Grades: Inflation, Deflation, Consternation

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GradesInflation, Deflation, Consternation

• Assigning grades is one of the most important
  things a teacher does and nothing is taken more
  personally than challenging a
• teachers grading
• practices.
• So, as a teacher, you
• need to develop finesse
• in grading and in
• communicating your
• grading scheme so you
• emerge as professional
• and fair to both students and parents.

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Grading and Reporting Topics

• Purposes of Grades
• Rationales for Assigning Grades
• Coding Systems
• Combining Information
• Grades for Nonacademic Areas
• Report Cards
• Reporting to Parents
• Legal Considerations

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Primary Purpose of Grades

• Officially - The primary purpose of . . grades .
  . . (is) to communicate student achievement to
  students, parents, school administrators,
  post-secondary institutions and employers. -
  from Bailey, J. and McTighe, J., Reporting
  Achievement at the Secondary School Level What
  and How?, in Thomas R. Guskey, (Ed.)
  Communicating Student Learning ASCD Yearbook
  1996, ASCD, Alexandria, VA, 1996
• Some would argue that grades also serve to
  motivate student learning. We will discuss that
  later. For now, lets look at the various
  grading approaches and systems currently in vogue.

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Assessment Concepts in the Grading Process

• Assessment starts with the STANDARD.
• Reliability - Accuracy and Consistency
• Validity - Meaningfulness and Appropriateness
• Formative Assessment - Data collected from
  pre-assessments, homework, practice, and learning
  tasks to determine future instruction. Data
  collected here is not put in grade book.
• Summative Assessment - Data collected to
  determine level of mastery. It is data collected
  here that is used in the grading system.

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Steps in Grading Process
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The Combined and Translated Process

• This part is not as obvious as you might think.
  The way you choose to combine/translate separate
  scores into one grade is one of the most
  important decisions you will make. You may
  literally hold the students future in your hands
  based on your decisions.

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Rationales for Assigning Grades

• Relative to fixed standard
• Pro focus on achievement (e.g., 90) often
  mandated by state or by school district policy
• Con the standard is really an opinion
• Relative to group performance
• Pro real world orientation always clear to
  determine
• Con grade depends on others, who is the
  relevant group
• Relative to ability, effort, or as a personal
  improvement
• Pro focus is on the student often used by
  teachers who care about their students
• Con not recommend by experts as these make any
  conclusions about learning murky to others

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So . . .Which Grading Practice Will You Follow?

• . . . (grading) practices are not the result of
  careful thought or sound evidence, . . . rather,
  they are used because teachers experienced these
  practices as students and, having little training
  or experience with other options, continue their
  use. - Guskey, Thomas R. (Editor), Communicating
  Student Learning The 1996 ASCD Yearbook, ASCD,
  Alexandria, VA, 1996, 20
• DENIAL AINT JUST A RIVER IN EGYPT. MARK TWAIN
• But Lets Forge Ahead Anyway . . .

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Coding Systems The Actual Grades

• Optional coding systems
• Letter grades
• Percentage grades
• Checklists
• Narrative reports
• BUT . . . The letter grade is the most widely
  used coding system. It is even used even used in
  the general culture (A list actors, A number
  1 used car, etc.). So lets focus here.

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Grades for Nonacademic Areas . . . Sample Areas
and Coding Systems
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Examples of . . .Different Grading Systems

• Five-point system - Most high schools a
  five-point system. Numerical values are applied
  to grades as follows
• A 4, B 3, C 2, D 1, F0
• Thirteen-point system - A few high schools in the
  United States use a thirteen-point system.
  Numerical values are applied to grades as
  follows
• A 4.33, A 4.0, A- 3.57, B 3.33, B
  3.0, B- 2.67, C 2.33,
• C 2.0, C- 1.67, D 1.33, D 1,0 D- .67,
  F 0.0
• Grade-rationing system Grade-rationing is a
  euphemism for rank-based grading and is popular
  approach among some educators. The arguments for
  grade-rationing are that grade inflation
  represents a serious problem in education, that
  can only be counteracted by the enforcement of
  rank-based standards. (see next slide)

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Some say grading should model the real world . .
.Leadership! Competition!

• Since many large companies and corporations used
  rank-based evaluation measures (referred to as
  rank-and-yank or up-or-out' approaches to
  evaluations), ranked-based grading prepares
  students for the real world situation. Students
  learn to compete academically with peers who will
  later be their competitors in the job market.
• A vitality curve is a leadership construct,
  assigning credit with certain proportions of the
  production to proportions of a producing
  population. For example, there is an often cited
  "20/80 rule or the Law of the Vital Few. This
  law posits that the top 20 of criminals commit
  80 of the crimes, the top 20 of academics
  produce 80 of useful results, and so on. The
  concept of a "vitality curve" has been used to
  justify the "rank-and-yank" system of performance
  management, whereby the bottom ranking 10 of
  workers are fired at each evaluation.

