Making the Grade

Assessment & Grading Philosophy and Practice

Sheila HuckabeeRichard Melzer

Who are the major researchers for grading & assessment practices?

Thomas Gusky (1996) Communicating Student Learning

Robert Marzano (2006) Classroom Assessments and Grading That Work

O’Connor, Kenneth (2002) How to Grade for Learning: Linking Grades to Standards

Douglas Reeves (2005) Accountability in Action: A Blueprint for Learning Organizations

What is the “GIST” of the Research?

The current grading system is over 120 years old

It is mismatched with today’s new standards-based mastery accountability system

Problems: It allows teachers to include at their own discretion

different non-achievement factors It allows teachers to weight assessments

differently It focuses on accumulating points/averages for

activities instead of on results

Essential Questions

Is grading essential for learning and teaching?

Should we count everything a student does toward a grade?

What should a final grade reflect?

Grading for MasteryWhat does it mean to grade for mastery?

Linking grades to learning goals

Using criterion-referenced performance standards as reference points

Eliminating non-achievement-based value attributes

Using formative feedback along the way to a summative evaluation

O’Connor, K. (2002). How to grade for learning. Alexandria, VA:

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

What about Effort, Participation, & Compliance?

Factoring Effort into the grade sends the wrong message to students

Effort is defined differently by individual teachers

Effort is difficult to measure

Participation is often a personality or cultural issue (inherent bias)

Positive attitude is difficult to define and can be faked

Compliance grades gives no indication of student mastery

Stiggins, R.J., Arter, J.A., Chappuis, J, & Chappuis, S. (2004). Classroom assessment

for student learning: Doing it right—using it well. Portland, OR: ETS Assessment

Training Institute.

Grading Percentage ExampleRHSD 3

Tests 30%

Quizzes 20%

Class Participation 25%

Homework 20%

Journals 5%

Grading Non-Achievement Factors

Grades have some value as rewards but NO value as punishments

-Thomas Gusky, 1996

Using non-achievement factors can mean extra benefit for some and instant death for others

-Ken O’Connor, 2002 These factors SHOULD be assessed

regularly, but reported separately from a students grade

-O’Connor, Stiggins, Gusky, Marzano, Reeves

Affinity Activity

SAY SOMETHING SILENTLY

Use the Sticky Note to record your thoughts about CLASS PARTICIPATION & EFFORT GRADES and how they should be included in the district’s grading policy

Okay so far?....Well, Let’s Turn It Up a Notch

The Sacred Cows

Homework

Purpose for HW should be identified

Practice – structured around content with which students have high familiarity

Preparation – structured around new content not studied yet

Elaboration – structured around newly introduced content for extension

Harris Cooper (1989) meta-analysis HW study

Grades 4 -6 ES=.15 percentile gain 6

Grades 7-9 ES= .31 percentile gain 12

Grades 10-12 ES=.64 percentile gain 24

Amount of HW should differ from lower to higher grades

Marzano, R. (2001). Classroom instruction that works. Alexandria,

VA: Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Homework

Use of Homework

No. of Effect Size (ESs)

Average ES Percentile Gain

Homework with teacher’s comments as feedback

2 .83 30

Graded Homework

3 .78 28

Assigned HW with no grade or comments

47 .28 11

Figure 5.3

Research Results for Graded Homework

Walberg, H.J. (1999). Productive teaching. In H.C. Waxman & H.J. Walberg (Eds). New directions for teaching

practice and research, 75-104. Berkeley, CA: McCutchen Publishing Corporation.

General Findings on Homework

If Homework is assigned it should be commented on

Homework is a formative assessment and best used to give students feedback on learning not as a summative grade

Giving a grade for HW with no feedback only teaches students that grades are about pleasing teachers not about learning

(Marzano, Heflebower, O’Connor)

Affinity Activity

SAY SOMETHING SILENTLY

Use the Sticky Note to record your thoughts about Homework and how it should be included in the district’s grading policy

Late Work, Make-Up Work, Retakes

Assessments should not be a one shot – “do or die” experience

When teachers follow assessments with high-quality corrective instruction, students should have a second chance to demonstrate competency/mastery

Late Penalties Distort achievement Become a

Disincentive to complete work after a period of time

“It is best to do it right and on time, but it is better to do it right and late than the reverse.”

Joel Barker

Guskey, T.R. (2000, December). How’s my kid doing? A parents’ guide to grades,

marks, and report cards. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Affinity Activity

SAY SOMETHING SILENTLY

Use the Sticky Note to record your thoughts about LATE WORK, MAKE-UP WORK, TEST RE-TAKES and how they should be included in the district’s grading policy

Measures of Central Tendency

Mean is the total of the values divided by the number of values

The median is the middle value Mode is the most frequently occurring

value What is most commonly used? Problem with Mean = outliers impact

the score

What is this Student’s Final Grade If All Grades are Equal?

Mean Median Mode100 100 100100 100 100100 100 100 90 90 90 80 80 80 60 60 60 0 0 0

What is this Student’s Final Grade If All Grades are Equal?

Mean Median Mode100 100 100100 100 100100 100 10090 90 9080 80 8060 60 600 0 0

75.7

90

100

Zeros Zeros have a large effect when the MEAN is

used as the measure of central tendency There is a lack of proportionality between 0

and 70 passing score; other grading ranges have smaller scales

Zeros can convey inaccurate information: Are you sure the student knows nothing about the topic?

Zeros rarely teach “responsibility;” more often they demotivate students

Heflebower, T. (2008). Quality Grading Practices. Reporting on research from O’Connor, K.

(2002) and Marzano, R. (2000). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.

Consider this Alternate View

Instead of assigning a grade of zero, why not simply note that the evidence is missing with a blank space in the grade book? When it is time to determine a grade, decide if there is sufficient evidence to make a valid judgment. If there is sufficient evidence, determine the grade regardless of the missing evidence. Concern about missing assignments or other evidence should be communicated prior to grading through phone calls home, email, and so on and also on the narrative or expanded format section of the report card. If there is insufficient evidence to determine a grade, the student receives an I for “incomplete” or “insufficient” on his or her report card. This communicates accurately what the problem is and puts the responsibility where it should be—on the student. It gives students a second chance at success since arrangements can be made to complete the missing assignments.

O’Conner, K. in Reeves, D. (2007). Ahead of the curve. Bloomington, IN:

Solution Tree.

Sample 8th Grade Teacher Grading Policy in Course Syllabus

“I will not include zeros for late or missing assignments in achievement statistics, because zeros do not describe learning, and they are extreme values. I will use the median average (or middle score) as a general indicator of achievement unless there is an unusual circumstance. In that case, I will consider the relative importance of the learning goals achieved and the recency of scores. If there is insufficient evidence of achievement, I will assign an incomplete and expect the student to make arrangements to make up or repeat the learning experiences that were missed.”

Hugh O’Donnel, Hillsboro, Oregon

Affinity Activity

SAY SOMETHING SILENTLY

Use the Sticky Note to record your thoughts about ZEROS and how it should be included in the district’s grading policy

Today’s Task

CategoriesWhat do we grade?

DescriptionHow do we describe this task?

PercentageWhat percentage do we give that

category? How many work samples in this

category?

REMINDER:Percentage Grading

Parameters

For percentage grading categories to work, you must have a sufficient number of assignments in the category

EXAMPLE: Tests = 40%Tests Quizzes Performance Assessments Papers67 72 89 8589 88 93 77

83 98 82 68 84 80