Grades and Grading: An Exploration of Current Practice and Alternatives

1. Grades and Grading: An Exploration of Current Practice and Alternatives AACU Pre-conference Workshop Presented by Consortium for Innovative Environments in Learning (CIEL) Seattle, Washington January 21, 2009

2. Workshop Facilitators • Maribeth Clark, Associate Provost and Associate Professor of Music, New College of Florida • Marie Eaton, Professor of Humanities and Education, Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies Western Washington University • Kathleen A. O’Brien, Senior VP for Academic Affairs, Alverno College • Debra Quick, Chair, Department of Social Sciences, Johnson C. Smith University

3. Colleges and Universities that use narrative evaluationsAlverno CollegeBenningtonBrown UniversityThe Evergreen State CollegeFairhavenHampshire CollegeNew College Of FloridaOxford UniversityPrescott CollegeSarah Lawrence

4. Goals of Workshop: To assist participants reflect and re-evaluate functions of grades To envision alternatives and explore realistic ways to experiment with change

5. History of Grading

6. History of Grades - 1 • Relatively new phenomena – Greeks used assessments in their teaching but purpose was formative • In US, grading and reporting unknown before 1850 • As number of students increased, students grouped in grade levels; teachers noted skills developed and what needed to move on to next level

7. History of Grades - 2 • Teachers began using percentages to certify student accomplishment in different subject areas (efficiency purpose) • By early 1900’s, criticism of % approach led to scales, fewer categories (e.g. Excellent, Average, Poor) • Reduced variation but did not solve problem of teacher subjectivity

8. History of Grades - 3 • By 1930’s grading on the curve introduced. Argument: since intelligence test scores approximated normal curve, assumed that students in a class were similarly distributed. Forced distribution; ranked by top score to bottom

9. What are the purposes of grades? From your experience, what have you found to be the benefits of using letter grades? What are their limitations?

10. Critiques of Grades and GPA

11. (In UK) Society demands that students demonstrate academic achievement but also a variety of capabilities… These abilities are difficult to grade and some graduates may be losing out because their particular strengths are given insufficient acknowledgement in current summary assessment practices. -- Mantz Yorke, 2007

12. Numerous research studies show no reliability or consistency across graders in same and in different schools. Grades – An inadequate report of an inaccurate judgment by a biased and variable judge of the extent to which a student has attained an undefined level of mastery of an unknown proportion of an indefinite material. - Dressel, 1983

13. Advantages/Benefits of Letter Grades and GPA’s • Easy to report • Can be quantified • Meets demand of graduate schools and some employers to sort and rank order • Promotes competition among students • Disadvantages/Limitations • Provides little information to student on what learned • Students focus on “the grade” rather than learning • Discourages collaboration, cooperative learning among students • Promotes extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation in learning • Some students avoid taking difficult or challenging courses • In an era of grade inflation, viewed as irrelevant indicator by some graduate schools and employers

14. What researchers agree on • Grading and reporting are not essential to student learning • No one method of grading and reporting serves all purposes well • Grading and reporting will always involve some degree of subjectivity • Grades have some value as rewards but no value as punishments • Grading and reporting should always be done in reference to learning criteria, never “on the curve” Summarized by Thomas R. Guskey, ASCD Year Book, 1996, Communicating Student Learning

15. Motivation and Grades

16. Motivation and Grades • Grades can have a beneficial effect on student learning, but only when accompanied by specific or individualized comments from instructor Studies on grades Page, E.B. (1958). “Teacher Comments and Student Performance: A Seventy-Four Classroom Experiment in School Motivation.” Journal of Educational Psychology 49: 173-181.

17. So if grades fail, what are alternatives?

18. WHY? The object here is graduates who know their own strengths and weaknesses, can set and pursue goals, who monitor their own progress and learn form experience. There’s considerable evidence now that students who are self-conscious about their processes as learners are better learners, that they learn more easily and deeply, and that their learning lasts. The fashionable label for skills in question here is “metacogitive’ but whatever you call them they represent a kind of learning that speaks to a belief that learning is personally liberating, self-empowering, and for all students. Pat Hutchings, 1990

20. Reflection • What are the cognitive acts in reflection? • The capacity to step back • To recognize framework/patterns • To connect to previous learning

21. I sit in a heap of journals, evaluations, papers, notes, books, scripts…proof of my college career…and I ask myself, “What does it all mean? What have I learned? How do I know what I know? How have I changed? What tools have I acquired, and how will they help me live my life? As an educated person, what responsibilities do I have and to whom, and to what degree need I be responsible? How have my subjects of study affected my life as a woman? Where do I go from here?” Drue Robinson Student Voices

23. During a course - Less formal reflective activities that grow out of text and course work End of course - Self-evaluation of courses of teaching programs End of degree - Formally at distinct points in student’s degree program(end of Division II or Senior Summary) Points for Reflection

26. “I found that I don’t learn best by just listening, reading, and writing. Knowledge sinks in best if I can also work with my hands and see what the end product looks like. Even though I am fairly adept at writing, math, and science, I feel more satisfaction when I learn abstract concepts by applying the knowledge to concrete purposes and skills.” Aviva Steigmeyer Student VoicesHow I learn

28. Self reflection and self assessment help to develop student sense of responsibility for their own learning and progress toward outcomes. Self reflection and self assessment also provide data to institutions on how well instructional strategies are working. Benefits of Reflective Work and Narrative Grades

29. Other approaches to grading Rubrics and Criteria linked to Learning Outcomes

30. Art History: Hypothetical Newspaper article Approaches to improving consistency in grading using an example from Walvoord and Anderson, page 208 Example of narrative grading --- Using learning outcomes and criteria, developmentally sequenced Chemistry

31. Questions for Group Discussion • How can you improve the consistency of grades across a department or college? • What might be meaningful alternatives to letter grades in your context?

32. Future of Grading Impact of Globalization Potential of Technology Demands of Graduate Schools and Employers Influence of learning outcomes that help ensure accountability, focus and continuity, integration of learning

33. What employers might do

34. Influence of Graduate Schools Stanford, Yale, and UC Berkeley Law Schools Eliminating letter grades Replacing with levels of achievement (ex. Honors, Pass, Restricted Credit, No credit) Reasons: to encourage students to take more challenging courses (avoid shopping around); to promote collegiality, fairness, anxiety; pedagogical advantages