1. Taking the Guesswork Out of Student Evaluation
GRADING
Taking the Guesswork Out of Student Evaluation
Michelle Rammel, Ph.D.

2. Communication Why Do We Grade? Primary purpose Student achievement
Administrators
Colleges and universities
Potential employers
Students and parents

3. Why Do We Grade?
Guidance
Select, identify, or group students for certain educational paths or programs

4. Motivation Why Do We Grade?
low grade will motivate a student to try harder
high grade will motivate a student to maintain effort
Research indicates that grades do not motivate students!

5. Administrative purposes
Why Do We Grade?
Administrative purposes
Promotion and retention
Determine course placement for student transfers
Class rank
Credits for graduation
Honors standing

6. Instructional planning
Why Do We Grade?
Instructional planning
Form cooperative groups

7. Program Evaluation Why Do We Grade?
Evaluate the effectiveness of an instructional program

8. Components of grades
Effort
Attendance
Behavior
Homework
Extra credit
Late work

9. Effort, participation, and positive attitude
Components of grades
Effort, participation, and positive attitude
Highly valued attributes
Difficult to define and measure

10. Components of grades
Grades are distorted when factors not related to achievement are included.
To have real meaning, grades must be pure measures of each student’s achievement of the course objectives.

11. Ineffective grading practices
Assigning a zero
Motivate students?
No research supports this practice

12. Ineffective grading practices
Fixes for Assigning a Zero
Require students to complete the assignment
The idea of “working with students until they achieve success” is promoted by HSTW.
Throw out the lowest mark in a grading period

13. Ineffective grading practices
Average vs. median
Averaging assumes learning at the beginning of the term is as important as the learning at the end of the term
Consider student X: 100% 100% 100% 100% 0%
Average is 80%
Is this appropriate? Does this show the learning that occurred?
Consider student Y: 85% 80% 75% 80%
A 0% on the fifth test results in 64% average
Does this fairly represent student Y’s learning for the term?

14. Ineffective grading practices
Average vs. median
Averaging grades negatively affects student motivation because one low score during a term has such a detrimental effect on the student’s grade.
(Guskey, 2002)

15. Ineffective grading practices
Average vs. median
Remember Student Y?
0% % % % %
Median = ?
Average vs. median??

16. Ineffective grading practices
Semester Killer
Single test, lab, paper, or project that makes or breaks a student’s grade

17. Ineffective grading practices
Grading Scales
An A can be as low as 80% or only 95%
The lowest failing grade can range from 49% to 74%
An A is not the same from school to school

18. Ineffective grading practices
Grading Scales
Majority of grading scales are biased.
10 point scales
This disparity raises concern regarding the meaning of grades.
No research supports any one grading scale over another.

19. Ineffective grading practices
Grading on a Curve
Affects students’ relationships
Learning becomes competitive
Helping classmate may reduce the student’s chance of earning an A

20. Effective grading practices
Standards-based Grading
Assesses how well a student has mastered course objectives
Reduces meaningless paperwork
Helps teachers adjust instruction
Teaches what quality looks like
Requires teachers to work with students until they are successful…a key practice of HSTW

21. Effective grading practices
Feedback
Accurate
Specific
Timely

22. Effective grading practices
Page (1958)
3 groups
Group 1 – numerical and letter grades only
Group 2 – also included standard comments, such as Excellent or Let’s try to raise this grade
Group 3 – Teachers wrote individualized comments that pertained to the teacher’s own feelings and instructional practices
Which group do you think improved?

23. Effective grading practices
Feedback
Not effective if the comments are judgmental
(Brookhart, 2008)

24. Grading in CTE
Every day, academic teachers test students’ knowledge of a particular subject, but never truly assess their students’ comprehension.
(Backes and Brown, 2009)

25. Traditional tests Grading in CTE Allow teachers to assign grades
Determine a student’s knowledge level
Verify whether the learning objectives were met
Only check for lower level understanding… recall
Do not support the purpose of common core standards of preparing students for college and career.

