1 Grading Assessment and Grading Related but not the same thing

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Grading

Assessment and Grading

Related but not the same thing.

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Grading

What is the primary reason we assess student understanding?

Is that the reason we grade?

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Grading

With a partner, list 4 or 5 reasons we grade students.

Rank them in order of importance.

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Grading

Reasons for grading from Measurement and Evaluation in Teaching (Gronlund and Linn, 1990)

Instructional usesCommunicative usesAdministrative usesGuidance uses

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Grading

Reasons for Grading from Reporting on Student Learning (Guskey 1996)

CommunicateProvide information to studentsSelect, identify, or group studentsProvide incentives to learnEvaluate instructional effectiveness

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Grading

Seven Perspectives on Grading

1. Grading is not essential for learning.2. Grading is complicated.3. Grading is subjective and emotional.4. Grading is inescapable.5. Grading has a limited research base.6. Grading has no single best practice.7. Grading is faulty and damages students and teachers.

(O’Connor, 2002)

What is your reaction? With which do you agree? Disagree? Unsure?Record on handout.

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Grading

Seven Perspectives on Grading

1. Grading is not essential for learning.

Teachers do not need grades or reporting forms to teach well, and students can—and do—learn without them.

In fact, when grades are given, the emphasis becomes grades not learning.

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Grading

Seven Perspectives on Grading

2. Grading is complicated.

The mechanistic way that much grading is done—checking correctness and using formulas to average and calculate the final grade—makes it appear easy.

In fact, grading is complicated. Hundreds of decisions go in to the calculation.

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Grading

Seven Perspectives on Grading

3. Grading is subjective and emotional.

The focus here is on the decisions about what to include in the calculations that lead to a final grade.

Many of us think that grades are objective because of the cold numerical calculations we make to arrive at a final grade. However, the entire trail is littered with subjective decisions and value judgments—what type of assessment to use, how to score it, how much should it count.

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Grading

Seven Perspectives on Grading

4. Grading is inescapable.

Although there is a plenty of criticism of grades—unclear symbols, they merely sort, they provide little information about strengths and weaknesses, they are arbitrary and subjective, they demoralize students who learn more slowly—they are not going away.

In the mid-90s, Cranston, Rhode Island, tried to abolish grades for elementary school students, but the uproar forced the school system to return to the previous system.

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Grading

Seven Perspectives on Grading

5. Grading has a limited research base.

Since the introduction of grades in public high schools in the early 1900s there has been little research on grading practices.

Recommendations from measurement experts is ignored.

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Grading

Seven Perspectives on Grading

6. Grading has no single best practice.

No research base. Every grading method has advantages and

disadvantages. Therefore, there is no one way to grade.

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Grading

Seven Perspectives on Grading

7. Grading is faulty and damages students and teachers.

Students often think there is no relationship between the quality of their work and the grades they receive. They think that teachers give good grades to the students they like.

Overemphasis on grades and faulty grading practices have a detrimental effect on student achievement, motivation, and self-concept. It also damages the relationship between teachers and students.

Coach vs. Judge Dual roles in conflict

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Grading

Two Unique Perspectives:

Russell Wright

Marge Scherer and Mel Levine

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Grading For Grading For SuccessSuccess

Russell G. WrightRussell G. Wright 

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DataMeasure Student A Student B Student C

LabQuizLabTestQuizLab

Research PaperQuizTest

Current EventsProject

BCBDFABCCAA

81%78%88%61%43%91%85%71%77%92%96%

BDBDFBBDDBB

What grade would you place on each student’s report card?

