A Journey Towards Specifications Grading Derek Thompson Taylor University Mathfest 2016 Columbus, OH

What defines success? Here are some things you may have already accomplished in life: Riding a bike Walking Beating a video game Getting hired Getting promoted Potty training a child What were your lesson plans? Your assessment methods? Teaching techniques?

Some (Bad) Advice I was once told to quit using points and to use weighted categories for grading. Many of us do this. The reason: “The students, not you, should have the power.” Do you agree with this?

Things You (Probably) Already Believe Growth Mindset – Carol Dweck Grit – Angela Duckworth Interactive classrooms – do I need a citation? Specifications grading supports these concepts.

How to make a change: Try it. (Well, first check with your chair or dean.) Project NExT – Mastery-Based Testing Group Each exam has 4 topics, and allows for retakes of old topics. So exam 3 has 12 possible questions, but if you already passed the old 8, it only has 4. Graded Novice (0% credit), Journeyman (50%), or Master (100%) I did this for two semesters in all of my courses.

Positives of MBT Motivational. Students appreciate a second chance. Some pulled off legitimate Hail Mary’s that they could not have in a traditional system. Students would get help more often – very full office hours. (Hooray! That’s GOOD!)

Negatives of MBT Hard to take 12-15 questions at once. So, students could do retakes in the office. But - hard to write that many variations of a topic! They thought Journeyman was okay. 50% is an F! 12-15 topics is often not enough. (Example: there are ~40 ACM standards for a Discrete Math course) Most importantly: rest of the class was weighted percentages. Students still didn’t really know their grade at any given moment.

Specifications Grading Similar concepts to MBT – pass/fail grading, retakes allowed (high expectations, low stakes) No points, so no point-grubbing. Grade determined by a list of outcomes. Invented and promoted by Linda B. Nilsen – but book isn’t particularly good (examples are too “easy”, e.g. graduate licensure/outcomes-based courses)

My First Attempt Two courses – Advanced Calc, Calc I – Spring 2016 Weekly quizzes are first attempts at objectives. Mistake: should have made them more difficult, since retakes allowed. Midterms are retakes of these objects, nothing more. Final is a retake of everything, nothing more. Mistake: Midterms, final should have their own grades - related to first mistake.

My First Attempt (Cont’d) Homework graded pass/fail Mistake: went okay, but should have given better instructions to graders. Advanced Calc had a history paper Very hard to grade pass/fail, but went fine. Lots of checks throughout the semester. Four “power-ups” for extra retakes, etc. This worked well for the most part. Lots of saving until the end, made last week too busy.

My First Attempt (Syllabus) To earn: Pass this many Quests (B-level work): Pass this many HW Assignments (C-level work): Pass this many Mastery Proofs (A-level work): Pass the History Paper (A-level work): A 18/21 9/11 4 Yes B 16/21 8/11 3 C 14/21 7/11 2 No D 12/21 6/11 1

My First Attempt (Cont’d) Grades were too high, BUT Several weak students worked much harder when they could see results that of that work clearly. One was told in Abstract Algebra halfway through, “You can’t possibly succeed at this point.” This system changes that. “I have my A- but if I just did this one little extra thing, I could have an A, so I’ll do it.” Seniors loved it, could check off what was needed to graduate. Two main fixes: Midterms and finals are retake opportunities but have their own grades. More explicit specifications for each 1/3 letter grade, and more test topics (less weight per topic).

Second Attempt: Fall Syllabus, Discrete Math Grade Passed Core Objectives (Out of 40) Passed Homework Assignments (Out of 11) Completed (100%) WebAssign Problem Sets (Out of 22) Maximum Unexcused Absences   Final Exam Grade A 37 10 21 3 35 A- 36 20 33 B+ 19 4 31 B 34 9 18 29 B- 32 17 27 C+ 16 5 25 C 8 15 24 C- 28 14 23 D+ 7 13 6 22 D 26 12 D- 11

How to Grade Pass/Fail Rather than Journeyman being 50%, it can be “Retry.” Use professional organization outcomes (CUPM, ACM) to justify mastery (or not). Homework – have grader grade 0,1, 2 on each problem, 65% is pass (or whatever you choose). Offer some power-ups and other ways to earn them. Encourage hard work and retrying over “just giving it to them.”

Thank you! Questions?