Grading is the bane of most educators’ lives, in elementary through university institutions. In fact, giving accurate feedback to a student when it comes time for evaluations is a dreaded task in most cases. Yet evaluators who give specific and accurate feedback are providing an important service to students. The more accurate and specific the feedback, the more a student can adjust and move forward in executing a particular skill, procedure or knowledge area…hopefully to relevant, real-world situations.
In a recent study by researchers at UC Irvine, one-third of the students said they deserved a “B” just for attending class, while 40 percent said they deserved the “B” for completing the readings. At Vanderbilt, according to Associate Dean of Education James Hogge, the goal is to put the learning burden on the student. Therefore, Dean Hogge says, the “locus of control” for grades rest with the student.
Many teachers give points for effort in their grading scheme…probably a bad idea. The fact is, grades are never a precise indicator of how much a student has progressed or learned. Yet teachers spend an enormous amount of time grading papers, group work, lab assignments, etc..
Not too surprisingly, grades often mean different things to teachers in the same department or school.
In middle and high schools, grades have a tendency to stress out students way beyond the grade’s worth. Too often grades become a disincentive for too many of our students today.
We should be pursing more effective ways to give students feedback, so they can understand how to improve a skill, procedure or content area. Actually, through student-led conferencing and portfolio self-assessment, I have found enormous benefit in involving the student in self-reflection and self-evaluation. Often students know better than anyone else what they need to do in order to perform at improved levels.
Also, teachers through their pre-service training should be given skills to give students prescriptive and specific feedback. When a golf instructor tells the student to keep her head down and follow through more on her next shot, the feedback is specific enough to make an immediate impact on the outcome. This type of golf-instructor-specific and incremental feedback is usually effective, and the results sometimes impressive.
What’s more is, we are creating a generation of students who only study to earn points, to achieve an A grade, and who are motivated by the grade rather than the quest for knowledge. Whatever happened to learning for the joy of knowing, doing, and experiencing, like those days in kindergarten—when we were not graded?
If 40% of students think they should get a ‘B’ just for showing up and doing the readings, then we’ve already stopped using grades.
Perhaps we need to go back to using grades as they were intended: as an indicator of whether a person has mastered the material taught in a class.
DiSalvo
B- for creative thinking
C- for content
D+ for common sense approach
Why not just give all the students hugs?
TJ,
Thank you for the specific feedback. I now know common sense approach is my lowest area, however I do a better than average job with creative thinking…I will work on my deficient areas the next post.
P.S. It appears you enjoy the grading/assessment process.
Joseph Di Salvo
I think if you had 5 teachers give a grade for something, you’d get 5 different oppinions on what the the grade should be. Sometimes you have a student that does everything, works his hardest, and shows improvement, yet hasn’t come close to mastering a grade level standard. Other times you have a student who is the opposite. He/she hasn’t done a lick of work, yet can perform well on a test, or can read well. Who deserves a better grade? Someone who turns in every assignment on time, yet hasn’t mastered a standard or someone who has a zero on every assignment, yet has the ability to perform?
DiSalvo also gets an A in smarminess. It is small wonder that he is in education, and we all know the sorry state education is in these days.
DiSalvo is one of the people who claim students cannot learn, but he is blameless.
Parents, check what district where DiSalvo works, and then get that third job to afford the private school tuition because they will be far away from this smarmy loser.
Tina,
Exactly. The student who has mastered the material deserves to get the feedback on how well he/she knows the content standards.
The student who turns in all assignments and who has yet to master the material deserves to receive feedback on what specicially he/she must do in order to have mastery of a particular standard.
Our current grading system is archaic and needs a total overhaul in order for students to reach mastery. Turning in assignments could be a separate standard not related to content that the student should receive feedback on,
Joseph Di Salvo
I think the difficulty is when you assume that the grade is a measure of personal worth. It isn’t.
A grade isn’t even really specific feedback. The specific feedback is in the comments on the page of each graded assignment.
The grade is summary feedback. That’s it.
What I don’t see is how eliminating summary feedback will improve the current situation. Nor do I see how you can keep the idea of summary feedback without it being essentially equivalent to grades.
Aw, dem grades is not good, like Mr. DiSalvo, who is a cool guy, and lets them call him, Joe.
No himwork or those chalanglehges for us with Mr. DiSalbo in cherge of the shool
Joe’s Student
A: $800 per unit
B: $1500 per unit
C: $2500 per unit
D-F: $2500 per unit and a 2 for 1 coupon