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DataMeasure Student A Student B Student C

Lab (10)Quiz (10)Lab (10)Test (20)Quiz (10)Lab (10)

Research Paper (30)

Quiz (10)Test (30)

Current Events (10)

Project (40)

190 points

BCBDFABCCAA

81%78%88%61%43%91%85%71%77%92%96%

BDBDFBBDDBB

Grades using B- 81% Cthe mean:

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DataMeasure Student A Student B Student C

Lab (1)Quiz (1)Lab (1)Test (2)Quiz (1)Lab (1)

Research Paper (3)

Quiz (1)Test (3)

Current Events (1)

Project (4)

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BCBDFABCCAA

81%78%88%61%43%91%85%71%77%92%96%

BDBDFBBDDBB

Here are my B 85% Bgrades:

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Grading Examples

NameItem

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Value 1 1 2 3 1 1 4

Alva A C B B E E E

Brenda A D B B A A A

Chuck A C C D E C C

Donnell D B D B D C E

Eli C C B B E E E

Total grade value = 13 Median = 7th highest number

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Mean Median Mode

Measures of

Central Tendency

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Mean Median Mode

How are mean, median and mode calculated?

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Mean Median Mode

Can you use mean, median and mode interchangeably with any kind

of data?or

Is one particular central-tendency measure uniquely appropriate to use

with each kind of data? 

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Three Kinds of Data

Nominal Ordinal Interval/Ratio

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Nominal data are assigned a code in the form of a number. But the

numbers are simply labels.

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Nominal

Students: 

Bob, Julie, Sue, Mike, Ali, Tabitha, Henry, Michele, Frank, Donnell, Amman, Lee, Kate, Carlos

Eye color: blue (1), brown (2), brown (2), brown (2), green (3), blue (1), brown (2), brown (2), green (3), brown (2), blue (1), brown (2), brown (2), gray (4)

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Nominal

Students: 

Bob, Julie, Sue, Mike, Ali, Tabitha, Henry, Michele, Frank, Donnell, Amman, Lee, Kate, Carlos

Eye color: Is average eye color 2.07 ?

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You can count the nominal data by category. But since nominal

data has no implied order categories cannot be added or

subtracted. Compilations of nominal data cannot be multiplied, or divided.

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 Ordinal values show order (or have a rating scale attached).

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Ordinal

Race results for Funny Cide: (Won Kentucky Derby and Preakness

2003)

1st, 1st, 1st, 5th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st, 1st, 3rd, 3rd, 1st

Biscuit Recipe Ratings (1 to 5 scale representing strongly dislike, dislike, neutral, like, strongly

like): 

4, 1, 3, 3, 2, 4, 5, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 1, 3, 2, 3, 4, 2, 3

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You can add and/or order ordinal data but you cannot not

multiply or divide it.

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Interval data are measured on a scale where the distance between

two adjacent units (called 'intervals') is the same

everywhere on the scale but the zero point is arbitrary.

Ratio data are interval data with a fixed zero point.

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Interval/Ratio

Mean July temperatures, Washington DC (2003-1994):77.5°F, 81.0°F, 75.6°F, 74.5°F, 83.1°F, 79.0°F, 80.0°F, 80.8°F, 81.5°F, 82.0°F

Distance from home to friends houses (measured in meters rounded to nearest meter): 123, 76, 489, 262, 53, 26

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Interval and ratio data can be counted, ordered, added,

subtracted, multiplied, and/or divided.

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What kind of data do grades represent?

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Grading

Other Unique Perspectives:

Marge Scherer and Mel Levine

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Grading

Two Articles:

Perspectives / Discovering Strengths Marge Scherer

Educational LeadershipSeptember 2006 | Volume 64 | Number 1Teaching to Student Strengths    Pages 7-7

Celebrate Strengths, Nurture Affinities: A Conversation with Mel Levine

Educational LeadershipSeptember 2006 | Volume 64 | Number 1

Teaching to Student Strengths    Pages 8-15

Marge Scherer

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Grading

Discuss and Share:

Discuss with a partner the Grading Implications of these articles and prepare to share your conclusions with the class.

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Grading

Seven Perspectives on Grading

7. Guidelines for Grading in Standards-Based Stems

Discuss handout.

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The essence of educative assessment - authentic tasks and performer-friendly feedback.

•What are Authentic Tasks?

•Not just hands-on work.

•Performance on a task is about results.

•Impact criteria.

•Assessment Tasks are not Instructional Activities.

Educative Assessment – Ensuring Authentic Performance