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How to Use Grading to Improve Learning

by Susan M. Brookhart

Table of Contents

Chapter 2. Grading on Standards for Achievement

Grading on standards for achievement means a shift from thinking that grades are what students earn to thinking that grades show what students learn. Teachers sometimes talk about grades as pay students earn by doing their work. This seems fine as a simple image. After all, doing assignments, studying, and paying attention are the work students do when they're in school. But if "earning" grades gives people the idea that grades are students' pay for punching a clock, for showing up and being busy, and for following directions no matter what the outcome, then the image is harmful. The object of all this busy-ness isn't just the doing of it. The idea is that once students do all these things, they will learn something.

One time when I was conducting a district workshop on grading, a young teacher became agitated. Everything her students did "counted," she said. Everything! That was what they were in school for, and that was how she kept them in line. If behavior and work habits didn't count toward grades, her classroom would fall apart. It would be easy to mock this teacher, but maybe we can learn something valuable from her. I think she really believed what she was saying and genuinely could not imagine coping with her classroom, much less being "successful" (according to her own judgment), without the heavy-handed grading policy she described. In fact, her resistance to my ideas might have been rooted in a fear that she really wasn't a good teacher yet, and she might have realized deep down that being an "enforcer" wasn't a very educative teaching style.

For grading to support learning, grades should reflect student achievement of intended learning outcomes. In schools today, these learning outcomes are usually stated as standards for achievement. Grades on both individual assessments and report cards should reflect students' achievement of performance standards on intended learning outcomes. It has to be both, because if grades on individual assessments don't reflect achievement of intended learning outcomes, the report card grade derived from them can't, either. The report card grade is a summary of the meaning of a set of individual grades. And for any of this to work, students have to understand what it is they are trying to learn and what the criteria for success on these learning targets are (Moss & Brookhart, 2012). It will do no good to base grades on achievement if students don't understand what it is they are supposed to be achieving.

Why Is It Important to Grade on Standards for Achievement?

This story shows how a well-meaning teacher who cares about her students and their grades ultimately missed the point on grading.

Ms. Davis was a teacher in a self-contained 4th grade classroom. Like many other teachers in her building, Ms. Davis believed students earned their grades by doing their work, which included things like showing a good attitude toward school, participating in classroom life, and trying hard. Courtney and her friend Aaliyah loved Ms. Davis's class. They enjoyed the family feeling, and they would do anything Ms. Davis asked.

This enthusiastic participation extended to their academic work, as well. Courtney and Aaliyah always completed their work when asked, tried hard, and behaved well during lessons. They raised their hands and spoke during class discussions. The quality of their work and their understanding in reading and language arts were good, but in mathematics—not so much. However, because they were such sweet students, their report cards carried A grades for all three subjects. In mathematics, Ms. Davis made sure there were ways for Courtney and Aaliyah to earn extra points. For example, they could do simple bonus questions or help with the mathematics bulletin board.

Courtney's and Aaliyah's parents saw these As and thought the grades meant that their daughters understood their mathematics as well as they did their reading and language arts. Sadly, so did Courtney and Aaliyah. They didn't realize they had been "cut a break." They thought they were doing and learning what was important to do and learn in mathematics. Imagine everyone's surprise when the state test results indicated they were both "below basic" in mathematics at the end of 4th grade. Imagine the special disappointment of the two little girls, who really thought they were learning. They had trusted their teacher to teach them and had interpreted their As as evidence that they had learned. Along the way, they had missed many learning opportunities because they thought all was well. Instead of earning bonus points, Courtney and Aaliyah could have been practicing specific concepts and skills. But they didn't know.

Unfortunately, stories like this are all too common. If such missed learning opportunities continue for several years, students end up far enough behind that they cannot recover (Sanders, 1998).

Benefits for Teaching and Learning. It is important to evaluate what we value, and students want to do what counts. Grading on achievement says we value learning. It reinforces the commitment about learning we make to students and parents.

If grades are based on achievement, students and teachers can use the information better than if the grades represent a mixture of learning and other factors. Teachers can use achievement-based grades as indicators of the success of their instruction and as information to help them plan next steps in instruction for individual students, groups of students, or whole classes. Students can use achievement-based grades to self-assess and to set goals. A high school student could, for example, decide to spend more time studying for tests in a certain class. An elementary student might realize she needs help in a certain area and ask for it. These student uses hint at another benefit of grading on achievement: supporting student motivation to learn.