26. Grading in CTE
Career technical teachers utilize more innovative techniques to assess student learning:
presentations
portfolios
writing samples
field experiences

27. Presentations Grading in CTE
Allow students to demonstrate and discuss their understandings of a variety of concepts
Learning and assessment occur in all three domains: cognitive, psychomotor, and affective.
Offer students experience in problem solving, critical thinking and independent learning
especially when ends with Q & A
Instruction is more student-directed

28. Presentations Grading in CTE Provide clear guidelines: time limit
require an outline before presentations are given
offer substantial feedback
require interaction with the audience
Have one of the best presenters give presentation at the end of class the day before the other students
Provides other students an exemplary model presentation
Utilize a rubric in order to assess each presentation
Provide every student a copy of the rubric

29. Writing samples Grading in CTE
Excellent way to evaluate a student’s content knowledge and understanding of successful writing
Examples:
Reflections
Research reports
express analytical thoughts
to most students, is the act of opening an encyclopedia or a webpage and copying its verbiage without mention of the author
clearly articulating one’s thoughts demonstrates an understanding of the content

30. Writing samples Grading in CTE
Use writing samples often and vary the style of samples
Provide constructive feedback – comment on grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors
Use a rubric
Permit students the opportunity for individuality and personal reflection

31. Writing samples Grading in CTE
Do not have to grade every skill for every writing assignment
Must clearly state what skills will be graded
Collins Writing = Focus Correction Areas (FCAs)
three
students focus on a smaller number of skills at one time
students practice and master numerous FCAs during school year
significantly improves their writing abilities

32. Field Experiences Grading in CTE
More unique to career technical education
Examples:
Observations
Shadowing
Service learning
Actual practice
Real world connection of learning for students and teachers
CT educators assess students in similar way to how employers evaluate their employees

33. Field Experiences Grading in CTE Suggestions:
match the field experience to the course objectives
match the placement to each student
use journals, reflections, and logs to record observations
hold an orientation session before sending students to the location

34. Individualized Productivity and Achievement System for Students (IPASS)
An individualized, self-paced, competency based, and project/assignment driven system
Students are given assignments each with a given point value.
Assignments must be large enough to require a student at least one lab period, or 2.5 hours, to complete, and should be worth a minimum of ten points.

35. IPASS
The teacher evaluates the work upon completion.
If the work meets or exceeds the teacher’s standard, the student receives the number of points assigned and continues to the next assignment.
If the assignment does not meet the pre-determined requirements, the student revises the work until the assignment meets expectations.
Students may not continue to the next assignment until they have achieved competency on that given assignment.

36. IPASS
Once an assignment is mastered, the student marks off the number of points received from the completed assignment on the IPASS Progress Chart.
The student’s grade is based on how many points they earn during the grading period.
The grade chart is a valuable visual tool for the student to see how missing school or not working diligently every day affects his or her grade.

38. There are no vague daily grades for working or not working in lab.
IPASS
There are no vague daily grades for working or not working in lab.
There are no weighted grades
Confuse parents and students
The responsibility of the student’s grade is placed on the student’s shoulders.

39. Mistakes made over the course of the semester were not failures.
IPASS
Mistakes made over the course of the semester were not failures.
The teacher is a facilitator similar to a boss running an office or shop. Everyone has their assigned work and it is the boss’s job to see that the employees have the resources to complete the assigned work.

40. References
Backes, C., & Brown, P. (2009). Going beyond the test! Using alternative assessments in career education. Techniques: Connecting education & careers, 84(3),
Brookhart, S. M. (2008). How to give effective feedback to your students. Alexandria,VA: ASCD.
Brookhart, S. M. (2009). Grading. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Collins Education Associates. (2010b). Focus Correction Areas. Retrieved from
Guskey, T. R. (2002). Computerized gradebooks and the myth of objectivity. Phi Delta Kappan, 83(10), Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: ).
Guskey, T. R. (2003). How classroom assessments improve learning. Educational Leadership, 60(5),
Guskey, T. R. (2004, October). 0 alternatives. Principal Leadership, 5(2),
Guskey, T. R. (2006, May). Making high school grades meaningful. Phi Delta Kappan, 87(9),
Kohn, A. (1999, September). Grading is degrading. The Education Digest, 65(1),
Marzano, R. J. (2000). Transforming classroom grading. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
O’Connor, K. (2011). A repair kit for grading: 15 fixes for broken grades. (1st ed.). Portland, OR: Educational Testing Service.
Willis, S. (1993). Are letter grades obsolete? Education Update, 35(7). Retrieved from Grades-Obsolete¢.aspx

41. IPASS