1. Your mission, should
you choose to accept
it, is to provide as
accurate a picture of
learning as possible

2. Purpose of grades is to communicate
Don’t use grades to motivate (ie- give lower grade to student who doesn’t put forth best effort or higher grade for student who puts forth great effort)
Motivation is unpredictable and temporary, whereas grades are permanent
It miscommunicates student’s real level of achievement

3. Grades communicate achievement
Many current practices include evidence of:
Academic achievement effort
Rule compliance
Aptitude attitude Homework Completion
group participation

4. Including effort Argument for Argument against
Effort highly valued in school and workplace
Necessary ingredient for achievement in many students
Students who put forth effort are easier to teach and manage
Grades don’t accurately reflect achievement
Evaluating effort is primarily subjective and can be misinterpreted
Meet in the middle: create separate space on report card to grade effort

5. Including aptitude
Question: Should we adjust grading scale if student is incapable of work but we assign it anyway? If the work is too easy for a student’s ability ,should we lower the grade to reflect the difference in the student’s ability and quality of work?
Answer: It depends. We are not equipped to be able to
judge accurately a student’s ability level. Adjusting the
grading scale confuses the meaning of the grade. Acceptable
in cases where this is an allowable adaptation on an IEP.

6. Other factors
Question: Is it appropriate to include factors such as attendance, homework completion, turning work in on time, group participation, attitude, etc.?
Answer: It depends. Issues include using grade to
motivate is not always effective, it is difficult to measure
many of the other factors accurately, and their inclusion
muddies whether student has mastered learning targets. It
would be acceptable to include these in a separate section.

7. In a standards-based environment, grades must reflect our best estimate of student achievement at the time the grade is given

8. Grading Guidelines Organizing the gradebook
consider arranging by achievement target rather than type (test, quiz, etc.)
helps you track instruction and assessment as your progress through standards

9. Grading Guidelines Including other factors
Record achievement evidence separate from student characteristics
Use extra credit work ONLY if it supplies additional evidence of achievement
Record a score of zero only if that is the score on the work
Handle borderline cases by collecting additional evidence of student learning

10. Grading Guidelines Consider assessment purpose
Use assessments for learning to provide teacher/students with descriptive feedback on learning
Do not factor assessments for learning into report card grade unless you have compelling reason

11. Grading Guidelines Consider most recent information
Base grades on most current evidence of students achievement on targets
Averaging may be effectively used if content id divided into equal segments, but not for targets that reflect continued growth (writing, oral presentation, etc.)

12. Grading Guidelines Summarizing information and determining the
final grade
Make final grades criterion-referenced (throw out the curve)
Make modifications for students with special needs with care
Convert, weight, and combine information with care
Use a decision rule for converting rubric ratings to grades
Decide borderline cases with extra evidence

13. Grading Guidelines Verifying assessment quality
Base all grades on verifiably accurate assessments of student achievement
When in doubt, throw it out

14. Grading Guidelines Involving students
Give frequent, descriptive feedback
Allow students opportunities to study more, learn more, and retake the assessment

15. Steps in report card grading
Start with the learning targets. Create a plan for what learning you will assess for grading purposes during the quarter.
Make an assessment plan to lay out how you will regularly find out what your students are learning.
Create, choose, and/or modify assessments.
Record information from assessments as you give them.
Summarize the achievement information into one score.
Turn the score into a grade.