#80: Equity in Grading: The Purpose of Grading

This is Part 1 in a series on grading and equity. Throughout this series, I will explore ways we can improve grading practices to increase student achievement and well-being.

Thank you for joining me for this series! In this 4-Part series, I will be tackling one of the most emotionally-charged topics in education, grading. Grading is intensely personal for many teachers. It goes to the core of who we are as educators. Each teacher has their own unique, intensely personal web of belief guiding their decisions and policies. This can make having conversations about grading extremely difficult.

Therefore, I am going to ask that we keep the following presuppositions in mind as we enter into this discussion:

• We can learn from others even when we disagree with them.
• The best interest of our students is at the center of our decision-making.
• It is possible to agree with something in principle but struggle with what it looks like in practice.
• Change is not always a bad word. However, meaningful change must be grounded in research not common sense or intuition.

With that in mind, let's talk about how we grade, why we grade that way, and explore ways we could make grading more accurate and more equitable.

Purpose of Grading
Before reading any further, please take a moment and consider the following questions:

1. Why are students given grades?
2. What purpose do they serve?
3. Do your grades just measure mastery or are other behaviors measured as well?

I bet each of us has more than one answer to these questions. I know I did! Grading serves different purposes for different teachers. Here are some possible purposes:

• Communication: Grades serve as communication between the teacher & student, and teacher & caregiver.
• Inform Instruction: Student grades help the teacher identify areas in which a student needs additional support. In addition, they can be used to determine future coursework or academic tracks.
• Behavior Modification: Grades can be used to incentivize, as well as punish, student behaviors that are not directly connected to their mastery of the content.
• Self-Evaluation: Grades provide feedback to students regarding their individual progress. This provides feedback for the metacognitive process.

Grading often encompasses more than just student learning. Herein lies the problem, when grades mean different things to different people it creates confusion as to what the actual grade means.

Problems of Grading
The following example really crystallized the problem with the current way we calculate grades for me. Take a moment and look at the chart below (Feldman, 2019, p. 53). See if you can answer these questions: Which student demonstrated mastery? How do you know? Should each student receive the same grade? Why or why not?

Student #1: Tangela

Student #2: Isabel

In this example, both students are in the same class and they are earning the exact same grade. However, they have very different levels of performance. Tangela is a very conscientious student who turned her work in on time, participated in class but struggled on her summative assessments. Her grade was INFLATED by her work ethic. As a result, she might not get the support she needs. Isabel struggled turning her work in on time but when she did it was almost always correct. Her grade was DEFLATED by her work ethic. As a result, she could become less motivated and less engaged.

This situation is even more complicated when it comes to comparing grades between classes with different teachers. Jennifer Gonzalez provides the following example in her article "How Accurate Are Your Grades?",

• Julie is in Teacher A's class. Julie turns in a project worth 100 points. She does a superb job and earned a 100/100. But, she turned in her assignment late. Teacher A deducts 50% if a project is late. Her mastery is clearly demonstrated but she reeives a grade of 50/100.
• Jamie is in Teacher B's class. Teacher B accepts late work for full credit. Jamie turns his assignment in on time but with a number of errors. She earns a 50/100. She has clearly not mastered the material but she earns the same grade as a student Julie, who has achieved mastery but turned in her assignment late. 

If Julie had Teacher B as her teacher she would have earned full credit. I don't know about you but I don't want to be on the receiving end of that parent phone call having to explain why her grade is different based solely on the teacher she was assigned.

Differences in grading policies conceal critical information regarding each student's performance. They fail to communicate an accurate representation of learning to the people who need to know it. This makes it difficult to identify and target students who need additional support. In addition, it creates gaps in vertical instruction and makes it difficult to predict what skills students have achieved and which they have not achieved. These are big, systemic problems. We need to have a grading system that is both accurate and equitable.

The grading system that we are using today is based on societal needs from the early 20th century. During this time, our country was undergoing the Industrial Revolution and increased immigration. Therefore, schools focused on regulating skills like punctuality, regularity, attention, and silence (Feldman, 2019, p. 21). Over a century later, we have a very different set of needs. We value problem-solving, creativity, innovation and collaboration. In addition, our view of the student has changed. We believe that every student can be successful and that the role of education is to level the playing field. The system that we are using was not designed to support these skills.

In my next post, we will discuss changes that we can make to our grading practices that make it more meaningful, more accurate, and more equitable. In the meantime, I would love to hear your thoughts on grading! Does your current model look like what I described above? Are there any changes that you would like to see but aren't sure how? You can sign up on the left hand side of your screen to have new posts sent directly to your email.

Be Well,
Cori

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Previous Post: #79: Student Well-Being: UDL & Blended Learning

Next Post: #80: Equity in Grading: Moving Forward (9/21/22)

Resources:

Adams, K. (2022, April 22). To close the educational equity gap, teachers have to understand their position of power - Edsurge News. EdSurge. Retrieved August 31, 2022, from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2022-03-21-to-close-the-educational-equity-gap-teachers-have-to-understand-their-position-of-power

Alex, P. (2022, June 27). Time to pull the plug on traditional grading? Education Next. Retrieved August 31, 2022, from https://www.educationnext.org/time-to-pull-plug-on-traditional-grading-supporters-say-mastery-based-grading-could-promote-equity/

Anderson, J. (2019, December 11). Harvard Edcast: Grading for equity. Harvard Graduate School of Education. Retrieved August 31, 2022, from https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/19/12/harvard-edcast-grading-equity

Donald, B. (2012, May 10). Stanford Psychologist: Achievement goals can be shaped by environment. Stanford University. Retrieved August 31, 2022, from https://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/may/shape-achievement-goals-051012.html

Faraj, K. (2021, April 23). How to set up mastery-based grading in your classroom. Cult of Pedagogy. Retrieved August 31, 2022, from https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/mastery-based-grading/

Feldman, J. (2019). Grading for equity: What it is, why it matters, and how it can transform schools and classrooms. Corwin, a SAGE Company.

Gonzalez, J. (2020, October 5). How accurate are your grades? Cult of Pedagogy. Retrieved August 31, 2022, from https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/accurate-grades/

Hough, L. (2019). Grade expectations. Harvard Graduate School of Education. Retrieved August 31, 2022, from https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/ed/19/05/grade-expectations

Professional Resources: Grading and Equity Resources. LibGuides. (n.d.). Retrieved August 31, 2022, from https://libguides.centralcatholichigh.org/professional/grading