Grading Practices FLMS Presentation - June 2009

8/8/2019 Grading Practices FLMS Presentation - June 2009

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Grading PracticesDouglas Reeves, Ph.D.

Deland Middle School

2008-2009


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Sample Action Research Project

Research Question

How do differences in grading policy (and not differencesin student performance) influence student failure rates?

Method

Faculty will examine identical student academicperformance and provide a grade.

Analysis

Similarities indicate consistency and fairness;

dissimilarities indicate differences based on facultydecisions, not student performance.

Complete Learning Activity


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Calculate the Final Grade for this Student

C, C, MA (Missing Assignment), D, C, B, MA,

MA, B, A

Group 1: A=100, B=90, C=80, D=70

Group 2: A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1

Group 3: Choose your own system but you

must have a letter grade


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2008 Research on Effective Grading

Practices

International sample of more than 1000

teachers and administrators

Significant differences in attitudes and

beliefs about grading practices

For copies of the latest research, go to

www.LeadandLearn.com, click on

Support, then click on Douglas Reeves

presentations
http://www.leadandlearn.com/http://www.leadandlearn.com/


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Grading

Grades = Feedback to Improve Performance! If you have high levels of success and low failure rates, your policy is

sound and should be left alone.

If you have low levels of success and high failure rates, what you aredoing is not working.

The Real World is not You have one chance at it and youredone.We seldom use average for anything else except grades.

Grades must never be used as punishment. It doesnt work!

Rewards for work done daily are far greater than punishment for workdone late.

The Drivers License Test example chance to re-do/re-take


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Academic Corporal Punishment

Corporal Punishment - We likedit!

American Pediatric Society ruled it was

ineffective and doesnt work in 1961.

Academic Corporal Punishment We like it!

Should we respond, Thats your opinionand well let you do it!


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Toxic (Ineffective) Grading Policies

The use of zeroes for missing work.Consequence should be to complete the work!

The practice of using the average of all scores

during the grading period, a formula thatpresumes that the learning early in the semesteris as important as learning at the end of thesemester. (Marzano 2000; OConnor, 2007)

The use of the grading period killer the singleproject, test, lab, paper, or other assignment thatwill make or break students.


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Toxic Grading Practices and Alternatives

Toxic

Zeroes for missingwork

Average/MeanGrading Period Killer:

One Test or Project

Alternative

Get Er Done, Just Do It,

complete/submit missing

work

Best representation of

work (Re-do, Re-submit)

Resilience, Personal

Responsibility (Dont let

them off the hook!)


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The Power of Zeroes Rick Wormeli, Middle Ground

Convert zeroes to 50s

Conversion necessary so that any calculatingis mathematically justified.

Not using zeroes is a more accurate picture ofthe students ability.

Zero has an undeserved and devastating effecton students and their grades so much that no

matter what student does, the zero distorts thefinal grade as a true indicator of mastery.

Mathematically and ethically unacceptable!


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Negative Impact of Zero on a 100-Point

Grading Scale

0, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100 = 83% = B50, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100 = 92% = A

Should weuse an F grade near the top of the F range, such as 50 in thiscase, or should we use the bottom, most hurtful and distorting of F grades

a zero - as the indicator of failure? What purpose does it serve to use a zero to indicate a student failed to

demonstrate mastery? Should a string of perfect papers for a grading period combined with one

paper not submitted equate to a lower grade? (NCLB-AYP) What would happen if we did not count the lowest grade?

Consider trying to find the average temperature over 5 days and recording85, 82, 83, 86, then forgetting a day and recording zero. The averagetemperature would be 67, a figure that does not accurately show the weatherfrom that week.


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Using the 4.0 Grading Scale

(NotRecommended)

4.0 grading scale is an inaccuracy.

Using a zero in the previous example would

also distort the final grade.

You must use 1.0 in place of zero as the failingand/or unscorable level on a 4.0 scale.

Using 1.0 as the bottom score will result in not

distorting a students grade average based onone incomplete assignment or failed test.


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High Expectations Todd Whitaker

Great Teachers high expectations for students and even higherfor themselves. If students are not passing, they ask what theythemselves can do differently.

Poor Teachers high expectations for students and much lowerexpectations for themselves. Also, unrealistically high

expectations for everyone else (principal to be perfect, parents tobe flawless, students to be perfect, and peers to hold them inincredibly high regard).

Is accepting/allowing a student to earn a failing grade (F) and/ornot completing the work an example of high expectations?

Absolutely not! It is the lowest expectation you can have foryour students and must be unacceptable!


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Expectations

Behavior

Students expected to

behave

Students expected tofollow/obey rules


follow procedures

Zero toleranceMisbehaving is not an

option!

