1. Grading Systems in Physical Education
(c) 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

2. Grading
Students, parents, employers, and institutions of higher learning all demand accountability.
Fairness and consistency are essential.
Students are easily discouraged by their grades, which affects their future participation in physical activity.

3. Purposes of Grading
To inform students, parents, and administrators of the present status and progress of students toward program objectives and physical education content standards.
To improve the teaching-learning process.

4. Principles of Grading
The grade should reflect individual student achievement of course objectives.
Grades should be based on achievement of all of the physical education content standards or their benchmarks, including skills, physical fitness, knowledge, and personal and social skills.

5. Principles of Grading
Grading systems should be developed cooperatively by teachers and school personnel so grades are consistent with those given in other subjects.
Department grading systems should be applied consistently to every physical education class in the school.

6. Principles of Grading
Students should be informed in advance of the criteria and procedures used in assigning grades and receive adequate feedback on their progress.
A variety of assessment instruments should be used, which consider individual differences such as physical characteristics, maturity, background experiences, and ability.

7. Principles of Grading
Assessment procedures should foster positive student attitudes toward physical education.
A grading system should be detailed enough to be diagnostic; fair as a uniform measure of achievement; and compact enough to be practical in terms of time, understandability, and ease of recording.

8. The Process of Grading
Select objectives and determine the emphasis on each objective.
Select assessment instruments.
Select a grading system.
Measure achievement.
Determine the grade and communicate the grade to the student.

9. Select objectives and determine emphases.
List content standards and corresponding unit objectives and determine the percent of emphasis for each one.
Grades should reflect achievement of the specified course objectives.

10. Select objectives and determine emphases.
A separate mark or indicator can be used to inform parents and administrators of appropriate or inappropriate citizenship or class behavior.
Misconduct is best handled by discipline and counseling.

11. Select assessment instruments for each objective.
Develop appropriate instruments to evaluate each objective.
Assessments should be positive
Let students earn points for demonstrating knowledge or performance
This is much more positive than subtracting points for inferior behavior

12. Select a grading system.
No one method is superior in all situations.
All students can be graded according to prearranged standards or criteria.
Students can be grouped for instruction according to skill or fitness levels and each group graded according to different criteria.

13. Statistics Needed for Grading
Norm-referenced grading assumes that student test results form a normal curve, which is not always the case in a single school class.
Students who are beginners will be penalized if teachers average in scores taken from the beginning of the unit
The final grade should represent the degree to which the student mastered unit outcomes

14. Norm-Referenced Assessment
“Grading on the curve”
Compares individual performance to class performance according to a normal probability curve
Grades are distributed at different levels, usually A, B, C, D, or F
Ideal when students must be ranked

15. Disadvantages of Norm-Referenced Grading
It tends to assess student rate of learning rather than ability to learn.
Grades are distributed over a curve whether appropriate or not.
Marks in different classes may not agree.
Grading on the curve is not consistent with assessment of content standards.

16. Criterion-Referenced Grading
Compares individual performance with a pre-established performance standard, such as a score or the number or difficulty of tasks completed
Grades can be percentage scores, pass-fail, or letter grades.

17. Advantages of Criterion-Referenced Grading
More students can earn a good grade.
Grades are not influenced by high skill levels of others (e.g. athletes).
It facilitates the use of student-paced and competency-based instruction.
Students can be told exactly what will be expected, reducing student anxiety and increasing the likelihood of achieving objectives.

18. Disadvantages of Criterion-Referenced Grading
Accurate standards can’t always be specified in advance; grades may reflect test difficulty rather than failure.
Standards vary from teacher to teacher.
Grade inflation--too many students receive high grades.
Pass-fail grading differentiates between students only at a minimum level and may encourage mediocrity.

19. Criterion-Referenced Grading Methods
Arbitrary standards. Awarding grades by percentage correct (e.g % = A) may not be valid. Grades can’t be combined since difficulty levels vary for each test.
Criterion-referenced standards. Fairly valid, reliable standards can be created by plotting 200 scores and establishing mastery/nonmastery or grade cut-off scores.

