Assessment questions

[gfjohn77]

Below are some questions I need to address.

Which of the following policies is part of your current grading system
either in your class or in your building?
Grading “on the curve”
Selecting the class valedictorian (or one top-ranked student or most
outstanding student at the end of the year)
Using grades as a form of punishment
Using zeros in grading
“Hodgepodge” grading (making it up as you go along, using various
systems such as rubrics, tests, projects, plus check minus, etc)

Over the years what changes have you made to your grading system? or
what changes have you or would you recomend to a grading system to
make it better.

Why do you think the way teachers grade students varies widely from
district to district, school to school, and teacher to teacher?

How can you begin thinking about grading in a more “systemic” way?

I will include my thoughts in a later post.

[gfjohn77]

Ok here are my thoughts on the following.

My current grading system falls into the hodgpodge and using zeros. I
didn't think I used grades as punishiment but I am now more aware of
when I give zeros.
We as a school have been working to align the work we do with
standards and with what students need to know. We have also worked on
making our grading policy more equal in moving to a 4 point or 50% as
zero system to make it so that students don't have an insurmountable
hole to climb out of. This specificly targets the zeros in grade
question. I know it was hard for me and is still hard for some of our
staff to deal with the face that a student who doesn't do any work
still get at least 50% credit for that work. However If one goes with
th 4 point grading scale this takes that into account.

I think grading varies widly in schools due to experience and a lack
of grading options taught in teacher prep classes. I know with my
experience grading was never touched upon in any of my classes. We
talked a lot about theory and about curriculum but never about
grading. We talked about standards and how teaching to standards is
helpful for both the teacher and student but we never addressed how to
grade to a standard. Any talk of grading was left to the work one did
during their practicum.

I feel that our building is working towards grading in a more systemic
way. We have established if not working towards a grading where a 0 is
50% or on a 4 point scale. We are also having discussions on how to
streamline this and make it easier for teachers to do. I think
sometimes we fall in the trap that so often beleaguers edcuation and
that is the "it's they way we have always done it" that we are lack to
look at new ways of doing simple things. We work hard to change the
tough things like curriculum or standards but when it comes to simple
things like how we grade we tend to dig our heads in the sand. I think
also the some of us are guilty of feeling that so much of what we do
as teachers is under attack and that there is a feeling of we are
being told what we can and can't do that we sometimes feel like we
need to hold on to simple things to help keep our identity as a
teacher. I see grading falling into this area. How a teacher grades is
a personal thing but it can an does have a huge impact on students
that it needs to be done in a systemic way. This will help parents,
student, the public, and teachers know what students are truely
capapble of and what they need help with.

For me it has started with working with our building to mold our
grading policy into a fare policy that is easy for teachers to use and
students/parents to understand. The next step has been to enroll in
this class to help me better understand various aspects of grading and
assessment. I am already looking at how I grade and modifying not only
my assessments but how I gather data so that it gives me a better
picture and also addresses the idea of grades as punishiment. I am
hoping to address the aspect of my hodgepodge grading in part this
year and more definatly next year.