Academic


complete/submit work?

Students expected tofollow directions of the

assignment?


pass?

Zero Tolerance?

Failing is not an option!


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Accurate Grading Policies Rick Stiggins

Determine grades using the median

(middle grade) not the mean/average.

Look for the most consistent level of

performance, not all performances.

We should not hold a students earlier

digressions in the grading period or year

against them.


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Effective Grading Practices

-Douglas B. Reeves, Ph.D.

To reduce failure rate, schools dont need a newcurriculum, a new administration, new teachers,or new technology. They just need a bettergrading system.

Grading seems to be regarded as the lastfrontier of individual teacher/school discretion.

The same school leaders and community

members who would be indignant if referees,judges, etc. were inconsistent in their rulingscontinue to tolerate inconsistencies that havedevastating effects on student achievement.


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F (Fail) vs. I (Incomplete)

Goal Student to complete the work.

WOO (Window of Opportunity) tocomplete missing assignments, re-test, re-

submit, re-do etc.

Re -Do! Re-Take! Re-Test! Re-

Submit!


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Did You Know..

Two common causes of course failures 1)missinghomework; 2)poor performance on a single majorassignment. Adjusting your policy would have a hugeimpact on student failures. (Reeves)

Assessments are used to provide the ladder for the

student to crawl from his/her hole. Whether it is due toimmaturity, behavior or cognitive readiness level, greatteachers still provide the ladder. (Wormeli)

Distorted and inaccurate grades are little more thanharsh punishment. Students want to throw down the ball

and go home. They see no reason to play. Grades thatreduce the negative effects of an imperfect gradingsystem keep students in the game. (Marzano)


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Better Students, Better School, Better

Climate! Douglas B. Reeves, Ph.D

When grading policies improve, discipline andmorale always improves!

When student failures decrease, studentbehavior improves, faculty morale is better,resources allocated to remedial courses andcourse repetitions are reduced, and resourcesinvested in enrichment and other meaningfulopportunities increase.

When was the last time a single change in aschool accomplished all of that?


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Students with Disabilities

ESE students are experts at:Disruptions

Avoiding tasks

Performing below expectations

Wouldnt you disrupt, avoid tasks, and

perform below expectations if thegrading policy was slanted against you?


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Everyone who has a need to know abouta students performance in school

certainly can be told that she or he is a

nice student who tries hard, but they also

have a right to know the specific level ofher or his knowledge in a particular

subject at a given point in time.

-----Ken OConnor


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The Grade Book

Concepts NOT assignments!

Page 87 tells us nothing!

If concepts are listed in the grade book:

Teachers can easily tell parents, students, and

administrators what concepts are mastered.

IEP goals and objectives are easily written.

Incomplete grades can be given to individualconcepts- helping to identify areas that need more

instruction.


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The ESE Teachers Grade Book

Grade books will list specific

objectives/concepts

Grade books will NOT list individual

homework/class work assignments

Grade books will NOT include entries for effort,behavior, attendance or attitude.


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What should NOT be included in a

grade?

Effort

ParticipationAttitudeBehavior

HomeworkGroup work


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What is the point of homework?


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Zero and the ESE Student

Are you saying that the ESE student

retained zero percent of your instruction?

Are you grading effort and participation or

mastery of a concept?

There has to be alternate methods to

demonstrate mastery!

Can you achieve mastery by doing page

87 numbers 1-24 even?


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Re-Do, Re-Take, Re-Test, Re-Submit!

The consequence for a student who

fails to meet a standard is not a low

grade but rather the opportunity

indeed, the requirementto resubmit his

or her work.

-- Douglas Reeves


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Re-Teaching and Re-Testing

In Class re-teaching/retesting

After School re-teaching & Extra Help

Lunch/Recess re-teaching & Extra Help

Student Accountability

Builds Positive Relationships with

Parents/Students


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What information provides the most accurate depictionof students learning at this time? In nearly all cases, theanswer is the most current information.

If students demonstrate that past assessmentinformation no longer accurately reflects their learning,that information must be dropped and replaced by thenew information.

--Guskey


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Final Exams

Final Exam organized and graded by

concept (all concepts for the quarter)

Final Exam serves as last retest

opportunity

Scores on Final Exam, if higher, will

replace previously recorded scores

Overall Final Exam score entered in gradebook as a single entry (as if it were a concept)


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Accommodations

If the idea is concept mastery, why do we

assign timed tasks?

Why do we require 25 correct

demonstrations of the required task?

Wouldnt it make sense to chunk the work

into parts and re-teach after each part?

When the student demonstrates mastery,

assess the concept formally.


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The use of an I or Incomplete grade is

an alternative to assigning zeros that is

both educationally sound and potentially

quite effective.

