Guest-Writer Adrienne Michetti: Grading Gone Awry
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[I'm happy to introduce today's guest-blogger, Adrienne Michetti, a Canadian teaching in Vietnam whose comments on this blog over the past couple of months have constantly given me food for thought and learning. Adrienne's response to my "Taking Back Teaching: A Forgotten History" post prompted me to invite this guest-post, and frankly, I suspect Adrienne politely pulled her punches in what follows, and if so, invite her to push back more in the comments. And FYI, I'm still in transition in my new apartment and more, so expect irregular posting until the dust settles.]
One of the first things I thought of when I saw Clay’s post on grading was the debate happening a few months ago over at The Faculty Room, about “the unthinking habits of grading.”
Clay’s post outlined a (brief and one-sided, but relevant) history of “grading” in the modern world and how it is destroying teaching and learning. His post also characterized how “grading’s evil twin,” over-sized classrooms, devalues learning. While I agree with much of Clay’s post, I have to start my rebuttal with a strong disclaimer — so strong that it almost feels like a confession: I hate the word “grading” and all its derivatives.
And that is why I prefer to talk about Assessment. Yes, Assessment with a capital A. You see, “grading” is a term that I never used or even really heard until I moved into international education. I am originally from Canada and where I’m from, we informally call the whole shebang “marks.” In my more formal discussions with administrators, parents, and colleagues I would use the term I was introduced in my B.Ed. programme: Assessment. But then, I moved overseas and my American colleagues started asking me, “So have you finished your grading yet?”
Huh?
The Word
It took me a while to wrap my head around the idea that teachers viewed giving assessments as some kind of way to “rate” students. A couple of quick searches reveals some of the reasons why I am uncomfortable with the word “grade.” First, the definitions. Note that I am purposely including only the first few definitions provided.
From Dictionary.com Unabridged v 1.1:
grade -noun
- a degree or step in a scale, as of rank, advancement, quality, value, or intensity
- a class of persons or things of the same relative rank, quality, etc.
- a step or stage in a course or process.
There are several more definitions, but these first three give you an idea of why I’m uncomfortable with the term. According to these first three definitions (and similar ones on Merriam-Webster and the like), essentially, a grade is a rank or classification. The Online Etymology Dictionary says that “grade” (noun) is from Latin, gradus, meaning “a step or degree,” and is related to gradi, which is “to walk, step, go.” So why are we using grades — and even the term itself – to classify students’ abilities?
But wait — here is the bit I am looking for. If I look carefully at the Dictionary.com definition, and scroll down to definition #7, I will see one that says this:
a letter, number, or other symbol indicating the relative quality of a student’s work in a course, examination, or special assignment; mark.
Ahh, that’s it. A grade can be used to indicate quality — it can be an informant, so to speak. This is somewhat similar to Definition #3, which is about steps or stages. And then back to the Online Etymology Dictionary, where at the very end of the entry for “grade” it tells me the history of the term we are using now in 2008:
that of “letter-mark indicating assessment of a student’s work” is from 1886.
Ok, so I’m not so way-off base. What I’m wondering is how we evolved, as teachers, from viewing (and using) grades as indicators to using grades as ranks and classifiers. Something is wrong with this picture.
A Proposal
I’d like to propose that we get back to the meaning that has to do with indicating assessment of a student’s work — that is, as indicators of growth. And that’s why I prefer to use the term Assessment rather than “grade.” The term “grade” implies ranking and classification, and this is exactly what we do not want to do with our students. The reasons are obvious — we all know that ranking and classification of abilities can be absolutely detrimental to real authentic learning. Ranking and classifying have nothing to do with intrinsic motivation and everything to do with jumping through hoops.
So I refer back to my original comment on Clay’s post:
As Gilbert said in the same comment thread,
If we are going to use Assessment as a way to indicate whether a student is learning or not, then most educators would agree: We Need Assessment! Instead of using Assessment just to get grades (you know, those silly numbers that need to go in a column or box on a report card), instead, let’s use Assessment to show learners and their parents just how much (or little) growth is occurring. Heck, while we’re at it, let’s use Assessment to guide our own teaching practices, too. Are they getting it? Do I need to teach something differently? Or never again?
Let’s let the grades STAND for something else, something other than a rank, category, or class. Let’s let the grades represent the descriptions of the learning. (That definitely calls for criterion-referenced Assessment, by the way.) Yes, let’s let the grades BE the description of what has been learned, and then let’s let those grades guide what will be learned next.