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But others have a different real world model . .
.Leadership! Competition!

• Rank-based performance evaluations (in education
  and employment) foster cutthroat and unethical
  behavior.
• Rank-and-yank contrasts with the management
  philosophies of W. Edwards Deming. Demings
  influence in Japan has been credited with Japan's
  world leadership in many industries, particularly
  the automotive industry. While rank-and-yank
  puts success or failure of the organization on
  the shoulders of the individual worker, Deming
  stresses the need to understand organizational
  performance as fundamentally a function of the
  corporate systems and processes created by
  management. Workers need to feel valued,
  supported and part of a team doing important
  work. He sees so-called performance
  evaluation, annual review of performance, and
  merit-based evaluation as misguided and
  destructive. (see next slide)

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William Edwards Deming(1900-1993)

• "The worker is not the problem. The problem is at
  the top! Management!
• It is managements job to direct the efforts of
  all components toward the aim of the system.
  Everyone must understand the damage and loss to
  the whole organization from a team that seeks to
  become a selfish, independent, profit centre.
• Deming taught top management how to improve
  design, service, product quality, testing and
  sales through various methods, including the
  application of statistical methods.

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By the way . . .More on Grade Inflation

• Grade inflation is not new. Consider the
  following quote about lax standards from a
  Harvard University report in 1894
• "Grades A and B are sometimes given too readily .
  . . insincere students gain passable grades by
  sham work."

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Sample Report Card . . . Using percentages with
verbal descriptors nonacademic grades
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Another Sample Report Card. . . Using letter
grades and verbal descriptors nonacademic grades
unreported
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Weighted GPAbecause . . . all courses are not
equal

• Some high schools, to reflect the varying skill
  required for different level courses and to
  discourage students from selecting easy 'A's,
  will give higher numerical grades for difficult
  courses, often referred to as a weighted GPA. For
  example, two common conversion systems used in
  honors and advanced placement courses are
• A 5 or 4.6
• B 4 or 3.5
• C 3 or 2.1
• D 1
• F 0
• Another policy commonly used by 4.0-scale schools
  is to mimic the eleven-point weighted scale (see
  below) by adding a .33 (one third of a letter
  grade) to an honors or advanced placement class.
  (For example, a B in a regular class would be a
  3.0, but in an honors or AP class it would become
  a B, or 3.33).

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Communicating Grades and Scores to Parents /
Guardians. . . Face to Face, Part I.

• BEFORE THE SHOW BEGINS
• Be organized. Have a folder containing the
  students grades, examples of work, standardized
  test scores, behavior notes.
• Know this material. Know the grading system
  know how to read the standardized score report
  know the nature of norm group(s) used.
• Know the potential incongruence among the grades,
  test scores and behavior evidence found in the
  folder and be ready to discuss them.
• Have an agenda. Example Point out strengths
  (grades test scores), suggest areas for
  improvement (grades test scores, comment on
  behavior (never begin with behavior especially
  if it is a concern), solicit questions, close
  with a look to the future.

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Communicating Grades and Scores to Parents /
Guardians. . . Face to Face. Part II.

• SHOWTIME
• Be honest. Dont sugarcoat. Dont go beyond
  your competence in answering a question. Say you
  will get back to them.
• Be professional. Dont dismiss or prejudge any
  result as unimportant. Any result is important
  to the parent.
• Be calm. Dont be surprised if your assessment
  differs from the parents students may be behave
  differently at home and in the classroom.
• Be geared up with specific suggestions for the
  parents on how they might help improve the
  performance of their student.
• Be confidential. Do not refer to any other
  students performance.
• Be ready. Know who to call if you encounter an
  obnoxious parent .
• Be upbeat. Close on a vision to a positive
  future.

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Marcel Proust (1871-1922)

• The real voyage of discovery consists not of
  seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
• Proust suffered from asthma beginning at age 9.
  In that era the illness was considered a
  nervous disorder associated with upper class
  individuals in sedentary employment.

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A New View . . . .From Formative Assessment to
Assessment FOR Learning A Path to Success in
Standards-Based Schools Rick Stiggins

• summative assessment . . . has referred to tests
  administered after learning is supposed to have
  occurred to determine whether it did.
• (assessment OF learning)
• formative assessment . . . has been the label
  used for assessments conducted during learning to
  promote, not merely judge or grade, student
  success.
• (assessment FOR learning)

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A New View continued . . . .From Black,
Harrison, Lee, Marshall and Wiliam, Working
Inside the Black Box, PHI DELTA KAPPAN,
September 2004 15

• Some have argued that formative and summative
  assessments are so different in their purpose
  that they must be kept apart . . . However, it is
  unrealistic to expect teachers and students to
  practice such separation, so the challenge is to
  achieve a more positive relationship between the
  two.

