I have spent a good
share of my professional time over the last few years trying to figure out what
grades mean. As I’ve monitored the grades of my own children and talked with
parents about the grades of their children, I believe grades are used
inconsistently and without a confident understanding (by the educator) as to
what a grade means to him/her. I am not saying anything unfair or negative
about any public educational institution. I am encouraging parents to ask
questions about the value of a grade their child “earns” in a class. Robert Marzano (2006) notes “classroom
assessment is to inform teaching and improve learning not to sort and select
students or to justify a grade.” Also, according to Marzano (2000), in the
early 1800s, Harvard developed the grading system that public schools mirror
today. We’ve been using the same grading system for over 200 years. That’s a
long time to implement a system that allows for no changes in culture, not to
mention changes in any kind in people. That means we are using a 200 year-old
system to assess learning and teaching in spite of the advancements in brain
research, differentiated instruction, special education, the focus on aptitude
and intelligence, the growing emphasis on state assessments, the numerous
learning challenges that face today’s student because factors that are out of
our immediate control, and information about various learning styles. Typically
a grade in any traditional classroom is a combination of homework, quizzes and
tests, projects or labs, attendance, behavior, effort, and journaling.
According to Tomlinson (2000) “Grading should be closely correlated with class
goals based upon a philosophy of learning and teaching and should reflect what
a teacher believes about learning.” What
does that mean exactly? It means that a grading philosophy should be clearly
communicated to students in writing, educators should grade solely on
achievement to provide a clear picture of a student’s growth, and a grading
approach should encourage rather than discourage student learning. Educators
spend a great deal of time grading student work. Our children spend a lot of time completing
work for various classes. Schools use grades to determine eligibility in extra
and co-curricular activities. Grades are used to calculate GPA and are directly
tied to scholarships for those students pursuing post-secondary education (which
we tell our children they must have in order to open as many doors for
employment as possible). Schools award
students with the highest grade point average medals and certain distinctions
at graduation. With such high stakes connected to grades, teachers should be
able to articulate their grading practices clearly and with confidence. Did you
ever stop to consider that our kids are concerned about their grades because
grades are dangled in front of them every day? Yet most teachers hate it when a
student only cares about a grade, as they want the student to learn something
from the assignment. Doesn’t that seem a bit backwards? The most serious flaws
in our grading protocol today are using pop quizzes as assessments, grading
students based on characteristics such as behavior, effort, or attitude, and
assigning a zero for work not turned in. There is research to support how poor
these practices are and how such practices can discourage a student from
learning, but suffice it to say, all of these practices are common in the
public school system. There are healthy ways to integrate these practices into
the learning environment but not as a reflection of a student’s learned content
knowledge. The most immediate practice by educators in the public school needs
to be to take the mystery out of grading. There is no mystery in effective
classroom assessment. Students should be let in on what is expected at all
times. Otherwise, the power granted to educators to assess student learning is
used to harm a student rather than to encourage a student.
n Marzano,
R.J. (2000). Chapter 2. What are Grades
For? Transforming Classroom Grading.
http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/template.chapter.shtml.
n Tomlinson,
C. A. (2001). Grading for success. Educational Leadership.
