Grading for the information age. Clarity by Design Edward Naillon Oroville School District

Information as a catalyst of query. Today’s grading programs give us more capabilities than ever. We can set up category groupings and assignment weights and values to satisfy any intent. We can generate reports that reflect all aspects of student achievement, and deliver them to the parents and guardians for the benefit of all. With these new reports come new questions, as parents are accessing more and more information, and the structures of our classes become more and more discernable to the outside viewer. Ratios, assignment names, category values, assignment weights that are lucid to us, lead to murky waters at times when the viewer is not the designer.

Old shoes in a new box Many of us have grading systems that evolved over many years of teaching. Our intention has been clear to us, and we have managed over the years to explain our grading structure to parents when we would meet with them or talk with them over the phone. Most parents only wanted to see the bottom line, and never questioned us beyond that. We had nearly exclusive domain within our grading schema. This is not the case today. More information has not provided more answers to many parents, but raised more questions. Why don’t the assignment percentages average to equal the grade? Why don’t the category averages equal the grade? Why in the heck is that ONE assignment so important to my child’s grade? These are questions that you or your administrator will have to answer. With a little preventative modification we can eliminate misunderstanding.

Clarity by design. Categories are wonderful organizational tools. Weights are effective ways to control the impact of assignments or groups of assignments. They should only be used however, after adequate thought has been given their effect. If you choose to weigh categories, then make sure that each category will contain an adequate number of assignments by midterm to moderate their influence on the total grade. Designed incorrectly, a ten point assignment can devastate a student’s grade, and create a situation that requires significant explanation. Let’s study the following spreadsheet that reveals the workings of a modern grading system.

Here you will see that the gradebook is divided into four categories. They have a value of 20,20,20 and 40 percent respectively. Because only one assignment was placed in the writing (40%) category, that one assignment would be the difference between an A and a D for the class grade if all other assignments earned a perfect mark. For categories with high weight, make sure there are enough assignments in that category to moderate the high value. Category skewing

Reflect value with value. If one assignment carries that much importance in your class, that is OK. You may wish to change it’s point value so that it displays a stronger signal of importance to the parent and student. Changing a 10 point assignment to a 100 point assignment within a weighted category system will not change the total grade, but may make it more clear to the parent, as it will bring the assignment average closer to the final grade percentage. Watch as we modify our journal assignment to demonstrate this.

Changing the value of the journal assignment brings the assingment average in line with the total grade. Easier to explain to parents

Win the battle through nomenclature. Also, if an assignment is carrying that much weight in your class, you may wish to change the name on your reports to reflect the role it has more accurately. Changing the name Journal, to Midterm Journal Evaluation may reflect your intention more clearly. It is not about changing your intention, just communicating it more effectively.

Customizing your reports! You can customize your reports to show the student and the guardian many aspects of student performance in your class. We can show performance by assignment, category and of course grading period. The progress detail report that we print out tends to be very verbose, and somewhat complicated to look at from an outside viewpoint. Here are some tips to keep your reports as simple as possible.

Simplify your categories When we first set up our grade sheets, we can be tempted to leave categories in place that we think we ‘may’ use. This can be a problem because the category and the total for the category will be printed out on our midterm report. If there are no assignments in there, then the guardian will wonder why Jonny is getting a 0 in the reading category. It is better to de-activate any you are not immediately using, and re-activate them when you add assignments that you want to be classified accordingly. Take a look at the following report examples.

Notice the extra categories showing a 0

Report with extra categories

Edit the category panel

Uncheck what you do not need You can avoid category weights by checking the total points option!

See the results!

Comments if you please! Sometimes you may wish to print a comment on an assignment for a particular student. Setting this up is easy, through the assignment window under score entry. In the assignment, across from the student name, type in your brief comment.

Configure the report

View