The Grading Debate

The Grading Debate:  Accuracy, Fairness, Specificity

The mathematical system of grading has never been my strength in assessing students.  My colleagues and friends will agree that numbers are not my thing.  So, when I read the statement from chapter 3, “Teachers defend the accuracy of a grade because the final result conforms to the mathematical system that they have created, but this sort of numerical precision creates only the illusion of accuracy. “  boy can I relate to that ILLUSION.  Reading further into that chapter Clymer and Wiliam use the analogy of grades and temperature which was more comfortable information for me to read.  Either way you look at grading as a mathematical system or weather analogy an assessment needs to be done keeping in mind that assessment is to provide feedback.  Now the challenge, is the feedback accurate, fair and specific?

Accuracy needs to be a mathematical system for logistically calculating your honor roll, scholarships, and statistics, but does it really give you the picture of what a student knows.  That is where, as teachers, we fall into that human judgment which sets us up for error.  So it’s a continuous process to be accurate with our grading process.   How do we make grading fair?  In the classroom it is hard to keep grading fair with all the different levels of assistance.  Does that one grade fairly describe the student’s knowledge? Which leads to specificity,  are we grading specific skills or effort? 

I have recently taken the step of not grading homework or very little.  When I look at fairness I feel there is too much cheating going on which rules out the fair climate. I have also implemented a rubric form of grading on classwork.  Honestly it has helped me toward my sanity of grading 100 papers at times.  Boy does my grade book look different.  Going from around 700 points a quarter to 200, Yikes!  It looks like I’m not doing anything in my class.  Does this number paint a fair picture of what does go on in my class?  Also the students are having a bit of a learning curve when it comes to viewing their daily work and test grades.  It is hard to break that stereotypical behavior of that % OR letter grade.  Does this new practice answer the question of fairness? No.  I still have students that will not even complete 5 questions in class, while others complete that and more.  Fair-who gets the 5 or who gets the 1?  Is that grading knowledge or effort?  What does that tell me?  So many questions so little time.

 To produce an accurate grade on student performance I truly believe we need to grade on a specific principle.  Pick a standard or big idea and see if that student can demonstrate that or show progress in learning the concept.    A separate grade on personal character showing effort, attitude, and behavior should also be posted too.  That is what my next goal is and where I will take my next steps, Specific feedback.  Specific feedback fits into our school wide plan of core standards and standard based grading.  But I foresee major roadblocks.  This has to be a district goal which puts all teachers on the same grading practices.  It also raises questions to honor roll, eligibility, scholarship applications, class rankings, grading scale.  This new perspective not only effects the school climate but the community as they scan the paper to see who are the brightest students of Rugby High School as the honor roll appears in bold print!