Grading Issues – Positions, Rationales, Alternatives

How to Grade for Learning and

A Repair Kit for Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken Grades (pages shown are from this text)
Ken O’Connor

Issue Position Rationale Alternatives

Grading effort Don’t include student behaviors
in grades (19-25)
Grading Don’t include student behaviors
participation in grades (19-25)
Grading behavior Don’t include student behaviors
in grades (19-25)
• Effort is a vague concept.
• Including behaviors unrelated to
achievement leads to grade
inflation for students with “good”
behavior and to deflated grades
for students with some “bad”
behaviors.
• Grading behavior is often used as
a method of controlling students.
• Mixing achievement and non-
achievement factors in grades
increases the variation in grading
from class to class and from
school to school, reducing the
value of the grade as a
communication system.
• The concept of effort can be further
clarified by identifying the components
of good effort, including persistence,
striving for accuracy, time on task, and
trying alternate methods.
• Descriptive feedback and student self-
assessment on the components of effort,
without inclusion in the grade, may be
the most positive way to affect behavior
• Make grades as pure a measure as
possible of academic achievement.
• It is important to report desired
behaviors, but not to grade them. An
expanded report card that allows
behaviors to be rated separately from
the achievement grade is key, especially
at the middle/high school level where
this option is often missing.
• Students benefit from frequent
opportunities to identify both the
behaviors that help and those that
hinder their academic achievement.
• Students who receive frequent
descriptive feedback instead of rewards
and punishments linked to their
behaviors are much more likely to
exhibit the desired behaviors.
• There should be consequences for
unacceptable behavior, but it should not
be a reduction in grades
O’Connor, page 2
Issue Position Rationale Alternatives
Multiple attempts Allow • Whether through formative or • Students who want a chance to raise
at mastery summative assessments, allowing their grades should be required to
multiple attempts at mastery provide evidence that demonstrates a
supports learning higher level of achievement (new and/or
deeper learning)
Grading practice Don’t use information from • If grades are a record of students’ • Make a clear distinction between
(homework) practice to determine grades; achievement at the end of the activities in which students learn and
use summative evidence (95- learning period, then everything practice, and those in which students
105) they do along the way should not show what they now know, understand,
Grading formative Don’t use information from be included and can do
assessments formative assessments to • Learning is a process; it should • Use practice and formative assessment
determine grades; use not be necessary to always “get it” for both students and teachers to know
summative evidence (95-105) the first time the next steps to take in achieving the
• Including everything in grades learning goals
reduces risk-taking and the ability • Make a distinction between homework
to recover from mistakes that is practice, homework that is
• Firm evidence shows that the use preparation for class learning activity,
of assessment for learning (not of and homework that is actually
learning) raises achievement and summative in nature.
can have the impact of one-on- • Homework that is practice of course
one tutoring content (not summative or preparation
for a learning activity), is valuable only
to those students who can have some
degree of success on their own. It is of
little or no value to students who don’t
need to practice, and can be damaging
to those who don’t yet understand.
• Including all practice in grades puts the
focus on the score (points) instead of on
the learning
Offering multiple Each student’s grade should be • Final grades should be based on the
forms of based on a comparison to preset most recent evidence of achievement
summative standards, not on a comparison • Organize grading information by
assessments to other students. Some students learning goals, not by type (tests,
may need alternate forms of quizzes, etc.)
assessment to demonstrate • Grades should be based on clear
achievement. (72-74) descriptions of achievement
expectations, not merely a letter-
number correspondence; should be
descriptive, not judgmental
O’Connor, page 3
Issue Position
Extra credit and Don’t give points for extra credit
bonus points or use bonus points; instead,
additional work should
demonstrate a higher level of
achievement on the standard
(31-35)
Group grades Don’t include group scores in
grades (46-49)
Grading on a curve Do not base grades on
comparing students to each
other. Base them on the
achievement of preset standards.
Rationale Alternatives
• Extra credit and bonus points • Students who want a chance to raise
distort the reporting of their grades should be required to
achievement, especially when they provide evidence that demonstrates a
are not related to achievement higher level of achievement (new and/or
(cleaning boards, bringing food for deeper learning)
the food drive, extra report • Focus on quality evidence that
unrelated to the standard, etc.) accurately demonstrates each student’s
• Use of extra credit stems from a achievement
system that focuses on the
accumulation of points, rather
than on the level of learning
• Group work is a powerful teaching • Use only individual achievement
& learning strategy, but using evidence
group grades distorts the • Treat group activities as a learning
reporting of achievement for an activity, not as an assessment tool
individual • Develop individual assessment tools to
• The use of group grades increases use during group work or as a follow-up
resistance to group activities to group work
• Parents have challenged group
grades in court and the parents
have usually won
• No student’s grade should depend
on the achievement or behavior of
another student
• Group scores may not accurately
reflect the achievement of each