How-To
I personally believe that almost anything can be used to arrive at an indication of learning (indication of learning = Assessment). A test? Sure — as long as you’re not calculating some kind of percentage total. An essay? Maybe, depending on what it is you’re assessing. A personal journal? Absolutely — if it’s honest and personal, I bet there’s heaps of evidence of learning. An overheard conversation? Definitely! A blog post, a Tweet, Facebook application, or a collection of shared bookmarks? Why not? The question I ask myself as a teacher: Does this show evidence of the student’s learning? If the answer is yes, even to a small degree, then I see no reason why it cannot be used as some way for me to indicate that learning has occurred.
So the key, then, seems to be to come up with an effective Assessment descriptor. Traditionally, we have used numbers — I’m not certain of the reason but I suspect it’s because they’re difficult to argue with and they fit easily into a transcript or spreadsheet, thereby making data easy to manipulate and process. Well, that reason has little to do with the learners (to my mind, anyway) and so I am not sure that numbers are the best route any more. Some systems use letters — a small difference from numbers, but easily translated and manipulated the same way as numbers. And let’s face it — how do you usually end up arriving at the letter grade? (Numbers.)
I would prefer to use symbols of some kind to indicate to students, parents, and myself how a learner is doing in terms of skills and understanding. The image I mentioned before is a drawing of a flower in different stages of development from levels 1 to 4. Level 1 = just sprouting; Level 4 = full bloom. And next to each flower drawing, I might put a description of what it is I expect to see in the student’s work at that level. So, for example, if I am assessing paragraphs, it might look like this:
(image of a barely sprouting flower) The paragraph has a main idea, but sometimes goes off-topic. Sentences are not yet organized and ordered in a way that is logical, but they are beginning to be connected in some places. An attempt at a topic sentence is visible, though the main idea is not clearly stated, only implied.
(image of a full bloom flower) The paragraph has a fully developed and explored main idea with very relevant connected details. Sentences are in clearly discernible, appropriate, thoughtful, and logical order. The topic sentence is relevant and attention-grabbing with a clearly stated and coherent main idea.
I like this idea because it removes the numbers from the general picture and focuses instead on Assessment as an indicator of growth. Not only do I like this idea in terms of assessing a particular task or learning goal, but I also like the idea of using this as a holistic way to report on a student’s learning growth over the course of a term or semester. Even better, perhaps, might be to eliminate the symbols altogether from the “reporting” aspect and just focus on the descriptive comments. But I suspect that university admissions personnel might not like that idea . . .
However I do want my students to understand that Assessment is important, but that it’s not about the numbers. As I said before — even if I don’t exist and they are teaching themselves, learners must understand that being reflective and “seeing where you’re at” is necessary for learning. Assessment is just an indicator, it does not have to be a rank and classification system.
Numbers Again
I haven’t really said much about “grading’s evil twin: over-sized classrooms.” I guess that’s because I think this one is a simple issue. No one actually believes that a lot of learning can happen in a class of 20+ students — do they? To my mind, this is simply an issue of financial and human resources. If we provide enough teachers to keep the ratios low (ideally, less than 16), then learning will increase. That is, I think, a no-brainer. Unfortunately very few schools or districts are willing to follow through with such a plan because human resources are the most expensive.
Having said all of this, I do think it is possible to manage Assessment creatively in classes with more than 16 students. What it means is that their teacher has to train the students — and rigorously — to be very good self- and peer-assessors. Note that I used the word “creatively”: in this situation a teacher has to think about Assessment very differently and be willing to give up some of that “grading power.” I know I did not do this well in my first 5 years of teaching and I’m still not sure that I do it well. Managing Assessment with groups this large is perhaps not impossible, but it is certainly difficult, not consistently effective, and definitely time-consuming. It may even mean having to sacrifice some time at the start of the school year that you would normally dedicate to plowing straight ahead through the curriculum. I would argue that it’s time well-spent, however. What students learn in learning to assess themselves and others will take them far further in life than that extra novel study or history paper. What good learner is not a reflective learner, after all?
Thinking More
I posted about “the unthinking habits of grading” on my own blog a while back, and my conclusions then and my conclusions now are the same: We don’t need to get rid of “grading” altogether, we just need to change what it means, and think a heck of a lot more about why we are doing it. (And perhaps we need to call it something different!)
Photo credits: You Can Do It by Koocheekoo, licensed under CC 2.0
Symbols in Vector by grandnegasax, licensed under CC 2.0
Numbers by erin watson photography, licensed under CC 2.0
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Nice post, Adrienne.
