Superintendent's Advisory Council on Instruction "Grading"
December 10, 2020
Kenneth Bassett, Director of Student Learning
Regulation Revision
New
- Expectations of greater teacher collaboration and consistency within and across schools
- Direction on missing and late work
- Explicit language on grade replacement
- Multiple Opportunities provided w/ conditions
- Discourage percentages; encourage use of rubric scoring
Unchanged
- Letter grade symbols
- S+, S, S-, N
- A, B+, B, C+, C, D+, D, F
- Grading scales-
- Percentage
- Grade point scales
- (4, 4.5, 5 point)
Formative vs Summative
- Practice
- Evaluative
Best practice include only summative grades in student grade calculations; however, most of our schools still provide some credit toward the practice or formative assessment in the overall quarter and course grade.
- Formative is usually not weighted in grading calculations- it is practice; however…
- Minimum- Grade level/course teams agree on how to calculate formative and summative assessment grades to promote greater consistency of teachers of the same course
Consistent Practices in Reassessment
- Reassessment not re-takes
- Not automatic, nor guaranteed- requires demonstration of preparation to be given the possibility of another opportunity
- Practices should be common among grade level/course teams
Too few items to base grade on
- Grades follow assessment
- Sufficient evidence should be available before making an evaluation
- Minimum of 6 per quarter*
"Real World" and Second chances
- Focus is on learning
- Practices should promote persistence
- Examples: Driver tests, pilot tests, LSAT, Nursing Boards, SAT, Teacher certs, etc.
- If not in school, then when and where? Assessment
- Grades follow assessment
- Not all assessments are graded
- All assessments require feedback to be effective
Feedback
- Research on score values vs. comments and reflective questions
- Importance of timeliness
- Feedback vs Reporting
- Student self-regulation
Purpose of Grading
Primary purpose is to communicate academic achievement level to students and parents, using a symbol and narrative comments.
Quality Grading Principles
Quality grades are:
- Accurate
- Meaningful
- Consistent & Fair
- Support Learning
Accuracy
Improve the accuracy of academic grades by not including behaviors such as:
- Attendance
- Effort
- Lateness
- Neatness
- Cheating *highly controversial and nuanced
- Based on established, uniform standards
- Use of clear learning targets or objectives
- Clear articulation of success criteria
- Use of appropriate scale (points, percentages, weights)
- Need for multiple measures
Meaningful & Consistent
- Understood by student
- Evidence-based (know and do)
- Built collaboratively with teacher teams (same grade/ course)
Supporting Learning
- Importance of quality designs
- Power of frequent formative assessment for learning
- Summative measurements that are valid and reliable
Food for Thought
"% grades provide 101 distinct levels of performance w/ two-thirds denoting failure." -Thomas R. Guskey
Timely Reporting
Several parents raised concerns about this. Regulations 561-2, 661-1, 661-2, 661-3 require minimum of weekly update to online grade book.
Improvements to Date
- Regulation revised-Grounded in best practices
- New grade book with additional capabilities
- New ParentVUE product to enhance communication
Selected Resources
Chappuis, J. Seven Strategies of Assessment for Learning, 2e. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2015. Print.
Dueck, Myron. Grading Smarter Not Harder. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2014. Print.
Guskey, Thomas R. "Making the Grade: What Benefits Students?" Educational Leadership 52:2 (1994): 14-20. Print.
Guskey, Thomas R. Practical Solutions for Serious Problems in Standards-Based Grading. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2009. Print.
Marzano, Robert J. Classroom Assessment & Grading that Work. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2006. Print.
O'Connor, Ken. A Repair Kit for Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken Grades. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc., 2011. Print.
Stiggins, Rick., et al. Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing It Right-Using It Well. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, 2011. Print.
Vatterott, Cathy. Rethinking Grading: Meaningful Assessment for Standards-Based Learning. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2015. Print.
Westerberg, Tim R. Charting a Course to Standards-Based Grading: What to Stop, What to Start, and Why It Matters. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2016. Print.