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Making the GradeGrading Practices for
Students with Disabilities
By
Cathy Sartain Industries
cathysartainindustries@comcast.net
Why Worry About Grading?
• LRE
• Standards based curriculum and state assessment
• District grading policies
• Litigation
What Makes Grading Hard?
lack of regulatory guidancelack of regulatory guidance
“faulty” thinking
Doesn’t Federal Law Tell Us Everything We Need To Know?
IDEA: is silent with respect to grading issues
Section 504: prohibits discrimination in grading procedures
What is Some of the Faulty Thinking?
I can’t fail a special education student
I give all my Life Skills students an 85
• The report card grade does not really mean anything
The grade on the report card can’t be less than the IEP mastery level
I teach a lot in my classroom, but I can only grade the things that are on the IEP
I don’t do the grades for my sped students in my classroom, the sped teacher does
I really want to do things correctly…
what guidance is there so
I don’t make mistakes?
May I use a different grading system?
Only if the IEP team adopts an alternate system based on specific disability related needs
Don’t take it upon yourself to make changes outside of
an IEP Team meeting!
But how do I decide?
Where is the student receiving instruction?
What is the scope of the curriculum the student is responsible for?
What is “meaningful” progress reporting?
Impact of disability on grading policies and procedures
My student is receiving
accommodations in my classroom, do I modify the grade?
Do not reduce a grade merely because the student receives accommodations, or is in special education
Since my classroomis inclusive, I
arbitrarily weight my sped students’ grades,
this is OK, right? Of course not!!!!
But, what if we take out the word
arbitrary?
It Depends!
A district may use a weighting system in which [each] course is analyzed separately and assigned a degree of difficulty based on methods of instruction and material covered(North East ISD, TX. 1995)
Most of my students are in general education,
can I identify as a goal, that they will make a
passing grade? Definitely not!
The mastery criteria is tied only to the skill specified in the goal
Are good grades on my sped students’ report cards proof that the district is providing FAPE?
• Persuasive, but not definitive
What exactly does that mean?
Good grades may be powerful evidence but cannot be the only factor considered, must look at a range of evidence (teacher assessments, grades, standardized tests, etc.)
If I send out IEP Progress Reports,
must I also send out Report Cards?
IDEA requires that the IEP describes how progress toward annual goal will be measured, and
When the periodic reports on progress will be provided to the parents
So, we must look to Section 504 for
guidance!Section 504 tells us that:
We can’t discriminate
We must document in IEP if ARDC determines alternate grading method
Grading must be meaningful and useful
Can the grade be based solely on
effort?State law (TEC 28.0216): requires a teacher to assign a grade that reflects
the student’s mastery of an assignment, AND
may not require a teacher to assign a minimum grade without regard to the student’s quality of work (not on effort alone)
May allow reasonable opportunity to make up or redo assignments and tests failed
If the IEP Team recommends a grading accommodation, will
that affect the graduation option?
No, graduation options are determined by rigor of content and grading is about mastery of content
Is it OK to identify if a sped student is
working on a modified curriculum on his report card?
Report cards are intended as a communication to parents and asterisks or other symbols or codes may be used to indicate a modification or exception to the generally applicable grading scale.
Well then, can we identify if a student is taking sped classes on
their transcript? We can not use a notation for the
purpose of identifying a course for students with disabilities
A transcript is generally expected to be shared with others than just the parent
Do we really have to include students with
disabilities on the honor roll?
Exclusion from the honor roll on a categorical basis violates Section 504 (34CFR 104.4)
However, a school district may establish eligibility standards that will recognize levels of academic excellence
How about class rankings?
…….take a guess!
Can’t exclude
Can establish district guidelines for determining class ranking and apply that to all students
In other words:
Grading practices need to be fair and equitable
Practices can’t be discriminatory or exclusionary
Grades need to be meaningful and useful
What does that look like?
Consistent framework for making decisions on determining grades for report card
Decisions are documented in IEP
Grades are true reflection of student’s progress
Tell me again, what should we base our
decisions on? District policies
Impact of disability on grading policies and procedures
Place of instruction
Curriculum expectations
What are my grading options?
District policies
District policies with accommodations
Alternate grading system
How is this documented in the ARD paperwork?
Depends on the district’s IEP paperwork
Most often is addressed in the accommodations portion of the paperwork
May also be addressed in the deliberations (minutes)
But this sounds like it could look
differently for each student?
You got it! Must be:Specific to the student
Specific to the content area
Specific to the impact of the student’s disability on the grading policies and procedures
Discussed, decided and documented in the IEP meeting
Disability related
ARD committee decision
Implemented
What tools can help make this happen?
Guidance for IEP Team decision making and documentation
Guidance for IEP Team selection of grading accommodation
Guidance for IEP Team development of alternate grading systems
Training, training, and training!
The important thing to remember is that
grades for ALL students are to
meaningfully and accurately
communicate learning
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