It doesn’t seem like the flower example actually gets rid of “numbers”: how would it be different from having numbers 1-4 with the descriptive definitions? As I understand it, what it really does is give explicit meaning to the numbers, in a way that makes sense to students and is helpful to them. (Granted, the flower imagery may well help communicate this meaning.)
What I really like about this is that, whether it’s flowers or numbers or other symbols, a system like this seems designed to serve as a language, within the context of a relationship between the teacher (me) and the students.
What freaks me out is the idea of someone (read: college admissions) taking it *out* of context, and assuming the number means something along the lines of, “This is how much knowledge student 142031 has proven she has acquired.”
(A colleague of mine explained a really helpful distinction between these two. The former, which aims to be an ‘indicator’ to help direct the next step in the learning process, is called “formative assessment”. The latter, which summarizes what someone knows, is called “summative assessment”. My apologies if I’m repeating stuff you all already know…)
-Anand
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Anand Thakker
7 Jul 08 at 8:06 am
As a special ed teacher I have been using narrative assessments for years. When I develop an Individual Education Plan for a student I list the strengths, learning styles, educational needs, goals and objectives. Each quarter I then write a narrative describing the curriculum and whether or not the student achieved the objectives. Last year I had 40 students in my math classes and each one had an IEP. I also had to give “grades” on a report card and a high school transcript. In special ed the grade is more of a reflection of students working to their ability level. I gave an A to a student who still uses a times table chart and an F to a student who is capable of pre-algebra work.
I see teachers using grades as a carrot or stick to get students to work harder. The grades seem to satisfy parents and society that some type of learning is happening.
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Jim Walker
7 Jul 08 at 9:27 am
First of all, I’m a big fan of the flower symbol as a way to communicate assessment information to students and parents. I may have to give that a try this year.
Your post has given me a lot to think about. I teach elementary and I often wonder how much of a difference that makes in my thoughts on certain topics.
I think of assessment and grading as two very different things. Assessment is what I am doing almost all the time in order to plan instruction appropriately. Grading is what I do because I have to. Society here in the US demands that we give grades. Both because we (many of us) are naturally competitive and because it is what we have always done. I’d like to see us abolish grades all together and try some drastically different way of communicating assessment information. I think a huge shift will be necessary for us to not simply do the same thing with a different name and look.
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Jenny
7 Jul 08 at 9:42 am
Like Jim Walker, my background is special education. When I made the transition to “general” education teacher, I continued to see the value of using IEP-type narratives to assess the learning gains of my students. So, I use coaching rubrics similar to Adrienne Michetti’s flower example to document student growth. I also try to take an A/B/Not Yet approach to “grading” based on the how well the student scored on the coaching rubric.
This approach to student assessment has become more that I can manage. Though I can clearly articulate to parents exactly which skills a student has or has not mastered within the course, I am still required by the district to give a “grade” for student work at the end of every six week period. (Actually, I have to “give grades” by the third week of every grading period as a means of providing parents with a “progress report.”) There is, for me, always a disconnect between how well my students progress and how I’m required to quantify that progress.
Like Jim Walker, I’m conflicted with I’m asked to “grade” student A, who could, at the beginning of the course, barely write a complete sentence, but who has mastered complex sentences by mid-semester, and “grade” student B, who began the semester with a solid command of sentence and paragraph structure, and by mid-semester is well on the way to writing well supported, logically organized essays. Who gets an “A”? My documentation shows that both students made learning gains. According to the scope and sequence of the course, however, student A hasn’t met the criteria for passing the course. (An added insult: Student A has also not learned enough to pass the standardized writing test.)
I’m totally on the “assessment” bandwagon. I get it. I just don’t know how to circumvent the system that dictates policies that bring relevant assessment practices to a crashing halt.
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lhagen
7 Jul 08 at 12:12 pm
Real quick, as I’m brain-dead from an all-night Wimbledon finals marathon (my heart breaks for Federer, but embraces Nadal too for a beautifully rising star) –
Anand touches on my biggest “yeah but….”: college admissions and the crushing pressure to brand students with a standards-based (if they’re lucky) grade. I know many colleges are going SAT optional, but that’s no help, since they’re weighting GPA even more as a result. So….help.
And Lucia touches another one: how “unmanageable” it is to assess students with care when class sizes are so large today (and considered normal when, as my Taking Back Teaching post discusses, were not always so) – AND to do it _on top of_ having to grade for the report cards and progress reports. Help.
Really good comments already. Thanks for that.
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Clay Burell
7 Jul 08 at 12:27 pm
I agree that this is a great post but it stops short of actually being perscriptive of how we satisfy all stakeholders that the “assessment” that we are doing really is valid and reliable.
