Grading toCommunicate

Grades can only be a shiny distraction—unless we make them a strong message.

Throughout my career as aneducator, I have experi-enced frustration with howmy traditional classroomgrading practices have

influenced my students' learning.When 1 discuss this issue withcolleagues, parents, and—most impor-tant—students, I find that I am notalone in my fmstration. Paradoxically,grades detract from students' motiva-

Tony Winger

tion to learn. It is time to reconsiderour classroom grading practices.

Does Grading Interferewith Learning?As a young teacher. I found theauthority to give grades empowering.The grade was my ace in the hole,providing the leverage needed to enticestudents to cooperate. But as timepassed, it dawned on me that the

manner in which 1 was using gradesconflicted with my deeper purposes asan educator. Again and again, studentsmet my passion for a subject with theirpragmatic concern for their grade. 1wanted my economics students towrestle with issues of equity or debatethe costs and benefits of a minimumwage; they wondered whether theupcoming test would be essay ormultiple-choice. I wanted my sociology

A S S O C I A T I O N FOR S U P E R V I S I O N AND CURRICULUM D E V E L O P M E N I 61

students to consider the powerful rolethat group attachments play in personaldecisions about religion or romance;they cared more about how many pagesthey would need to write for the essay

I wanted my students to wonder, tounderstand, and ultimately to bechanged. Many of them simply wanteda good grade. And the irony is, theywere only responding as other educa-tors and 1 had conditioned them torespond. We had trained them to seegrades as a commodity rather than as areflection of leaming.

Comments from a student panel thatmy school district organized to investi-gate grading practices further eluci-dated the problem. Students reportedthat they see their schoolwork as agame they play for grades—a game thatat best treats learning as incidental, andat worst distracts students from makingmeaning. One student referred to thisgrade game as academic bulimia:Students stuff themselves with informa-tion only to regurgitate it for the test,with little opportunity for thethoughtful engagement that wouldproduce deep understanding andgrowth.

Do Grades iVIeasureWhat We Value iViost?1 recall telling my students, "Work hardand your grade will be fine." Although 1did not realize it. the message tostudents was clear: My unconsciouscurriculum was one of compliance.

Rather than Principles and Practicesof Economics, my class might moreaccurately have been named Principlesand Practices of Being a Good Kid.Some students received good gradesand learned little; others learned muchand failed. Grades measured students'willingness to cooperate and work hardrather than their understanding ofeconomics or their ability to use thatunderstanding to think more clearlyabout their world. 1 was not assessingthe learning that I valued most.

Do Grades ProvideAccurate Feedback?When grades are not deliberatelyconnected to learning, they providelittle valuable feedback regardingstudents' academic strengths and weak-nesses, and can even be counterpro-ductive. 1 recently spoke with a frus-trated father whose daughter is on thehonor roll at her high school. He findsthat despite her hard work and highgrades, his daughter's writing skills aredeficient. He is having a difficult timeconvincing this honor student that herskills need improvement. Rather thansupporting leaming, her grades are actu-ally providing misleading information.

A colleague's experience reveals

districtwide initiative to address theissue of grading practices. After a yearof research and study, including solic-iting input from parents and teachers,the board of education has authorized arepresentative teacher pilot group toexplore changing how we grade ourstudents.

The problems my colleagues and Ihave experienced point to a crucialdisconnect between leaming andgrades. If we expect our grades topromote leaming, then we must besure that our grades assess and reportthe learning that we believe is mostessential. We as educators must becomemore conscious of our goals: theknowledge we want our students to

I wanted my students to wonder, tounderstand, and ultimately to be changed.Many of them simply wanted a good grade.

another manifestation of this problem.In the middle of the semester, sheasked her language arts students toidentify one area in which they hopedto improve during the second half ofthe course. Instead of identifying askill, such as writing organization orreading comprehension, most studentslisted either tests or homework. Ratherthan identifying gaps in student leaming,this teacher's grading practices hadfocused students' attention on theassessment tools.

