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For Your Head: Shifting our Mindset about Grades

Taken from Grades Have a Huge Impact, But Are They Effective, By Ki Sung ()

In this article by Ki Sung, a few claims about grading are examined. Responses to the claims are offered by Joe Feldman, former principal and teacher, and author of the book, Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms. As we continue our transition from a traditional grading model to a fully standards-based approach, it can be difficult to throw off some of operating notions of the traditional approach. Hopefully these discussions help that transition. Only 2 of the claims are discussed in this edition of The Weekly.

Claim: An F, or fear of getting an F, will motivate a student to work harder.
FALSE

Joe Feldman: There's no research that F’s motivate students to do better except for a tiny slice of students. The only research that supports that F’s motivate, or that low grades motivate, is for the students who have gotten A’s historically. And when they start to get a B or a C, they scramble like mad because they don't want to get anything lower because it implicates all aspects of the fixed mindset they have about themselves. But for everyone else, in all other circumstances, there is no research to support that Fs motivate. In fact, there's research that Fs demotivate students because they know that they don't know something. And in the way that we historically average performance over time, that F now is a hole that students have to dig themselves out of. And they know the math. They know that if they get a couple of F's early, forget having high grades at the end of the term. And so what's the point? They might as well use their energy elsewhere. What we've got to do instead is help students understand that even if they fail early, if they get low grades early, miss things early, they can always keep learning, they can always redeem themselves with our help and support, and success is never out of reach for them. 

CLAIM: Giving some students more time – without any penalties – is unfair to those who do turn it in on time.
FALSE 

Feldman: So I think there's a couple of things underneath that. One is that if something is unfair, that suggests that there's a competition. And I think we've come a long way in disabusing ourselves of the idea that grades should be a competition. Because if I'm trying to teach a class, I really shouldn't care if I have a whole lot of kids who are successful. You know, we don't want students to feel like they're competing against each other because we know that only adds stress and demotivates students and lowers performance. And learning is not a race. Just because someone is able to learn something quicker, that doesn't have any value in whether or not a student learned. A grade should only reflect the level of understanding a student has of the content, not the speed at which they learned.

For Your Heart: Ideas for the Best First Week of School

For Your Hands: Communicating with Parents about SBG

Taken from Grading from the Inside Out, By Tom Schimmer

The following suggestions are excerpts and only represent some of the advice provided on communicating with parents in Schimmer's book and can be found on the following pages: 12, 17, 30, 44-5, 57-8.

* Be intentional about helping parents learn that teaching to the standards has replaced the conventional routine of activity completion and that there are some assessments used for instruction as opposed to grading. Parents understand the practice - games dynamic in sports (or the rehearsal - performance dynamic in the arts), so using simple analogies and layman's terms will put them at ease during conversations that can easily slip into edutalk and acronyms. The balance between formative and summative assessment is analagous to the relationship between practice and games, between rehearsals and performance. We know that there are typically more practices than games, more rehearsals than performances. They need to understand that learning can and does happen in the absence of grades and scores. 

* If we use our collective true north to guide us in terms of accuracy and confidence, we will go far in helping parents understand why we have made changes. No parent will argue for inaccurate information or grading practices that induce anxiety, so including accuracy and confidence as part of the message is judicious...[C]ommunicate to parents that the changes to grading...represent an improvement to current grading routines and experiences.

* Keep the message simple, clear and accessible with commonsense examples. Help to clarify misunderstandings parents have about grading that relate to their children's behavior (work ethic, work completion, and overall behavior). [Help] ensure parents can distinguish between attributes and proficiency. 

Misunderstanding 1: "But my daughter worked really hard." A strong work ethic is admirable, but this attribute is unrelated to a student's level of proficiency. Now, students who work hard are likely to achieve higher levels of proficiency, but the proficiency grade shouldn't get an extra boost. Parents need to know that grades are not linked to how hard a student has worked; some students don't have to give a maximum effort to achieve maximum proficiency. It's essential, on the other hand, to find other ways to honor students' work ethic to avoid diminishing its importance to the development of the whole child. Explain how you will do this to parents.

Misunderstanding 2: "But my son did all of the work." Here we focus parents on quality versus completion. Teachers and parents share the same goal of encouraging students to complete all essential work. However, the grades students receive do not correlate directly to compliance. Like work ethic, completing all assignments is a minimal expectation, but it doesn't indicate a student's level of proficiency in relation to the standards. Again, for most students, fully participating in all essential assignments will likely result in at least a higher than normal performance, but it's no guarantee; doing the work and understanding the work are two different things.

Misunderstanding 3: "But she's such a good girl." Adults perceptually try to instill compliance and being good in children. The reference to compliance should not be mistaken for control, which has a much more cynical connotation. We all have to comply on some level. Obeying stop signs, merging into traffic, or sitting in assigned seats at a concert all represent a level of compliance; it's the same in school. Students who follow directions, act respectfully, and take responsibility elevate the culture of any classroom, but have a strong character and earning an A are two separate issues.