple or complex) that were explicitly taught

• 2.0 Basic – No major errors or missions regarding the simpler details and processes, but major errors or omissions regarding the more complex ideas and processes

• 1.0 Below Basic – With help, a partial understanding of some of the simpler details and processes and some of the more complex ideas and processes

What does standards-based grading look like?

“Not Yet” Grading

Southern Regional Education Board, www.sreb.org(Power of the I)

• Giving zeroes and accepting poor work creates a culture of low expectations.

• Students learn that they have the option of not turning work in.

• Failure to turn in work is #1 reason for middle school and ninth grade failure.

• Instead of a zero, give incomplete and follow up with consequences and extra help.

Median Grading

0 75 90 85 70

Median Grading

• Russell Wright, “Success for All: The Median Is the Key” Phi Delta Kappan, May 1994

• In work world we focus on using our strengths; students must show proficiency on a wide range of tasks

• “The median is actually the statistically correct measure of central tendency for ordinal data.”

• C students work harder

No Grades

• Alfie Kohn, “From Degrading to De-Grading” High School Magazine, March 1999

What’s Due?