Getting to Grading That WorksThree years ago, 1 became an instruc-tional coach at Heritage High School inLittleton, Colorado, where 1 had taughtfor 14 years. As a result of the training 1received in this new position, I heganto significandy revise my approach tograding, and I now guide other teachersin doing the same. Littleton PublicSchool District has launched a

understand; the skills we want them torefine; the kinds of reasoning we wantthem to demonstrate; and the connec-tions we hope they will make betweenabstract concepts and life.

Once we have clarified what knowl-edge, skills, reasoning, and connectionswe believe are essential in our class-rooms, we can choose componentsbased on this essential learning onwhich we will base our grades. Forexample, in a language arts class, theoverall grades might he separated intothe components of reading comprehen-sion, writing process, writing product,speaking, literary elements, andeffort/citizenship. It is important thatthese grade components align with thestate and district standards; some maybe drawn primarily from content orskills already identified by such stan-dards. A grade that is separated intodistinct components on the basis of keylearning becomes a meaningful

62 EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP/NOVEMBER 2005

communication—to studentsand parents alike—about v '̂hatstudents have and have notmastered.

Once 1 began deliberatelydefining what I wanted studentsto learn, a healthier gradingsystem fell into place. In myIntroduction to Sociology classfor juniors and seniors, Igrouped essential academicexpectations into four compo-nents: conceptual understand-ings, application, analysis andevaluation, and formal writing.

To assess conceptual under-standing, I monitored students'basic grasp of course content.For example, I expected studentsto be able to idenrify what soci-ologist Charles Cooley meant bythe looking glass self and to

explain the difference between ajunctior]alist and a conflict view of

society The application compo-nent assessed students' ability tomake personal connecrionsbetween course concepts andlife. The analysis and evaluationcomponent assessed how well studentscould use sociological concepts todeepen and challenge their under-standing of the larger society Theformal writing component assessedstudents' writing skills.

Nonacademic FactorsAlthough grades should definitelyreflect the quality of students' academicperformance, many teachers believethat students' work habits, responsi-bility, and attitudes—^what researcherRobert Marzano (2000) calls nonaca-demic factors—are also important.

I believe it is essential to reportacademic and nonacademic factorsseparately. We can assess a student'sability to turn things in on time andreport it as part of a nonacademic gradecomponent. This assessment, however,should not distort feedback regarding

that student's ability to understand aconcept or write an essay In the previ-ously cited language arts example,nonacademic factors are recordedunder the effort/citizenship gradecomponent. In the grading scheme formy sociology class, I included anonacademic component called workhabits, which was worth 10 percent ofthe overall class grade. With a disaggre-gated grading system, I can simultane-ously give accurate feedback onstudents' learning of essential conceptsor skills and their performance onnonacademic factors.

In keeping track of students' work inmy sociology course, 1 grouped eachcourse assignment under one of the fivecomponents of essential learning,depending on what kind of leaming theassignment tapped. For example,because students'journal entries andreflection worksheets prompted them

to connect course concepts andlife, scores for those assignmentscounted toward the applicationcomponent. 1 counted someassignments under more thanone component; a major paper,for instance, might receive anacademic grade for ideas andcontent grouped under analysisand evaluation and a nonaca-demic grade for work habits,reflecting whether the studentwriter completed al! steps of theprocess on time.

I based the letter grade foreach component on the averagescore of all assignments groupedunder that component. Eachcomponent was worth a speci-fied percentage of the overallletter grade, and 1 computed theoverall course grade bycombining the grades for thefive components according to

3 the predetermined weight ofI each. I updated each student'sI scores continually on a student

summary form that 1 maintainedonline. Each student and parent couldsee this individual form anytime, and Ialso printed this report in preparationfor parent-teacher conferences.

