Joint Session on Holistic Grading

1. Joint Session onHolistic Grading LTC Brian J. Lunday 05JUL12

2. Joint Session onHolistic Grading LTC Brian J. Lunday 05JUL12

3. Joint Session onHolistic Grading COL Alex Heidenberg 05JUL12

4. Common Assessment Mechanisms • Course-wide • WPRs (Exams) • TEEs (Finals) • Projects • Course-specific topical exams (FCE, FDE, FIE…) • Instructor-specific • Quizzes • Homework • Presentations • Class preparation • Subjective grade* • 10% of instructor points • Think twice before doing this at all. Are you assessing understanding or rewarding extroversion (or mimicry)? • Sample point • allocation • (MA104)

5. What are the purposes for grading student work?

6. What is holistic grading? Determination of the overall quality of a piece of work or an endeavor by considering various aspects or components of the work without marking or tallying them. Education.com What are the advantages and disadvantages of holistic grading

7. Discussion • What are some advantages to holistic grading? • Analytic rubrics can be too prescriptive (in either direction) • Allows time to focus on feedback/comments (quick) • What are some disadvantages to holistic grading? • Accepts a certain level of imprecision • What are some caveats…? • Must communicate standards • Calibration still necessary

8. Accuracy vs. Precision • What is the difference between accuracy and precision? • What does this mean with respect to grading?

10. Math Department Grading Guidelines

11. You still need a rubric…

12. A rubric • A scoring guide to evaluate a student’s performance based on established criteria. • Chocolate Chip Cookie Rubric • Chips • Texture • Color • Taste • Flavor

13. A rubric 4- Delicious Chip in every bite, chewy, golden brown, rich, creamy, high-fat flavor 3 – Good 75% bites have chips, chewy in the middle, but crisp on edges, a little too brown or undercooked Store bought quality, medium fat content 2 – Needs Improvement 50% bites have chips, too crispy or too under cooked, tasteless, low-fat content 1- Poor Too few chips, texture resembles dog biscuit, burned, chalky non-fat contents

14. A rubric in the making • Focused holistic grading • Work exceeds standard, meets the required standard, • falls just short of the standard, does not meet the standard • Analytic holistic grading • Divided by performance area • Correctness, organization, style, substance • Major , Minor Errors

15. Problem-specific Holistic RubricMA104 WPR#3, 2012 • Sample procedure within MA104 • For A, B, or C-level work, instructor identifies the mistake(s) for the student • For D or F-level work, instructor also refers the student to the text for a similar problem, such as • “See Example #4, pg. 948.” • in order to help the cadet remediate conceptual or procedural gaps. • Caveat • Cadets often solve (or approximate solutions to) problems in unexpected and completely valid ways! Keep your eyes (and your mind) open!!

16. Questions? * Caution: don’t confuse humor with beliefs.

17. Generic Holistic RubricUSAFA Math Department, 2009 • Well-executed • Applies a strategy that makes sense for the given question • Applies appropriate mathematical concepts and processes • Does not introduce superfluous material • Technology is used appropriately • Work is logical and includes a sanity check of the final answer • Well-communicated • Readable: Work stands alone (retains context) and is neat and professional in appearance • Organized: Provides a clear logical flow form beginning to end • Provides sufficient supporting detail and explanation throughout • Work is free from grammatical errors • Mathematical composition, terminology, and notation is correct • Results and/or conclusions are clearly annotated • Essentially Correct • Precision: Performs mathematical operations correctly and derives the correct results • Uses an appropriate degree of accuracy • Draws correct inferences from graphical or numerical data • Any computational or algebraic errors are trivial and isolated • Correct units are used