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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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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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.

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 - 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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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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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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