Grading Practices That Must Go

The MYABC Conference in Penticton was the first in middle school conferences I have attended and I hope it won't be the only one. One of the workshops I went to was so dynamic and inspirational that I couldn't stop raving about it; the conversation carried on even to the next day. I'm sure there will be more talk to come because my colleagues who attended the same workshop were awed by it, too.

The title of the workshop, "Middle/High School Grading in the 21st Century: Developing Staff Fluency, Capacity, and Willingness" didn't seem too exciting. Most workshops about assessment are usually very dry. However, the message I got out of this workshop was powerful and potentially controversial. In a nutshell, the presenters challenged the current grading practices. The presenters were excellent speakers and I could tell they were very passionate about what they were teaching us.

I can't share everything for that will take over two hours to explain, but let me give you, especially the teachers, a snippet of what changes were proposed. For example, reducing scores for late assignments is a practice done for a number of years. I'm not sure where the rule of "10% off for each day the assignment is late" came from, but it doesn't make sense and in my own teaching practices, I have abolished this way of marking. Let's just say a student handed in a paragraph that met all expectations and if he handed it in on time, he would've gotten 5 out of 5. Unfortunately, he handed it in 3 days late, for whatever reason. If I deducted one mark off for each day, then this student would've failed that assignment despite having demonstrated that he understood the properties and style of that paragraph.

Here's another grading practice that must go: assigning a "0" for work not handed in. Here is a list of a student's assignments and her scores:

73%, 69%, 54%, 52%

On average, the student receives a 62% for her four assignments. Let's say I assign one more assignment this term and she neglects to hand it in. The zero I give her will bring her down to 49.6% -- a fail! But, what does that tell me? Zeros can't tell me what she knows. Education is about learning, but this zero isn't giving me a proper assessment on her knowledge and ability. Here's my case in point: suppose I attempt to shoot a basketball into the net ten times in a row. In the first day, I miss the rim every time, so my score is 0. The next day, I miss the backboard and I get another 0. With more practice, however, I improve. Here's my score in ten days:

0, 0, 0, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 10, 10

Did I improve? YES! Have I learned to shoot a basketball? YES! But, mathematically, I FAILED! This also brings another practice into question, which is to grade homework. Homework should be considered as practice. In my basketball example, my practices helped me gain confidence and improve on my technique, so ultimately, I have achieved my goal of shooting a basketball. If I graded my practice shots the same way I grade homework, I would've been so discouraged by the third day that I would've just given up. Should I be surprised that my at-risk students stop caring about their schoolwork? And if my student is showing zeros by the third day, that should be a signal to me that I have to communicate with this student and support my student pro-actively to get her assignments in on time.

Earlier, I said that the topic of changing grading practices can become controversial. The reason is because it changes the way teachers make assessments. The obstacle for me in particular? I'm a Student Services Teacher who supports students in the classroom and some classroom teachers I collaborate with are pretty stubborn in their ways. I've had a few head-butting discussions about student support with a few teachers and even with a few teaching assistants that just get me frustrated. The presenters have fully prepared us for the kinds of questions that other colleagues will ask because one of the presenters is a History 12 classroom teacher who has piloted this project for the last two years and he has been challenged in the most unexpected, but not surprisingly, ways. Thankfully, my administrators attended this same workshop and they are 100% in support of this change in grading practices. It will be interesting to see what the reactions will be to this change, whenever that happens.