| Grades are supposed to reflect how well a student has mastered specific learning standards. Learning standards are typically posted on state websites and teachers have multiple ways of accessing the standards. Often the standards are posted on classroom websites for parents to see.
Teaching Methods Have Various Instructional Goals and Produce Varying Student Products
Specific concepts that students must learn are available for all teachers. These standards form the basis of assessment and evaluation. Teachers apply a variety of teaching techniques to help students master the standards. There should be a diversity of materials and techniques offered to students during this formative process of instruction.
Some teachers offer more activities for students than others, and the types of methods and materials vary from teacher to teacher. Clearly, some of the methods and materials are better than others and that’s OK, because variety itself improves learning. But most student products generated in class are reflective of the process of learning, not how well or how much has been learned.
Most student work does not need to be graded because it is a sample of incomplete learning or because it is not a valid assessment. For example, how much learning does a worksheet represent? Well, if the worksheet was completed with an open book or as a group project it represents how well students can transfer answers from a textbook to a worksheet.
What students have done is complete a study sheet, not a product that demonstrates what they have learned. The true value of the worksheet will come when it is used to study for a future assessment– a test or quiz. Should it be graded?
Teachers and Educational Researchers may Disagree About Grading
When grades are given for almost everything students do in class the grades become rewards for completing tasks, for participation, or effort. That is not the purpose of grades. Many teachers believe that work must be rewarded, and the most convenient reward is a grade. It is often said that, “If I don’t grade it, they won’t do it.” That need not be true.
There are some fundamental disagreements between educational researchers and classroom teachers regarding the purpose of grades. Indeed, there are disagreements between the perceptions of administrators and teachers when it comes to how grades are used. Teachers are heavily influenced by their personal experiences as students. They often mimic, for better or worse, behaviors and policies of favorite teachers or professors.
Researchers focus more on the interpretation of data and learning theory. This is not meant to imply that researchers are brilliant and teachers are stupid, but that different perspectives generate different conclusions. Unquestionably, many teachers benefit from remembering what it was like to be a student and possessing appropriate empathy.
Also, it is important to understand that trained researchers arrive at different conclusions that sometimes obfuscate rather than clarify. Nevertheless, educators and researchers are narrowing the gap and certain points seem mutually acceptable or at least worthy of mutual consideration. That teachers do not need to grade everything seems clear. Some of the problems from excessive use of grades are:
Zeroes on homework or other activities that are of questionable value in the learning process discourage students and artificially depress final grades.
Improperly trained teachers may use grades punitively.
Teachers may change grades for non-academic reasons like omission of a student name from a paper.
Grading policies may not be based on proper statistical procedures.
Teachers and Students must Agree on the Purpose of Grades
The most accepted purpose of grades is that they are to be used to periodically offer an evaluation of student progress in the mastery of predetermined learning standards. The more graded items students receive, the greater the expectation will be among students that classroom activities are done for grades. The problem is that it should not be true. Classroom activities are done to acquire knowledge and grades are the result.
Teachers can impress upon students– especially beginning students– that most of what is done might receive a written comment, a gold star, a sticker, etc., but grades are reserved for really big things like tests. If teachers are skilled in aligning their activities with assessments, then students will come to grasp the connection between ungraded activities and success on graded tests.
With such an approach, the use of self-assessments, ungraded homework, and other activities become just another part of the learning process and teachers can reduce their paperwork substantially.
Grading students continues to be done inconsistently across the nation. Students should not be defined by grades that are often affected by subjective measures if teachers do not have proper training. Research and practice are often far apart on ... |
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