Given that there are good examples of schools out there trying to do things differently, I really want to be reading more postings and articles in the mass media about how student presentations, portfolios, blog commenting etc, are much better indicators of success in the 21st Century world.
I am in Hong Kong, the land where every school is rushing headlong into the IB programme as quickly as possible due to questions about continuation of A Levels beyond 2013. I run into lots of parents who know that their kids will suffer in trying to live up to the assessment criteria for the Theory of Knowledge component and the external examination regime yet in the weekend papers there was a report of the last big International School in Hong Kong deciding to fall into line.
Seems to me that we are all doing a bad job of getting the message out about alternatives.
Mind you, not being an IB Diploma teacher, I could have it wrong, maybe the external exams are flexible, open-ended assessments? Somehow, I don’t think so.
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Paul McMahon
7 Jul 08 at 1:05 pm
Thanks, everyone, for the feedback. A few quick replies – I’ve got guests this week and I’m short on time.
@Anand – the flower imagery can remove the numbers altogether so that we don’t have to resort to the 1-4 scale that you mention. And yes, I am very familiar with the difference between formative and summative assessment, as are my students. However, what I question is why we must use NUMBERS for the summative assessment. Why can’t the flower image work for different skill sets and be reported thus, with support from a narrative?
@Jim – perhaps we need to re-train parents to understand that learning can happen without the numbers. The narratives you describe probably hold much more information about what learning is going on in with your students than any letter grade or percentage.
@Jenny – I find it interesting that you think of Grading and Assessment as two different things. If you had to define Grading, what would your definition be? I guess a big part of my philosophy has a hole in it because perhaps I really don’t understand the concept of Grading.
@lhagen — You said “I just don’t know how to circumvent the system that dictates policies that bring relevant assessment practices to a crashing halt.” I completely understand how you feel. And it sounds like you are tied to more grading policies than I have ever been in my 10 years as a teacher, so you have made me feel very fortunate and thankful. I don’t profess to have all the answers, but I wonder if you couldn’t just leave the grade for the reports and nothing else. What I mean is, use the grade as the way you need to use it, but make all of your feedback to students and parents outside of reports of the narrative or symbolic type. I can’t remember where I read about this — I think it was in that Alfie Kohn article that Clay referenced — where he suggested doing something of this nature. That way, your feedback to students is always and only about their learning, and their understanding of assessment is also only for their learning. But the grading, which you have a hard time getting around, is for the parents and so for those purposes, you just fill in the boxes and get it over with. I’m not suggesting that you don’t assess the students’ work without using the district scope / sequence documents that you need to — of course you must. But give it a grade, write it down somewhere only for your purposes, so that you can “translate” it later on to the report — and don’t let the students see it or even worry about it. All they then have to worry about is the feedback you’ve given them which is specific to how they can become a better learner.
(I have no idea if that suggestion is even feasible or realistic, however. I simply remember reading it a few weeks ago and thinking that I would like to give it a try in at least one of my classes in the upcoming school year.)
@Clay – I’m afraid I have few suggestions other than the one I already made to Lucia about using grades for colleges, etc. Until the system changes, this is the status quo in that arena — at the end of the day you have to put something in a box on a report. But as teachers we can make what is behind that “box” more meaningful by taking the emphasis off the actual letters or numbers. Can’t we tell students and parents, “That grade is there only because I needed to put it there, but it is nowhere near as descriptive as all the other feedback and evidence in this child’s portfolio of work”?
And as for the difficulty managing large class sizes– indeed this is a challenge. Depending on the ages of your students, I do believe that a teacher can train them to properly and accurately self and peer assess so that perhaps the load is lessened. Obviously this might be difficult with primary students, but my 6th graders know how to do it. I have to step in once in a while and guide them, but if they are intrinsically motivated to learn (ie., without the grades) then they will understand how to apply a set of criteria to their own work to see how they are progressing and what areas they need to improve.
@Paul — Other than essay exams, the exams at IB Diploma level are also based on criteria with different levels of achievement within each criterion. The levels of achievement are actually written as descriptors of the work, and so they are not based on percentages or other quantitative data. IB programs at all levels are about holistic assessment, and this is (to my mind) one of the things that makes them such progressive programs. Not to say they are infallible (they have many weaknessses), but they are definitely more forward-thinking.
