ERLC Webinar Series Fall 2009 A Repair Kit for Grading - 15 Fixes for Broken Grades Webinar Session 6 With Ken O’Connor

WELCOME Thank you for participating in the Webinar “15 Fixes for Broken Grades” Presented by Ken O’Connor

A Repair Kit For Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken Grades Session #6 Fixes 14 & 15 Summary & Reflection

Presented by Ken O’Connor Assess for Success Consulting

HANGOVERS Fixes 11 &

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The Essential Question: How confident are you that the grades students get in your school are: consistent accurate meaningful, and supportive of learning? If grades do not meet these four conditions of quality they are “broken” i.e. ineffective. 6-8

Grading Issues Achievement (only) Evidence (quality) Calculation Learning (support) 6-9

Grades are broken when they … include ingredients that distort achievement arise from low quality or poorly organized evidence are derived from inappropriate number crunching, and when they do not support the learning process 6-10

For each fix… What do you think – PMI Where are you/school/district now? Where do you want to go – you/school/district? 6-11

Fixes to support the learning process 13. Don’t use information from formative assessments and practice to determine grades; use only summative evidence. 14. Don’t summarize evidence accumulated over time when learning is developmental and will grow with time and repeated opportunities; in those instances emphasize more recent achievement. 15. Don’t leave students out of the grading process. Involve students - they can - and should - play key roles in assessment and grading that promote achievement. 6-12

Fix #14 Don’t summarize evidence accumulated over time when learning is developmental and will grow with time and repeated opportunities; in those instances emphasize more recent achievement. 6-13

33 O’Connor, K., How to Grade for Learning, Corwin, 2002,

Who do you want to pack your parachute? A - Student 1; B - Student 2; C - Student 3 Remember the parachutes were packed after the course was over. Discuss with others or make your own choice. You have 30 seconds to indicate your choice. 6-15

The key question is, “What information provides the most accurate depiction of students’ learning at this time?” In nearly all cases, the answer is “the most current information.” If students demonstrate that past assessment information no longer accurately reflects their learning, that information must be dropped and replaced by the new information. Continuing to rely on past assessment data miscommunicates students’ learning. Guskey, Thomas R. (Editor), Communicating Student Learning: The 1996 ASCD Yearbook, ASCD, Alexandria, VA, 1996, 21 Fix #

Fix #14 “We know that students will rarely perform at high levels on challenging learning tasks at their first attempt. Deep understanding or high levels of proficiency are achieved only as a result of trial, practice, adjustments based on feedback and more practice.” McTighe, J., “What Happens Between Assessments”, Educational Leadership, Dec. ‘96 - Jan. ‘97,

“... final grades should (almost) never be determined by simply averaging the grades from several grading periods (e.g., adding the grades from terms one through three and dividing by three).” (exception - discrete standards/content) O’Connor, K., How to Grade for Learning: Linking Grades to Standards, Second Edition, Corwin, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2002, 135 Fix #

Fix #14 O’Connor, K. A Repair Kit for Grading, ETS Portland, 2007,

Fix #14 “Educators generally recognize learning as a progressive and incremental process. Most also agree that students should have multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning. But is it fair to consider all these learning trials in determining students’ grades? If at any time in the instructional process students demonstrate that they have learned the concepts well and mastered the intended learning goals, doesn’t that make all previous information on the their learning of those concepts inaccurate and invalid? Why then should such information be “averaged in” when determining students’ grades?” Guskey, T.R., “Computerized Gradebooks and the Myth of Objectivity,” Kappan, 83 (10), June 2002,

Fix #

Conditions for ‘Second Chance” Assessment Always - evidence of ‘correctives’ Optional - opportunity cost 6-23

For Fix #14 What do you think? + Green Checkmark  - Red X  6-24a

For Fix #14 Where are you/school/district now? Implementation A complete B almost complete C partial D limited E none 6-24b

For Fix #14 Where do you want to go - you/school/district now? Implementation A complete B almost complete C partial D limited E none 6-24c

Fix #15 Don’t leave students out of the grading process. Involve students; they can - and should - play key roles in assessment and grading that promote achievement. 6-25

