Grading

Every state in the U.S. (except Iowa) has educational content standards. These standards define what students are expected to know, understand, and be able to do. The primary goal of a standards-based system is for all students to "meet standards"; that is to be proficient in every aspect of the curriculum. One important strategy for meeting this goal is the evaluation of every student's achievement using similar criteria that is consistently applied at all levels.

The two essential questions all educators should ask about the grades they assign are, "How confident am I that the grades students get in my class are consistent, accurate, meaningful and support student learning?" and "How confident am I that the grades I assign students accurately reflect the district's published content standards and desired learning outcomes?"

In most of the schools and districts I have worked in or consulted with, the answers to these questions (especially at the middle and high school levels) range from "not very" to "not at all". As a school district, we are working to make sure our grades meet a higher standard.

As the first "essential question" indicates, effective grades need to meet four overarching criteria. They must be consistent, accurate, and meaningful and must support learning.

Consistent - the grades students' receive should not be a function of whether they are in teacher X's or teacher Y's class. Students achieving at the same level should get the same grade regardless of context.

Accurate - Inaccurate grades lead to poor instructional decisions being made by and about any student whose grades are used as the basis of those decisions. Inaccurate grades most commonly occur because teachers determine them by blending achievement with behaviors (effort, participation, adherence to class rules), poor quality assessment and inappropriate use of the mean(average) in combining data.

Meaningful - Grades must communicate useful information to students and to everyone interested in or needing to know about their learning.

Supporting Learning - Students and parents need to understand that achieving in schools is not about only "doing the work" or "accumulating points". When teachers assign a point value to simply turning in work, or put a mark or number on everything students do and use every number when calculating the grade, the message sent to students is clear: success lies in the quantity of points earned. Any intended message about valuing the quality of the learning is blurred. We want students to understand that school is about learning. Grades are simply artifacts of that learning; as such they should reflect student achievement only.

In this blog, I have provided the overarching principles for developing sound grades in schools. Because this issue is one that is frequently controversial, I intend to devote my next two blogs to addressing this topic. In my next post, I intend to discuss three philosophical issues that we must consider before addressing the specifics of how grades should be determined. They are fairness, motivation, and objectivity and professional judgment. In the post following that one, I will discuss our district policy and how it relates to improving the accuracy of grading.