Currently Grades Are Inherently Unfair

If grades matter as much as many say, we need to make reforms.

I’m the proud father of identical twins. Essentially, they possess similar academic and non-cognitive skills.  Yet, their high school experiences were dramatically different, as were their GPAs.

The discrepancies came down to one, randomly assigned variable—their teachers.

In science class one twin’s teacher weighted homework at 40%, while the other twin’s teacher didn’t calculate homework. In another subject, one teacher allowed extra credit while the other didn’t. Similar subject exams ranged from 10% to 20%. Of course, these differences are only the tip of the iceberg.

Dinner conversations frequently centered on such disparities. “I wish I was allowed to turn in extra credit.” “You’re so lucky to have her. She’s so much easier.” “I’ve worked so much harder, but I’ve only got a B and you have an A.”

Such disparities shouldn’t exist.

By no stretch of the imagination am I fan of more regulation, and since grades are here to stay, we need to make significant grade reforms. Here’s a simple 3-step policy:

1.     Each school should collaboratively develop its own grading policies. The policy should include what goes into a grade and how grades are calculated. As the policy is formulated ask the following questions:

·      What can and cannot be included in grades?

·      How do we ensure that grades indicate student understanding?

·      Will extra credit be allowed?

·      Will redos/retakes be permitted? If so, how will they be computed?

2.     Next teachers should meet in grade-level or subject-specific teams. Each team should then describe what they want their students to know and how this will be measured (performance indicators)

3.     Teachers articulate their grading policy to students and parents.

The above reforms will take time and energy, but effective grading policies require deliberate planning.  Reforms will enable grades to accurately reflect what students have learned and are able to do.

If we must have grades, we should strive to ensure that they indicate the same level of learning in classrooms across the spectrum.

The Domino Effect of Education Standardization

Cross posted at Brilliant or Insane 
 
Fourteen years ago, after five wonderful years as a teacher, everything imploded during the sixth year. The same administrators, who once encouraged risk-taking and personal growth, became dictatorial and over-controlling. Instead of working together, we now competed and fought for control.

Why the sudden deterioration? Standards of Learning (Virginia’s standards).

I abandoned the sinking ship. I wasn’t alone. Seven other teachers (a significant number as this was a very small school) jumped to other jobs. One of the other departing teachers expressed the feelings of all of us, “I feel like I’m just a cog in the machine. Easily replaceable.”

In the blink of an eye, everything changed with the new standards. Administrators became manipulative and domineering. Teacher autonomy went out the window. We were told, “If it’s not mentioned in the Standard of Learning Framework, you won’t be teaching it.”

When observing classes, administrators sat with the standards in hand. I got chastised for talking about Winston Churchill and the Battle of Britain in my World History class (remarkably at the time this wasn’t included in the framework, but it has since been added).  A peer was raked over the coals at a School Board Meeting for having poor SOL scores (Virginia’s End of Course Tests) despite his students scoring well above the state average.

Sadly, my experiences are not unique. Today far too many teachers feel the same way I did 14 years ago.

Essentially one knee-jerk reaction led to another in a domino falling-like series of transgressions. NCLB led state governments to increase “accountability.” Pressured school districts exerted control on school administrators who passed it on to the teachers. Constantly being reminded, “It’s your job to make sure your students perform to these high standards,” led teachers to increase their control over students. Reluctantly, we taught to the test.  With autonomy destroyed, many educators’ enthusiasm and excitement for teaching waned. Lectures became commonplace. Teachers bypassed labs and projects that engaged students and instead dispensed review worksheets to drill in the facts.

The pressure to produce results undermined teachers. The burden of standardized test results backfired as student learning suffered. Teachers became more controlling despite knowing that students need the opposite—teachers who nurture, support and engage students.

Fortunately, many states, including Virginia, are looking at loosening the standardization grip. Reform can’t come soon enough.

The Game of School

This blog entry was cross-posted at Brilliant or Insane

“What do I have to do to earn an A?”

If you’re an experienced teacher, you’ve been asked the above question too many times to count. We need not look any further to provide definitive proof that our archaic grading system has failed our students.

Instead of being motivated to learn, students enter our classrooms motivated solely by grades. The good students have learned to play the game. They turn their work in on time, answer a couple of questions in class, fulfill the rubric’s requirements, and occasionally—when necessary—they complete extra credit to ensure they’ve accrued the necessary points.

The end of the marking period arrives and the student has “earned” an A. At an awards ceremony, the student receives an Honor Roll Certificate; her name is published in the school newsletter and maybe even in the local paper.  Perhaps, she even receives a certificate for a free pizza from the local pizza parlor. Her parents proudly display their “My Child is an Honor Roll Student at XYZ Middle School.” So while seemingly, everyone wins, nothing could be further from the truth.

Our current “if-then” grading system rewards students for compliance, instead of learning. With the focus on outcomes, students will take the shortest and easiest path to the A, including cheating. Such a system takes away from the love of learning and reinforces superficial learning, instead of true understanding.

By ditching our current grading system in favor of the SE2R Approach or another Standards-Based Learning system, students will take control of their learning. As Daniel Pink suggests in Drive, “increasing student autonomy promotes greater conceptual understanding, better grades, and enhanced persistence at school and in sporting activities, higher productivity, less burnout, and greater levels of psychological well-being.”

Ridding our schools of our antiquated grading system won’t be easy, but doing so will increase student learning and their love of learning.

Taking the Grades Out of Assessments

Assessment

For many, the word “assessment” conjures up thoughts about all that’s wrong with education: standardized testing, final exams, grades, etc.  

But an effective assessment strategy actually eliminates grades. A 1991 study by Masaharu Kage revealed grading quizzes lowered students’ intrinsic motivation and led to poorer learning when compared to self-monitored, non-evaluative quizzes. Other studies have similar results.

Because assessments should be part of the learning process, it’s important to involve students in the assessment process. Increasing student involvement in the assessment process and detaching grades from them increases learning.

Here’s a simple strategy that involves students in the assessment process, creating a sense of ownership and increasing their commitment to learning.

1.     Students complete a formative assessment. This can be a quiz, classwork, homework, etc.

2.     After completing the assessment, students turn their work into the teacher. If you’re concerned about student confidentiality, have students use random IDs instead of their names.

3.     Working individually, in groups, or as a class, students work solve the assessment. Students create a separate “answer key.” While students work, the teacher provides assistance, informally assesses performance and determines whether re-teaching will be necessary.

4.     Students return the corrected work to their teacher who then passes it back to the original student.  This step allows the teacher to further measure student understanding.

5.     Students keep a copy of their “answer key” and use that to double-check their peer’s feedback.

By working with the students through the entire process, the teacher uses the assessment as a source of information and, if necessary, can provide high-quality corrective re-teaching. Students receive instant, specific and descriptive feedback without the stigma attached to grades.  Working together, the teacher and the students make choices about what to focus on next in their learning.  

With the emphasis on learning and mastery, students will be more intrinsically motivated and more willing to take risks to expand their learning.

References

Kage, M. The effects of evaluation on intrinsic motivation. Paper presented at the meetings of the Japan Association of Education Psychology, Joetsu, Japan. 

This is blog was cross-posted on Brilliant or Insane as part of Eliminating Grades Series.