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Adrienne
8 Jul 08 at 1:17 am
@Adrienne – I disagree that the flower imagery can remove the numbers all together. Even when you described it, you talked about “levels”. I wouldn’t even be surprised if students saw the flowers and started referring to them as numbers on their own! (”What’d you get?” “A two.”)
There’s nothing inherently *wrong* with numbers (says the math teacher…heh). The problem seems to be (a) when numbers are the only form of “reporting”, and (b) when the numbers are assumed to represent some kind of objective measure of talent, rather than a developmental stage of growth.
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Anand Thakker
8 Jul 08 at 8:38 pm
@Anand – perhaps students might start referring to levels of development as numbers but I’m not certain about that. My guess is that the adults in their lives (teachers and parents) would be the first to do that, and not themselves.
I don’t think that there is anything inherently wrong with numbers, but they do attach certain connotations to growth and assessment that I am uncomfortable with, and I sense that others are too. I’m not saying “let’s get rid of numbers altogether.” What I am saying is let’s be creative and thoughtful about how we use them, and maybe we don’t need to use them very much at all.
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Adrienne
9 Jul 08 at 12:15 am
@Paul – I realized that my reply to you was ambiguous. *ALL* IB Diploma exams, including the essay-based ones, are assessed with criteria descriptors. Most IB Diploma exams are open-ended, requiring critical thinking rather than remembering information and knowledge. There are some exceptions (History and Biology come to mind) but this is the general status. And admittedly, I’m not familiar with all the subject areas at the IB DP level.
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Adrienne
9 Jul 08 at 12:19 am
@Adrienne
Nice post. Well thought out. I like your take on assessments and the meaningful value they bring but the question still comes back to classroom size then. It is virtually impossible for a teacher to provide meaningful formative assessments with a teaching load of 140 plus as my school has.
I’m the administrator but unfortunately I don’t think i could pull of 16 or under without doubling the tuition. Personally I’d like to but the board would most likely have my head.
So if smaller classrooms are the key to unlocking the power of formative narrative assessment how do we pull that off? I’m not saying it can’t be done. If our culture (America) valued education as much as say NASCAR funding probably wouldn’t be an issue. All these posts make me want to start my own school someday.
@Clay
I think we both watched what will go down in history as the greatest moment of all time. As someone of Swiss ancestry I was sad to see Federer fall after such a great fight. My hat off to Nadal- a young man with so much poise. Congrats on the new apartment. Looks like a great view.
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Charlie A. Roy
9 Jul 08 at 10:02 am
@Charlie
Thanks for the positive feedback. The issue of classroom size is one that is related to assessment, but to my mind, as I said earlier, it’s a no-brainer. Class sizes just need to be smaller, period. And yes, while it is virtually impossible to provide meaningful formative assessments with a teaching load of 140+, I do think it IS possible to train one’s students to be effective self- and peer-assessors. While I would not advocate use of peer- and self-assessment exclusively, I maintain that it is certainly possible to use it creatively enough to lighten the assessment load overall. And, if a teacher is using criterion-based assessment ALL the time, this means the actual act of marking is easier for whomever is doing it, be it the student, the peer, or the teacher, because the assessor is matching work with a descriptor and providing reflective feedback related to those descriptors.
I guess what I’m trying to say (in a very diplomatic way) is that sometimes I wish teachers would stop complaining about “the unthinkable acts of grading” and instead think MORE and be CREATIVE about how they can assess in ways that are more meaningful. I’m not implying that teachers are bad teachers for grading the way they know how to presently, but if one is genuinely concerned about how assessment can inform meaningful learning and instruction, then one will find the best tools for the job, even if that means completely re-inventing the wheel. We are always advocates of teaching critical thinking to our students, but are all teachers as critical of their own ways of doing things? Especially with something as important as assessment, which is so necessary and important. It does not have to be a big, ugly, nasty evil of education.
And you are right — I mentioned this in my post — you, as an administrator might love to shrink class sizes to 16 or under, but the board probably won’t let you. My Assistant Principal said the same thing to me last fall when I suggested that the 2008-09 timetable be re-jigged so that we had more EAL support in every class, rather than in one “streamed” class. His response: “We just couldn’t justify that human resource expense to the board. There is no point in hiring 5 more teachers when if we just change the timetable, one teacher can do the same job as those 5.” Sadly, the meaningful learning of 100+ students does not “justify the human resource expense.”
So, until those in financial control are willing to think more creatively about funding so that class sizes can decrease — or maybe there will be no classes in the future? — we as educators need to think and act more creatively about how we use our time with students to instruct, assess, and report in ways that are as meaningful as possible.
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Adrienne
10 Jul 08 at 4:40 am