Fifteen Fixes for Broken Grades Ken O’Connor

1. Fifteen Fixes for Broken Grades Ken O’Connor

2. How confident are you… …that the grades students get in your classroom are consistent, accurate, meaningful, and that they support learning? …that the grades you assign to students accurately reflect our desired learning outcomes?

3. “Why would anyone want to change current grading practices? The answer is quite simple: grades are so imprecise that they are almost meaningless.” Bob Marzano, 2000

4. Problems with Subjectivity • Researchers made copies of two English-language exam papers written by Freshman • These papers were sent to 200 teachers. 142 of the teachers graded and returned the essays. • Both papers were graded on a percentage scale on which scores could range from 0-100.

5. Problems with Subjectivity, cont. • For one paper, the score ranged from 64 to 98. • The other paper received scores ranging from 50 to 97. • One of the papers was given a failing mark by 15% of teachers while 12% of teachers gave it a grade of more than 90 points.

6. Problems with Subjectivity, cont. • Critics blamed the results of this study on the subject area chosen – English – which they said was prone to subjectivity. • But when the same study was repeated the following year by math teachers using geometry exams, researchers found even greater variation in the grades. Scores on one exam ranged from 28 to 95 points: a 67 point difference!

7. Students should earn grades based on their achievement of specified standards / learning goals.

8. The Fixes

9. Fix 1 • Don’t include student behaviors (effort, participation, adherence to class rules, etc.) in grades; include only achievement.

10. Fix 2 • Don’t reduce marks on work submitted late; have the learner finish the assignment • “If Rory is a brilliant writer who always hands in assignments late, both aspects are hidden if she gets a C or a D. But if she gets an A and the report says, ‘brilliant writer, but always late,’ then we have accurate information.

11. Fix 3 • Don’t give points for extra credit or use bonus points; seek only evidence that more work has resulted in higher levels of achievement.

12. Fix 4 • Don’t punish academic dishonesty with reduced grades; apply other consequences and reassess to determine actual level of achievement.

13. Fix 5 • Don’t consider attendance in grade determination; report absences separately. District policy for Out-of-school Suspension: Students may not be allowed make-up privileges for assignments missed as a result of being suspended out-of-school.

14. Fix 6 • Don’t include group scores in grades; use only individual achievement evidence. • “There is a pattern to classroom life summarized as ‘learn it in a group, perform it alone.’” Johnson and Johnson, 2004

15. Fix 7 • Don’t organize information in grading records by assessment methods or simply summarizing into a single grade; organize and report evidence by standards / learning goals.

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23. How many learning goals? • 180 days in a school year. • 180 learning goals are too many. • 18 learning goals are too few.

24. How many learning goals? • Typically, 40-45 learning goals per grade level, per subject is appropriate and doable. This gives you 3-5 days per learning goal. • At the primary and secondary applied arts areas, this drops to about 25 learning goals . • Select the number of learning goals for which you can realistically provide quality feedback to students.

25. Fix 8 • Don’t assign grades using inappropriate or unclear performance standards; provide clear descriptions of achievement expectations.

26. Traditional vs. Research-Based • Link letter grades to percentages • This has created a grading scale with 101 levels and the illusion that grades are mathematically precise. • Fewer Levels • Excellent Achievement • Proficient Achievement • Basic Achievement • Insufficient Achievement

27. The Grade Book • Concepts/Learning Targets/Objectives NOT assignments! • “Page 87” tells us nothing! • If concepts are listed in the grade book: • Teachers can easily tell parents, students, and administrators what concepts are mastered. • IEP goals and objectives are easily written. • Incomplete grades can be given to individual concepts- helping to identify areas that need more instruction.

28. Aligning Achievement IndicatorsEdmonton Catholic Schools, 2006

29. Fix 9 • Don’t assign grades based on students’ achievement compared to other students; compare each student’s performance to pre-set standards.

30. “You’re a teacher. You should know better than to grade papers on a curve.”

31. Fix 10 • Don’t rely on evidence gathered using assessments that fail to meet standards of quality; rely only on quality assessments.

39. Fix 11 • Don’t rely only on the mean (average); consider other measures of central tendency and use professional judgment • “Whenever I hear statistics being quoted I am reminded of the statistician who drowned while wading across a river with an average depth of three feet.” (McMann, 2003)

40. Fix 11, cont. • Using the mean overemphasizes outlier scores. • For example: 91, 91, 91, 91, 91, 91, 91, 70, 91, 91 Total: 889, Mean = 88.9, Final Grade = B Median = 91 Mode = 91 • Determine grades – don’t “calculate” them. Grading should be “an exercise in professional judgment, not just a numerical, mechanical activity.”

41. Fix 12 • Don’t include zeros in grade determination when evidence is missing or as punishment. Use alternatives, such as reassessing to determine real achievement or use “I” for incomplete or Insufficient Evidence.

42. Average Temperature: 63º Forgot to check thermometer! Recorded temperature as 0º

43. Fix 12, cont. • “A zero has an undeserved and devastating influence, so much so that no matter what the student does, the score distorts the final grade as a true indicator of mastery. Mathematically and ethically this is unacceptable.” Wormeli, 2006

44. Fix 13 • Don’t use information from formative assessments and practice to determine grades; use only summative evidence. • i.e., Don’t grade homework or class work assigned as practice.

45. What is the point of homework?

46. Parent Concerns? • “If we did in basketball what we frequently do in the classroom, the game would not start 0-0, but each team would start with a score based on an assessment of the quality of their practices in the days leading up to the game. This would be absurd – and is equally so in the classroom.”

47. “But if I don’t grade it, they won’t do it.” Really? Do you know this for certain? • Did you quit doing homework in college because it wasn’t included in the final grade? • Do 8th grade basketball players quit playing during practice because the scoreboard isn’t on? • Do kids quit playing video games because the “character” they are playing with dies? • Do you quit teaching on days you aren’t evaluated by your principal?

48. Student Grade Profiling Homework Results Assessment Results • High scores on homework • Moderate scores on homework • Poor / missing scores on homework • High scores on assessments • Moderate scores on assessments • Poor scores on assessments Student 1 Profile Student 4 Profile Student 2 Profile Student 3 Profile

49. Homework Rubric – 10 points

50. Fix 14 • Don’t summarize evidence accumulated over time when learning is developmental and will grow with repeated opportunities. In those instances, emphasize more recent achievement.