20. Improvement Grading on improvement is considered questionable.
If students have not achieved physical education content standards grades should reflect this no matter how much improvement has occurred.
Grading on improvement creates a moving target for achievement

21. It makes no sense to talk of different standards and expectations for different groups of students. A standard offers an objective ideal, serving as a worthy and tangible goal for everyone--even if, at this point in time, for whatever reason, some cannot (yet!) reach it. . . Our task in assessment is to provide students with a record of the longitudinal progress they make in emulating the standard People improve. . . by judging all their work against the exemplary performances that set the standard Wiggins, 1992
(c) 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

22. The British national assessment scoring system provides an exemplary model for assessment. A standard of 10 indicates the desired performance for exit-level competency and students are judged throughout their career in terms of how closely they approximate that level of performance Seventh-graders might be expected to be at a level of 6 or 7, while high-school graduates should be able to score a 10. Using such a system would give students a realistic sense of where they are in terms of the desired outcome or content standard Wiggins, 1992
(c) 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

23. Advantages of Grading on Improvement
Motivates low-skilled students, especially in classes with students who have high levels of ability.
Useful for objectives where students are not compared with peers, (e.g. fitness objectives, provided highly-fit students are not expected to achieve the same percentage of improvement or improve beyond healthy fitness zones.

24. Disadvantages of Grading on Improvement
Many activity units do not give adequate time for improvement.
Students purposely score low on the pretest.
Avoid this by counting pretest scores that meet the standard.
Students who reach the criterion score are given advanced tasks to further improve their competence.
Grading on improvement favors lower-skilled over higher-skilled students even when achievement plus improvement is used in the grade calculation.

25. Measure achievement of each objective.
Student progress should be reported in terms of individual achievement of the unit objectives specified.
Use as many different assessment opportunities as possible.

26. Giving a score of zero causes problems
When a teacher averages a zero into a typical 100 point grading system, the resulting grade will probably not reflect the student’s knowledge or ability
Setting a 5 point scale (A = 5, B = 4, etc.) helps avoid the problems described above

27. Determine grades based on the emphases specified.
A student’s grade and class rank can change dramatically depending on the method used to combine the scores, regardless of the original student performance.
For example, Tony’s scores could range from a D- to an A- depending on the way the scores are combined.

28. Bonus points Teachers use bonus points to motivate students
Too many bonus points can disrupt the importance of significant assignments
If bonus points are given, they should be awarded for extra learning rather than some unrelated behavior or deed.

29. Giving low grades to motivate students
Some teachers may lower the grade of students who they feel are under performing
This practice usually backfires and tends to discourage those students
They feel that they are powerless to improve their grade

30. Dressing for class
In too many programs, failure to dress for class will lead to a failing grade
Dressing for class is a managerial issue and should be handled as a behavior problem
A grade should reflect the degree to which a student reaches the objectives of the program
Most programs are about far more than dressing for class

31. Avoid using “fuzzy” words for grades
Examples:
Effort
Sportsmanship
Cooperations.
Define these concepts in terms of measurable behaviors
Students should clearly know how they will be graded

32. Electronic Gradebook Systems
Weight scores.
Help teachers track grades.
Print out each component and its contribution to the final grade.
Help explain grades to administrators and parents
Some gradebook systems alphabetize names,sort grades, calculate statistics, and record absences.
Some schools require teachers to use specific software programs

33. Remember!
Tell students all criteria for grades before beginning instruction.
Use multiple assessments, of the same factor, such as using skills tests and teacher ratings for skill grades.
The more levels of grading (ABCDF = 5 levels) that are used, the larger the chance that a student will be assigned a grade he or she does not deserve.

34. Alternative Assessment Methods
To avoid the pitfalls of combining grades on unrelated measurements, display content standards separately in a portfolio or profile.
Portfolios and profiles include both products and performances.
Performances require students to demonstrate their knowledge.
Products require students to use their knowledge to produce or create something.

35. Communicate the grade to the student.
Communicate grades to students as soon as possible after assessments.
Students can average their own grades and see their own progress.
Schedule time with each student several days before the end of the grading period to review grades earned.
Nothing should come as a surprise.

36. Grading in Coed and Mainstreamed Classes
Group students by ability and set standards for each group. Examples:
Check off 5 new skills on each piece of apparatus. Perform a routine on one piece.
Earn tickets in track and field for meeting standards on each event, for placing in "heats" and for jogging a lap.
 Use mastery learning.

37. Using Assessment to Inform Instruction
Statistics. Means and medians show pretest--posttest improvement and comparisons between classes.
Graphs. Plots and charts show student performance and improvement. (e.g. plotting the number of students at each level of a rubric each week demonstrates how quickly the low-skilled students are improving.)

38. Grading Systems in Physical Education
(c) 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.