--Guskey & Bailey


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Incompletes

I Contracts- for both individual concepts

and final grades.

Should clearly outline the desired learning

outcomes.

Should allow time for re-teaching.

Communication with parents, students,and administration.


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STUDENT CONTRACT FOR REMEDIATION OF FAILING GRADE

Grading Period 1 2 3 4

_____ I, ________________________________, understand that my current grade

for Reading Class is an F ( _____ % ), but will receive an I for Incomplete on

the report card.

_____ I understand that my teacher is giving me the opportunity to complete/retake

specific assignments for the expressed purpose of not making a failing grade.

_____ I understand that I have 3 weeks to improve my grade. All work, tests,and/or assignments that my teacher gives me are due on

___________________________ at the beginning of the period.

_____ I understand it is my responsibility to complete this work at home.

_____ I understand I must complete the work to get a good grade on it. I must give

this work to my teacher to grade on or before the due date above.

_____ I understand at the end of the 3 weeks my teacher will change my grade onthe report card from an I to the appropriate grade after my work has been

graded.


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ESE Grading Policy

Grades will be based upon STUDENTACHIEVEMENT

Grades will be based upon MASTERY OFCONCEPTS AND SKILLS

Students should have MULTIPLEOPPORTUNITIES to demonstrate mastery


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Resources

OConnor, A Repair Kit for Grading: 15 Fixes

for Broken Grades

How to Grade for Learning

Marzano, Assessment and Grading that Works

Guskey, Practical Solutions for Serious Problems inStandards-Based Grading


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Discipline and GradingPractices/Student

Achievement

Do you want to be right or do you

want to solve the problem?-Dr. Phil


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Research Based Findings

(Gettinger, 1988) analyzed well-managed classrooms thatfunctioned smoothly with few disruptions and were wellorganized.

He then analyzed less effective classrooms that experienced

frequent disruptions due to a large amount of time spent ondiscipline and transitions that were lengthy and chaotic. Gettinger expected to find that the teachers of the well-

managed classrooms would possess more effectivedisciplinary techniques. Surprisingly, he found that both wereapproximately equal in dealing with student misbehavior. The

variance was that the successful classroom managers weremore efficient at minimizing behavioral problems byintervening before the misbehavior escalated.


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Volusia Countys Approach To Classroom

Management

CHAMPs assists classroom teachers to design (or fine tune) a proactive and positiveclassroom management plan that will overtly teach students how to behave responsibly. Easy

implementation of the strategies in the CHAMPs will:

* Reduce classroom disruptions and office referrals* Improve classroom climate

* Increase student on-task behavior* Establish respectful and civil interactions

By following the effective, research-based practices outlined in CHAMPs, teachers developmethods for clearly communicating their expectations on every classroom activity and

transition. Expectations to clarify are:

Conversation (Can students talk to each other during this activity?)

Help (How do students get the teachers attention and their questions answered?)

Activity (What is the task/objective? What is the end product?)

Movement (Can students move about during this activity?)

Participation (How do students show they are fully participating? What does work behaviorlook/sound like?)

(Sprick, Garrison, and Howard 1998)


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Our Teachers Deal with the FollowingBehaviors in the Classroom

Class or school rule violation Disruption or disturbance of a school activity (minor)

Dress code violation

False document

Horseplay Minor disruption or disturbance of a school activity,

class or campus

Tardiness

All level one offenses in the student code of conduct


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DeLand Middle School Improvement

Goal

2008-2009 - to decrease the percentage

of referrals for Male Students

One strategy - the implementation of an

I (Incomplete) vs. an F (Failure)


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I (Incomplete) vs. F (Failure) and its

Impact on Discipline

Teachers assign an I (incomplete) vs. an F(failure)

This positive approach to grading elevatesstudents self worth and gives the student a feeling

of success that many have never felt. Many behaviors are avoidance driven, and thisapproach to grading eliminates many of thebehaviors students use to avoid looking inferior totheir peers, thereby decreasing classroom

misbehaviors and increasing student achievement This, along with effective classroom managementare key to a students success


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Malesonly, 1200 Males

only, 750

Totalreferrals,

2381Total

referrals,

1741

0

500

1000

15002000

2500

3000

1 2

totalreferrals

2007-2008 2008-2009

Comparison of Referrals at Deland

Middle

Males only

Total referrals


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Percentage Change from 2007-2008 to

2008-2009 for the Target Group

2007-2008 - Male students represented

73.3% of referrals written at DeLand

Middle School

2008-2009 - Male students represented

62.5% of referrals written at DeLand

Middle School

This represents a 10.8% decrease

Documents

Grading Practices FLMS Presentation - June 2009