THE STANDARDS BASED GRADING TRAIN IS LEAVING THE STATION.... and YOU need to get ON BOARD7/27/2016 PART 1: Percentage-based grading no longer makes senseAhhhh, the coveted "A"... the definitive mark on a report card that says... to paraphrase Stuart Smalley from Saturday Night Live... "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people (mainly my teachers) like me." It has been the benchmark for every student in America's schools for like, 80 years. When you get an "A", it means you know your stuff. Many grading scales say A= Excellent. An "A" is what my parents always wanted to see... neigh... EXPECTED to see, but I wanted to see them too, because in Oshkosh, WI in the 1990s, each "A" you had on your report card was good for 5 tokens at Shakey's Pizza and Arcade. After all, you need at least a whopping 93% to earn one! Well, unless you round up from the 92.5-92.99 range..... or if you slap a minus on the back of it for something in the 90-92.44% range.... sorry, rounding applies there too, so 89.5% and up and you are a golden child! BUT WHAT THE HECK DOES IT REALLY MEAN!?!?!?!? To me as a nine year old kid, an 89.5% meant I got an "A-" written on my report card, 5 tokens at Shakey's, and a pat on the back when my parents saw it. An 89.4% meant a "B+" written on my report card, 4 tokens at Shakey's and a line of questioning from my parents regarding anything I may have misunderstood, any extra assignments I could have done and whether my overall effort level had been sufficient. So what was the difference between an 89.5 and 89.4 to a teacher? Probably one point on one assignment on one random day during that grading term that pushed the average above or below a completely arbitrary line drawn on a scale of 100%. Did I understand that when I was nine? Well, I got an "A" in math that year, so I guess I probably understood that all my points earned were weighed against all the points possible to calculate my final grade. The real question is how traditional, percentage-based grading was making me behave as a student. Was an 89.4% pushing me to dig deeper into topics I didn't have a perfect grasp of? Was I finding out what my weakest areas were and how to improve them? Was I really concerned with MASTERING ANYTHING??? Nope... I just learned how to manipulate the grading system to work best for me. I did my homework because a zero would really hurt my average. I studied for tests because the more questions I got right, the more points I would earn and the better my average would be. I vividly remember sitting on my bed with a social studies textbook in 5th grade asking myself why the heck I needed to know the year that British colonists established Jamestown, Virginia. Well, obviously if I filled in the bubble that said 1706, I get the question wrong and my score drops. If I filled in the bubble next to 1607, I get a point and my average goes up. That one question could be the catapult that launched me into A territory or the trap door that dropped me to a B. Now as a social studies teacher myself, I can honestly tell you I do not care if a student memorizes that Jamestown was established in 1607... ...I'm pausing so you have time to gasp and contemplate whether I can be considered a "real history teacher"... That date tells me nothing about the student's mastery of the content, and everything about their memory. I have the following Calvin and Hobbes strip posted proudly in my room to make sure I don't forget it too. From day one of my career it has been clear to me that asking questions like this don't give me an accurate picture of what content and skills each student has mastered. In my efforts to avoid those types of questions, I filled tests with short answer questions and essays that made students explain the significance of events, look at cause and effect, and declare an opinion and back it up with reasoning. I didn't care as much about them knowing the year 1607, but I would care if they knew it was the first permanent English settlement after other failed experiments, and how the colonists relationships with the Native Americans evolved over time. I might even care that they can take their newly learned knowledge of Jamestown and juxtapose it to what Disney "taught" them in Pocahontas. I patted myself on the back and told myself how much better I was than the teachers that gave me Scan-tron sheets full of multiple choice questions based on memory. ....Then something brought me back to reality... the kids turned the tests in and I graded them... still converting raw points into averages and averages into letter grades. Something still wasn't right. If I gave students a short answer question and Student X gave me an opinion with some reasoning and a simple example but without going into what I would consider "sufficient detail", I might score that question a 4/6. If Student Y gave me a strong answer acknowledging all parts of the question with multiple supporting pieces of evidence and reasoning, I would probably give them a 6/6. (Insert vinyl record scratching noise here) HOLD UP A SECOND! Student X is now missing 2 points on a 40 point test... aka 5%... aka half a letter grade. Student Y has those 2 points in their back pocket giving them more cushion for mistakes throughout the rest of the test. Does student X DESERVE to lose half a letter grade from that answer? They didn't answer the question as directly and fully as I would like, but did they only understand 2/3 of the concept??? Doubtful... but I only gave them 2/3 of the points, and that hurts when your test is scored using a raw average in a traditional grading system. Now consider the same answers on a different scale... one proposed by Myron Dueck. Imagine the 6 point value of the question broke down as follows: 6 and 5: Expert level, 4 and 3: Apprentice level, 2 and 1: Novice level I think the reason I like this system so much is because I was basically doing it already, except I was doing it in a way that punished students for imperfection. My 4 was a "D", barely passing. Dueck's 4 means they are an "apprentice" just barely short of proving they are an expert. What does Student X deserve... a "D"? Or do they deserve a "4" that puts them as a "high level apprentice" knowing that they are almost an expert and just need a little more seasoning or a little more push to become an expert in that area. I know which one I would find more meaningful and motivating to receive as a student. Look, the whole purpose of assessing a student in the first place is to give them meaningful feedback on their progress so they can figure out where to go from there. a 73% or a 91% or a 58% don't do that job well enough. It's arbitrary at best and pointless at worst. OK... I know what the biggest argument is at this point... "But Mr. Honish, aren't you being arbitrary by giving them a 4 on a short answer question regardless of whether it equates to a "D" or "apprentice" As Phineas would say... STANDARDS and LEARNING TARGETS will play a critical role in making sure the grades as relevant as possible. STANDARDS and LEARNING TARGETS are how I will be making sure a 4 out of 6 is not arbitrary at all and the student knows exactly where they stand on that topic.
That is EXACTLY what I will be talking about at length in my next post, so check back for updates when it's finished. It's still summer though, so don't rush me!
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AuthorJohn Honish: Archives
June 2021
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