GRADE

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Grade, Grading, and Grading Methods
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GRADE

• Grades are the reflection of the students
  performance during the reporting period. Most of
  the institutions/ universities of the world use
  letters as grades. Grades are intended mainly to
  communicate the achievement status of students.
  The grade, then, symbolizes the extent to which a
  student has attained the important instructional
  goals of the reporting period for which the grade
  is assigned.
• 
  
• (cont)
  

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This is the burning issue through out the world
that whether the grades reflect the true
performance of the students? Erickson and
Strommer (1991) point out, grade depends a great
deal on values, assumptions, and educational
philosophy. Therefore grades are symbolic
representation of whole teaching-learning/instruct
ional model. It can be visualize as
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Learning Process

Feedback Instructional Model
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Functions of Grade

• Scriven (1974) has identified at least six
  functions of grading
• To describe unambiguously the worth, merit, or
  value of the work accomplished
• To improve the capacity of students to identify
  good work, that is, to improve their
  self-evaluation or discrimination skills with
  respect to work submitted
• To stimulate and encourage good work by students
• To communicate the teacher's judgment of the
  student's progress
• To inform the teacher about what students have
  and haven't learned
• To select people for rewards or continued
  education

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Components of Grades

• In our scenario, mostly, the achievement tests
  are the only component of the academic grades but
  actually the grades should reflect what students
  know and is able to do. The academic grade may
  include the following
• Class Assignments/Homework
• Discussion/Problem Solving
• Group Work
• Participation/Attendance
• Performance Assessment/Projects
• Performance Standards
• Portfolios
• Quizzes/Tests
• Student Self-evaluation
• Teacher Observation

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Grading
The process of assigning grades to students
achievements is called grading. Assigning grades
is one of the most difficult tasks that
institutions and teachers face in teaching.
Teachers have to combine a variety of contrasting
elements of student performance into a single
course grade verbal skills, ability to memorize,
retention of factual information, ability to
synthesize material, ability to make reasoned
judgments about the material, etc.
( cont)
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• This process is a high stakes outcome Few
  teachers are confident that they can assess
  students achievement accurately and
  consistently, and the effectiveness of any
  grading system is highly dependent upon the
  accuracy of the tests on which it is based.
  However, there are some guidelines that will help
  teacher to devise a fair and reasonably accurate
  system of grading.

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Developing a Grading Philosophy

• The grading philosophy may be necessary to answer
  the following
• What meaning should each grade symbol carry?
• What elements of performance should be
  incorporated in a grade?
• How should grades in a class be distributed?
• How should components of the grade be combined?
• What method should be used to assign grades?
• What other factors can influence the philosophy
  of grading?

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Philosophies of Grading

• Performance Comparison
• Grades are indicators of relative knowledge
  and skill that is, a students performance
  can and should be compared to the performance of
  other students in that course. The standard to be
  used for the grade is the mean or average score
  of the class on a test, paper, or project.
• Expectation Based Performance
• Grades are based on preset expectations or
  criteria. In theory, every student in the course
  could get an A if each of them met the preset
  expectations. The grades are usually expressed as
  the percentage of success achieved (e.g., 90 and
  above is an A, 80-90 is a A, 7080 is a B, 60
  - 70 B, 50- 60 is C, 45-50 is D and 40-45 is
  E and Below 40 is F).

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• Poor Performance Reflected in Grades
• Students come into the course with an A, and it
  is theirs to lose through poor performance or
  absence, late papers, etc. With this philosophy
  the teacher takes away points, rather than adding
  them.
• Grades as per Requirement
• Grades are subjective assessments of how a
  student is performing according to his/her
  potential. Students who plan to major in a
  subject should be graded harder than a student
  just taking a course out of general interest.
• Generally the first two philosophies are in use
  for assigning grades to the students in our
  country

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Elements of a Grading System

• A good grading system must meet following three
  criteria
• It should accurately reflect differences in
  student performance
• It should be clear to students so they can chart
  their own progress
• It should be fair.

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Grading Models

• Criterion Referenced Model
• This model's framework is based on a curriculum,
  course, or lesson. By establishing absolute
  standards, grades are assigned by comparing a
  learner's performance to a set of standards.
  Learners meeting the learning targets receive
  higher grades than those learners not meeting the
  targets. This method presumes the learning
  targets are appropriately designed for the
  particular learner population and the instructor
  is focusing instruction on the learning targets.

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• Norm Referenced Model
• This model's framework is based on a comparison
  of among learners. Establishing relative
  standards means making comparisons that are
  relative to the group such that a learner's
  performance is compared to others in the group.
• Self Referenced Model
• The growth-based grading framework is based on
  comparing a learner's performance with the
  instructor's perceptions of the learner's
  ability. Learners performing above the level of

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• performance that the instructor perceives
  them capable receive higher grades than those
  learners the instructor perceives as having not
  made as much of an improvement. Thus, a learner
  who has made more improvement may receive a
  higher grade than another learner regardless of
  their absolute levels of attainment.