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Ongoing Assessments

• The ongoing interplay between assessment and
  instruction, so common in the arts and athletics,
  is also evident in classrooms using practices
  such as nongraded quizzes and practice tests, the
  writing process, formative performance tasks,
  review of drafts and peer response groups. The
  teachers in such classrooms recognize that
  ongoing assessments provide feedback that
  enhances instruction and guides student
  revision.
• Jay McTighe, What Happens Between Assessments,
  Educational Leadership, Dec. 96-Jan. 97, 11

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Myths from Myron Dueck

• Fear of failure is a strong motivation to do
  well.
• . . . only motivates the students already not
  failing!
• Giving students a second chance is soft.
• . . . life is full of do-overs
• The punishment paradigm keeps students going.
• . . . more likely to quit!
• Students who are unsuccessful didnt try.
• . . . cant do vs. wont do
• Everything we do in our classrooms/schools should
  build confidence and reduce anxiety, stress, and
  confusion.

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Stop the following practices . . .from O
Connor, K. 2007. A Repair Kit for Grading 15
Fixes for Broken Grades

• Grading homework.
• Dont use information from practices to determine
  grades. Perhaps your directions were unclear.
  Feedback (immediate) matters and this occurs when
  you see the homework. Also, whose work are you
  seeing? Grade the games, not the practices.
• Reducing scores for late work.
• Some students predictably struggle with
  deadlines. Deadlines keep students organized.
  Right/Late vs. Wrong/On-Time. Behavior vs.
  Learning
• Using 0 for work not handed in.
• Assigning a 0 for work not yet handed in is
  arbitrary and mathematically invalid. Zeros
  reflect what a student has not done, not what a
  student knows.

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The Threat of a Zero (from Thomas Gusky, 0
Alternatives, Principal Leadership, October
2004 5, 2)

• The threat of a zero and the resulting low
  grade allows teachers to impose their will on
  students who might otherwise be indifferent to a
  teachers demand.
• Some teachers recognize that assigning zeros
  punishes students academically for behavioral
  infractions nevertheless, most believe that such
  punishment is justified and deserved.

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Averaging Grades, rethought

• Did you hear about the statistician who drowned
  while wading across a river with an average depth
  of three feet?
• The key question is, What information provides
  the most accurate depiction of students learning
  at this time? In nearly all cases, the answer
  is the most current information. If students
  demonstrate that past assessment information no
  longer accurately reflects their learning, that
  information must be dropped and replaced by the
  new information. Continuing to rely on past
  assessment data miscommunicates students
  learning. - Guskey, Thomas R. (Editor),
  Communicating Student Learning The 1996 ASCD
  Yearbook, ASCD, Alexandria, VA, 1996, 21

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More on averaging grades

• . . . final grades should never be determined
  by simply averaging the grades from several
  grading periods (e.g., adding the grades from
  terms one through three and dividing by three).
  (exception - discrete standards/content) -
  OConnor, K., How to Grade for Learning Linking
  Grades to Standards, Second Edition, Corwin,
  2002, 135
• Educators must abandon the average, or
  arithmetic mean, as the predominant measurement
  of student achievement. - Reeves, D., Standards
  are Not Enough Essential Transformations for
  School Success, NASSP Bulletin, Dec. 2000, 10

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And more on combining grades . . .

• Effect of Variability on Weights
• The most variable element will have greatest
  weight in determining the grade, not the element
  with the highest numerical value.
• Regression to mean
• The composite formed by adding grades together
  will show less variability than the grade ranges
  of the subscores used to create it.

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Legal Considerations

• It is your responsibility to keep accurate
  records. Issues hard copy and electronic grade
  books security.
• LEGISLATION - Family Educational Rights and
  Privacy Act (FERPA) Two main points
• Parents have a right to see grading and test
  score information for their children.
• Schools may not reveal grades and scores to a
  third part without the individuals consent.
• COURTS - Two main points
• Deference is given to the educators judgment, as
  long as
• Grades are assigned in an even-handed, rational
  manner.
• SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION - a surprise, perhaps
• Final authority for grades is the school
  administration. In rare circumstances an
  administrator may change a grade and has the
  legal responsible to do so.

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Practical Advice

1. First, have a reasonable and fair assessment
   plan.
2. Check for school policies on grading if school
   has policy, study it carefully.
3. Learn to use an electronic spreadsheet or
   purchase a Teacher Gradebook program (some
   schools have a centralized system).
4. Consider creatively combining formative and
   summative assessment.
5. Review suggestions for parent-teacher conference.
6. Use various sources to provide feedback to
   parents and to solicit their help.