Grading on achievement, with a coherent system of instruction and formative assessment deeply aligned with the criteria for achievement, can lead to students developing a deeper and more self-regulated sense of responsibility than the use of grades as external rewards and punishments for behaviors. When students understand that it is their achievement against standards that is graded, most of them will respond by developing the self-regulation and study skills necessary to achieve.

Basing grades on achievement doesn't mean we don't care about students' behavior, attendance, ability to meet assignment deadlines, degree of effort, and so on. Of course we do! All of these factors have a direct effect on learning, and it is in this light that we should interpret them to students. Developing good habits in all of these areas will help students be the best learners they can be.

For the most part, handle behavior and "academic enablers" (McMillan, 2001, p. 25)—which includes learning skills such as work habits, effort, homework, and so on—by coaching, not reporting. Use informal assessment to monitor these skills day by day. Give students ongoing formative feedback about these behaviors and suggestions for how to adjust them. Ultimately, study skills, classroom citizenship, and other learning-enabling skills can be reported using a separate indicator system on standards-based report cards. But they do not belong in the proficiency scales or in the letter grades that indicate achievement.

I hope that by this point I have demonstrated that grading on achievement is the main principle by which we keep our commitment to students: In my class, in this school, all students can and will learn. We have to make clear to students what they are learning and how well. We have to give them grades based on their achievement.

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Kudos

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Congratulations to Stephanie Rummler as she is 1 of 9 teachers in CESA 2 who has been chosen to receive a Herb Kohl Foundation 2018 Teacher Fellows award!!! Along with the prestigious honor she will receive 6,000 dollars and Karcher will receive 6,000 dollars! Congrats again Stephanie! We are all honored to have the ability to work with you and our students are lucky to have you as well!
Kudos to Mike Jones and Stephanie Rummler on a great National Junior Honor Society Induction Ceremony on March 19 in the Karcher auditorium! A picture of the inductees is below!
Matt Knapp will be joining the Waller team starting on April 2 as the one on one student he was working with has transferred schools. Thank you Matt for all you did for our students at Karcher!
Karen Gerold will be joining our team in August as our new library/office aide. She has years of library experience along with a bachelors in English/communications and masters degree from Purdue University. Karen will be a great addition to our staff and is very eager to join our team!

You may see Karen here and there this year as she would like to work with Marian and Suzanne a few times this school year!

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Information/Reminders...

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Math... it is your week to have students email their parents/guardians about what has been taking place in math over the past 5 weeks!
Forward Exam Tutorial

Steve Berezowitz will be sharing a tutorial will all staff so that everyone who is proctoring is able to view the tutorial in order to understand how you should proctor.

April 2 - Staff Meeting

Forward Exam information. Everyone is welcome to attend.

April 2 - Track and Field starts!

Practices are from 2:40 - 4:15.
No practice on Wednesdays.
Click HERE for the track calendar.

April 3 - 6 = Forward iTime

During iTime the entire building will be focusing on Forward Exam test prep. Academic teachers, please make sure you determine your rotations and/or plans this week and get necessary information about to your entire iTime groups (Applied Academic teachers) so that everyone can hit the ground running upon our return from break.
The next iTime rotation will then start on April 17.

April 4 - Paraprofessional Day!

Potluck on April 4 in the staff lounge to thank all of our aides for all of your hard work and dedication to our students and to Karcher!
Sign ups will be in the main office!

April 4 - PLC will be in the library this week to set Essential Skill team goals for the rest of the school year.
April 5 - End of term 3!

The grading window will close on April 9 @ 3:00pm.

April 9 week... Forward Exam Testing for Karcher.

Bell Schedule
Testing Schedule
Testing tickets will be organized by students 4th hour locations.
Note... Friday is a normal bell schedule day. 8th grade will still be testing so the building needs to remain quiet during periods 4 and 5 as that will be when 8th grade is still testing as a testing block.

April 16 week... 8th grade ELA Forward testing during this week in the area of writing. Students and staff need to be cognizant of hallway noise during this week to assist with the testing environment for ELA.