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Grading Methods Some Absolute Grading Methods
Absolute grading methods produce grades that
independent of the particular method that
generated the grades. For example, unless they
are accompanied by a description of the
performance standards or the content domains that
have been studied, the meaning of an absolute
grade is difficult to understand. Furthermore, no
criterion-referenced grading method produces
grades that are strictly absolute in meaning.
Such grades are based on performance standards
that nearly always have normative basis.
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Fixed Percent Scale

• This method uses fixed ranges of percent-correct
  scores as the basis for assigning grades to the
  component of a final grade. A grading scale used
  by most of the institutions/universities is the
  like following 93-100 A, 85-92B, 78-84C,
  etc. These ranges are fixed at the beginning of
  the reporting period and are applied to the
  scores from each grading component -- written
  tests, demonstrations, papers and performance
  assessments. Component grades are then weighted
  and averaged to get the final grade.
• Unfortunately, a percent score will be
  meaningless unless the domain of tasks,
  behaviors, or knowledge upon which the assessment
  was based is defined explicitly.

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Total Point Method

• When teachers accumulate points earned by
  students throughout a reporting period and then
  assigns grades to the point total at the end of
  the period this method is known as total point
  method. First the teacher decides which
  components will figure into the final grade and
  what the maximum point value of each component
  will be. (This is done before tests are developed
  and before the scoring criteria for projects are
  established). That is teacher formulate the
  procedure of grading before the start of the
  program.

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Content Based Method

• This method involves assigning a grade to each
  component and then weighting the separate grades
  to obtain the final one. The teacher develops
  brief descriptions of the achievement levels
  (standards) associated with each grading symbol.
  These standards for "A work" and "B work" and so
  on are then used to establish the grade cutoff
  scores for every component. Compared to the fixed
  percent scale method, which keeps cutoff scores
  constant for all components, this method keeps
  the performance standards for a grade constant
  but lets the cutoff scores change.

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Some Relative Grading Methods

• Grading on the Curve The curve referred to in
  the name of this method is the normal bell-shaped
  curve that is often used to describe the
  achievements of individuals in a large
  heterogeneous group. The idea behind this method
  is that the grades in a class should follow a
  normal distribution, or one nearly like it. Under
  this assumption, the teacher determines the
  percentage of students who should be assigned
  each grade symbol so that the distribution is
  normal in appearance.

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Distribution Gap Method When the composite
scores of a class are ranked from high to low,
there will usually be several short intervals in
the score range where no student actually scored.
These are gaps. This method of grade assignment
involves finding the gaps in the distribution and
drawing grade cutoffs at those places. For
example, if the highest composite scores in a
class was 211, 209, 209, 205, 197, 196... then
the teacher might use the gap between 205 and 197
to separate the A and B grades. The gap between
211 and 209 is too small and might produce too
few A grades. The one between 209 and 205 might
be large enough, but 205 seem more like 209 than
197.
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• Standard Deviation Method This relative method
  is the most complicated computationally, but is
  also is the fairest in producing grades
  objectively. It uses the standard deviation, a
  statistic that tells the average number of points
  by which the scores of students differ from their
  class average. It is a number that describes the
  dispersion, variability, or spread of scores
  around the average score. In this method, the
  standard deviation is used like a ruler to
  identify grade cutoff points.

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Conclusion

• In many educational systems there is a shift to
  criterion-referenced grading, not totally, but
  this form is becoming more popular. Popham (2002)
  states that classroom assessments should always
  be criterion-referenced rather than
  norm-referenced. The method of standard
  deviation is good as compared to all other
  methods discussed here in the paper but teacher
  have to analyze the situation before using any
  method.

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References

• Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought
  and action A social cognitive theory. Englewood
  Cliffs, N.J. Prentice-Hall.
• Ebel, R. L. (1979). Essentials of educational
  measurement (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ
  Prentice Hall.
• Nitko, A. J. (2001). Educational assessment of
  students (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ
  Prentice Hall.
• Davis, B. G., Wood, L., and Wilson, R. The ABCs
  of Teaching Excellence.Berkeley Office of
  Educational Development, University of
  California, 1983.
• Eble, K. E. The Craft of Teaching. (2nd ed.) San
  Francisco Jossey-Bass, 1988.
• Erickson, B. L., and Strommer, D. W. Teaching
  College Freshmen. San Francisco Jossey-Bass,
  1991.
• Scriven, M. "Evaluation of Students." Unpublished
  manuscript, 1974.
• Oosterhof, A.C. (1987). Obtaining intended
  weights when combining students' scores.
  Educational Measurement Issues and Practice,
  6(4), 29-37.
• Center for Teaching and Learning Services. (2003)
  Grading systems. Retrieved November 30, 2004,
  from http//www.teaching.umn.edu
• Ebel, R.L. (1979). Essentials of educational
  measurement (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ
  Prentice Hall.
• Martuza, V.R. (1977). Applying norm-referenced
  and criterion referenced measure in education.
  Boston MA Allyn and Bacon, Inc.
• Nitko, A.J. (2001). Educational assessment of
  students (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ
  Prentice Hall.
• Popham, W.J. (2002). Classroom assessment What
  teachers need to know? Boston, MA Allyn and
  Bacon, Inc.

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THANKS
MUHAMMAD AZEEM MUHAMMAD TANVEER AFZAL UNIVERSITY
OF EDUCATION LAHORE