Fix #15 Motivating Students Towards Excellence Rick Stiggins believes student-involved assessment is the route to follow. It includes:- * student involvement in the construction of assessments and in the development of criteria for success; * students keeping records of their own achievement and growth through such strategies as portfolios; and * students communicating their achievement through such vehicles as student-involved parent conferences 6-26

Stiggins and Chappuis describe strategies that teachers can use to involve students, including the following: 1.Engage students in reviewing weak and strong samples in order to determine the attributes of a good performance or product... 3.Students practice using criteria to evaluate anonymous strong and weak work. 4.Students work in pairs to revise an anonymous weak sample they have just evaluated. Stiggins, R., and J. Chappuis, “Using student-involved classroom assessment to close achievement gaps,” Theory into Practice,44(1), 2005,

The best resource for student involvement ideas is Seven Strategies of Assessment for Learning Written by Jan Chappuis Published by ETS, Portland earlier this year. 6-28

For Fix #15 What do you think? + Green Checkmark  - Red X  6-29a

For Fix #15 Where are you/school/district now? Implementation A complete B almost complete C partial D limited E none 6-29b

For Fix #15 Where do you want to go - you/school/district now? Implementation A complete B almost complete C partial D limited E none 6-29c

Group Sharing Please share what you think is your best or most unique way of involving students with the whole group by giving a video report, an oral report or typing in the chat box. 6-30

SUMMARY 6-31

For grades that are: Consistent Fix 8 Accurate Fixes Meaningful Fix 7 Supportive of learning Fixes

Givens- quality assessment (10) - standards base (7) - performance standards (8, 9) Musts- achievement separated from behaviors (1, 2, 3 4, 5, 6) - summative only (13) - more recent emphasized (14) - number crunching (11, 12) - student involvement (15) 6-33

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6-34b

Grading “Top Ten + 1” Reference List (in alphabetical order) Brookhart, S. Grading, Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall, 2004 Canady, R. and P. R. Hotchkiss, “It’s a Good Score: Just a Bad Grade,” Kappan, September 1989, Cooper, D. Talk About Assessment, Thomson Nelson, 2007 Guskey, T. R. and J. Bailey, Developing Grading and Reporting Systems for Student Learning, Corwin, 2001 Kagan, S., “Group Grades Miss the Mark,” Educational Leadership, May 1995, Kohn, A., “Grading: The Issue is not How but Why,” Educational Leadership, October 1994,

Grading “Top Ten + 1” Reference List (cont.) Marzano, R.J., Classroom Assessment and Grading That Works, ASCD, 2006 O’Connor, K., A Repair Kit for Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken Grades, ETS, Portland, 2007 Stiggins, R. et al, Classroom Assessment for Student Learning,, ETS, Portland, 2004 Wiggins, G., “Honesty and Fairness: Toward Better Grading and Reporting” in Guskey, T. R. (Editor), Communicating Student Learning: The ASCD Yearbook, 1996, Alexandria, VA, 1996, Wormeli, R. Fair Isn’t Equal, Stenhouse/NMSA,

“... the primary purpose of classroom assessment is to inform teaching and improve learning, not to sort and select students or to justify a grade.” McTighe, Jay and Ferrara, Steven, “Performance-Based Assessment in the Classroom”, Pennsylvania ASCD 6-38

Grades should come from body +performance + fixes ofstandards evidence i.e.,professional judgment NOT just number crunching a 6-39

To evaluate or judge is to reach “a sensible conclusion that is consistent with both evidence and common sense ” Robert Linn, CRESST 6-40

What is Insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting things to improve. Attributed to Albert Einstein ( ) 6-41

REFLECTION 6-42

27 O’Connor, K., How to Grade for Learning, Corwin, 2002,

What grade SHOULD this student receive? What grade do you think that he actually received? Please be ready to respond in one minute as follows - A % B 80-89% C 70-79% D 60-69% E Insufficient Evidence 6-44

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Group Sharing Please share one aspect of your reflection on either of these tools with the whole group by giving a video report, an oral report or typing in the chat box. 6-47

Thank You! Ken O’Connor Val, Jann & Siobahn(webinar support team)