MaryLou McGirr Learning Specialist TIE mmcgirr@tie.net

1. A Repair Kit for Grading15 Fixes for Broken GradesBy Ken O’ConnorOctober 5, 2012Wagner School District MaryLou McGirr Learning Specialist TIE mmcgirr@tie.net

2. Norms Revisited Listen with engagement Honor each other’s thinking, comments, and private think time Everyone has a voice during group activities Participation is expected Limit side conversation Take care of your needs Turn cell phones off or vibrate

3. 1. When you were a student, what motived you?2. How has that changed over the year(s)?

4. They were here! Lucy Atwood; latwood@tie.net Karen Taylor: ktaylor@tie.net

5. Outcomes During our time together participants will: Increase understanding of developing quality assessment tasks and questions. Develop and evaluate questions and tasks that provide students with the appropriate rigor to be successful on quarterly and CCSS assessments.

6. Outcomes During our time together participants will: Increase understanding of how grading fits into classroom assessment. Determine which of the 15 Fixes, when implemented, will cause achievement for all students. Develop standard-based grading and reporting practices.

7. What do these terms mean? • Marks and scores - formative • The number (or letter) “score” given to any students test or performance – individual basis • 7/10 • 4, 3, 2, 1 • Grades - summative • The number (or letter) reported at the end of a period of time as a summary statement of student performance • A, B, C, D, F • 91, 78, 61, 57, 42 • 4, 3, 2, 1 • Basic, Proficient, Exemplary

8. What are your current grading thoughts and practices? • Appendix A Rubric - Make or highlight the words and phrases in the rubric that reflect your current practice. • Appendix B Survey – Complete the survey. • Put both documents aside for later use.

9. What are your questions? • Write down the questions you have about any aspect of grading. • Put the questions aside and we will come back to this later.

10. What is the Essential Question? • How confident are you that the grades students get in your school are: • Accurate - decisions • Consistent – same ideas • Meaningful – defines achievement • Supportive of learning – culture of learning, not points • If grades do not meet these 4 conditions of quality they are “broken”.

11. What are our believes and practices around fairness? • Patterson said, “Fair does mean equal; yet, when it comes to grading, we insist that it does.” • Fairness is about equal opportunities, not uniformity. • If students are different, treating them the same isn’t fair.

12. What are the reasons we do standards-based grading and reporting? • Mandate • – clear focus on CIAGR to create a system • Supports learning • a clear understanding of the standards allows us to communicate to and support students • Improves communication • specific information • Consistency/Fairness • comes from agreed upon procedures

13. Reasons: SMARTER BALANCED Tasks • Tasks will be presented as: • selected response, • short constructed response, • extended constructed response, • technology enhanced, and • performance tasks

14. What are the purposes for grading? • The primary purpose is to communicate with students and parents about students achievement. 2. Providing teachers with information for instructional purposes. 3. Select, identify or group students. 4. Provide incentives to learn. 5. Evaluate the effectiveness of instructional programs. • Guskey, Thomas R.

15. What are the key ideas to think about? • Grading is not essential for learning. • Grading is complicated. • Grading is subjective/emotional. • Grading is inescapable. • There is not much “pure” research on grading practices. • No single best grading practice; emerging consensus about best practice. (Fixes) • Faulty grading damages students and teachers.

16. Form trios • High School • English • Math • Science • Social Studies/Sped • Business, Art, Dakota Language • Music, Ag, FACS • Spanish, JAG • Middle School

17. What do we know about the 15 Fixes?Process: Task: To learn about the assigned Fix, work with one or two colleagues to choose a method to best teach about the Fix, and finally teach everyone here so informed decisions can be made. Do not advocate for or against – simply teach us! Please create a physical document that can be posted so advocates have information to reference. (chart paper)

18. What do we know about the 15 Fixes?Process: • Form 15 Expert Pairs or Trios. • Read the assigned Fix silently. • As you are reading refer to the Teach US worksheet for elements to include in your lesson.

19. Here are the elements to include in your lesson/presentation at a minimum: • Grades are broken when …….. • The Fix is …….. • What are the reasons FOR or BENEFITS of implementing the Fix? • How would implementing this Fix support student achievement? • What might get in the way of implementing the Fix? • How should students be involved? • What stories support the Fix (vignettes)? • What examples help clarify the Fix? • Does there need to be a policy or a policy change to implement this Fix?

20. Stretch, think and share

21. Teach us!

22. How do we sum it up? • To evaluate or judge is to reach: “a sensible conclusion that is consistent with both evidence and common sense” Robert Linn, CRESST

23. Which Fixes apply to conditions of quality? • Consistent Fix 8 • Accurate Fixes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14 • Meaningful Fix 7 • Supportive of learning Fixes 13, 14 15

24. How do we sum it up? • Grades should come from: A Body of + evidence Performance + Standards Fixes For example: professional judgment NOT just number crunching

25. What are you thinking now? • Look at the Appendix Rubric for Grading Practices and the Appendix B Survey. • Self-assess your grading practices now in the same manner you did when we began this afternoon. • What has changed on each instrument? • What does that mean for your classroom practice? • What will be different?

26. How might you answer your initial questions? • What new questions have arisen? • How do your new questions and responses to old questions compare with the other people in your group?

27. Prioritizing Process We will follow the steps; we won’t go back. Listen to the rules first: • Which Fix do you want the group to consider for evaluation? • Just tell us, advocate later. • What clarification do you need about any of the Fixes? • Each person may advocate for one Fix. Keep it positive…. “I advocate for this Fix because….”

28. Prioritizing Process 4. You will vote using the Rule of Thirds. • The number of Fixes divided by three plus one. 5. You get _____ votes. • You can only vote for a Fix once. 6. Vote.

29. Next steps • All grade levels collaborate to choose Fixes to implement. • Prepare an action plan to get started. • Start with a goal.

30. What do you do before we meet January 18? • Have conversations with colleagues about the Fixes which received the most votes. • How would implementing these fixes in Wagner School District affect our students’ achievement? • What steps would I have to take in order to implement these Fixes?