student
• Grading on a curve puts students
in competition with each other for
a scarce number of good grades
O’Connor, page 4
Issue Position Rationale
Accepting late Work that is important should be • Not accepting late work leads
work accepted late (26-30) students to conclude that it no
longer makes sense to do the
work
• Having absolute deadlines does
not prepare the student for the
real world; in the real world
timelines are frequently
negotiated or adjusted to
circumstances – deadlines range
from fixed to considerably flexible
• Most plans to support students
with chronic late or missing work
involve completing that work,
even if it is late. If teachers won’t
accept the work, it becomes
nearly impossible to implement
such support plans.
Grading late work Don’t reduce marks on work • Penalties distort the achievement
submitted late (26-30) record, can harm student
motivation, and for many do not
result in changes in behavior.
Zeros for missing Do not record zeros for missing • Grades should not be used
work evidence or as punishment for punitively. This establishes an
transgressions. (85-92) adversarial relationship between
student and teacher; some
students will lose respect for the
evaluation system
• The effect of outlier scores has too
extreme an effect when using the
mean, and distorts the record of
achievement. The math is
inappropriate.
Alternatives
• Work that is part of an instructional
activity for the next day needs to be
done tonight; provide support for
students who need help to get work
done on time
• Set up support systems that reduce or
eliminate the problem of late work, such
as supervised work time at school on
specific assignments
• Students should be encouraged to
communicate with the teacher about the
late work; this is the responsible, adult
behavior
• Detention may be warranted for
repeated or chronic lateness
• Students who are organizationally
challenged should be provided with
more structure in assignments or in the
school day
• Teachers should keep records of
students’ timeliness and report this
behavior somewhere other than in the
achievement grade
• If grade penalties must be used, they
should be small ones that do not distort
achievement (example: keep grade
within the range earned but at the
lowest level – late work that is of A
quality would receive the lowest A or A-)
• The appropriate consequence for failing
to complete an assignment is completing
the assignment.
• Students should lose free time,
unstructured class time, and/or study
hall time at school and be required to
complete the work
• Students could be required to come in
before school, at lunchtime, or after
school, etc. to get assistance in
completing work
O’Connor, page 5
Issue Position Rationale
(Zeros for missing • Zeros give a numerical value to
work) something that has never been
assessed and that therefore has
no basis in reality
• Zeros can have counter-productive
effects on student motivation; as
soon as students have more than
one zero they have little chance of
recovery, increasing the likelihood
they will give up
• Zeros render grades ineffective as
communication
• Students who are not concerned
about grades are willing to “take a
zero” and are thus not held
accountable for their learning
Zeros can doom students to failure
very early in the year
Alternatives
• “Pyramid of intervention” should move
from “limited and voluntary” to
“significant and compulsory”
• If the missing information is not
important enough to require the student
to complete it, it should not be included
in the grade
• If there is insufficient evidence to
determine the level of achievement, use
an I (Incomplete or Insufficient
Evidence) until an accurate measure can
be made
• There should be clear procedures and
timelines for students to move from an I
to an accurate letter grade, including the
support of compulsory supervised time
in school to complete the work
• While students should be given support
to make up an I, it should also be
acceptable as a final grade. While it has
the same impact as an F, it
communicates more accurately the
situation (insufficient evidence to
determine achievement), while an F
should communicate that there is
enough evidence but that the student
failed to achieve
• If a school requires the use of averaging
and percentage scales to determine
grades, and zeros continue to be used,
then the zeros should be recorded as the
lowest F using the same range of scores
as the other grade levels (7 points or 10
points, etc). Therefore, the lowest F
would usually be between a 50 and a
60. This creates less distortion in the
accurate reporting of achievement
(although it may still be distorted – just
not as much).
O’Connor, page 6
Issue Position Rationale
Allowing revisions Allow
and retakes
Averaging grades Don’t rely solely on the mean. • Outlier scores have too large an
Consider other measures of effect on the mean, distorting the
central tendency and use grade.
professional judgment. (81-84) • Each measure of central tendency
has both virtues and problems;
the mean is not always the most
valid in measuring achievement
• Grading should be primarily an
exercise in professional judgment,
not solely a numerical, mechanical
exercise.
Alternatives
• Offer students opportunities to improve
their learning and performance on
standards, not to accumulate more
points
• Determine grades, don’t just “calculate”
them. Use all summative and
assessment information and multiple
ways of “crunching” numbers to
determine which grade most accurately
reflects the student’s achievement.
• In borderline cases, especially just
below the next grade, encourage
students to present additional evidence
of their achievement level.

Notes: (4) “Effective grades need to meet four overarching criteria…: they must be consistent, accurate, and
meaningful, and must support learning.”

(20) “Girls consistently outperform boys in high school classrooms across Ontario, and the explanation for the
gender gap is a systematic bias against boys, the Fraser Institute says. … ‘Factors such as promptness in coming to
class, willingness to cooperate, and what might be considered good work habits are distorting the marks.”