Sticky IssuesHandling HomeworkWhen assessing homework assign-ments, it's especially important todistinguish between academic achieve-ment and nonacademic factors. Whenwe hase a significant portion of astudent's grade on homework, then theaggregate grade may be a more accuratemeasure of a student's effort than of hisor her leaming. In the past, students inmy classes who completed homeworkoften received good overall grades evenwhen their actual understanding, asmeasured by tests, was unsatisfactoryConversely, students who failed to turnin homework often received low orfailing grades even when they had

ASSOCIATION FOR SUPERVISION AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT 63

excellent understanding of the content.I do assess the quality of homework: Astudent who does poor work or showsa lack of understanding will get onlypartial credit. But my experiencesuggests that even the quality of thework on an assignment that goes homeis more an indicator of nonacademicwork habits than of academic under-standing. And it is obvious that whenan assignment is not turned in at all,we can draw no conclusions about theoffending student's knowledge or skills.

To resolve this issue, I consider astudent's diligence in doing daily home-work as a nonacademic grade compo-nent and his or her in-class assessmentsas a measure of leaming. When 1combine these components into anoverall grade, 1 weigh the work habitsportion at 10-20 percent, whichacknowledges the importance ofnonacademic factors while placing agreater emphasis on academic learning.

Late WorkWith regard to work turned in late, Imake a distinction between late dailyhomework assignments and late majorprojects or papers. If daily homework isrecorded only in tbe nonacademicportion of the grade, it seems accept-able to me that a teacher might notaccept or credit late homework. Astudent who does not turn in all dailyassignments but who bas mastered thematerial can still receive a high grade intbe academic component if he or shedemonstrates strong leaming throughin-class assessments. Conversely, astudent who turns in all of bis or herhomework but is not learning willreceive high marks for the nonaca-demic portion, but not on academiccomponents.

Major assignments like projects orpapers, however, should be handleddifferently Because they are importantlearning opportunities, they should beaccepted even wben they are late. Tbedifficulty arises in determining how to

assign a grade to late work. A commonpractice for teachers is to simply reduce[be grade, but this practice confuses theissue. A lower grade for an essay turnedin late does not accurately communi-cate how well the student has learnedand performed. The grade may indicatetbat the student is a poorer writer thanhe or she actually is. Witb a disaggre-gated grade, however, the teacher canrecord a low work habits grade toreflect that the student missed thedeadline while giving the paper a gradeon the academic component tbat accu-rately reflects what the student haslearned.

In my sociology class, I assignedstudents three formal papers. Studentswere required to successfully completethese assignments to pass tbe class. 1assessed three separate components foreach paper: an analysis and evaluationgrade for content, a work habits gradefor fulfilling the steps and turning thepaper in on time, and a formal writinggrade tbat reflected waiting skills.

The first semester I tried thisapproach, it paid high dividends. As 1collected our first formal writingassignment, in wbich students were toobserve and document a social pattern.

one student sheepishly admitted to nothaving completed the paper. Ireminded him tbat altbougb he wouldlose work babits points, he could stillget full credit for the academic portionsif he turned in a quality paper. He wentback to work monitoring socialpatterns and turned the paper in tbenext week. In assessing it, I discoveredthat although his writing was mediocre,his ideas were inspired. This studentreceived three grades for this assign-ment: an F for work habits, an A foranalysis and evaluation, and a C forformal writing. 1 was able to report thelateness of the student's work withoutdampening his enthusiasm or distortingthe feedback the grade provided. Mostimportant, the student took fufl advan-tage of tbis important learning opportu-nity: In fact, he went on to pursue soci-ology at the postsecondary level. Muchwould bave been lost if I bad simplytold him to forget the assignmentbecause 1 do not accept late work.

Extra CreditIf students are allowed to raise theirgrade through extra-credit work that isindependent of essential learning, thenthat raised grade reinforces the view ofgrades as a commodity to be earned.When a student asks for an extra-creditassignment to raise his or her grade, 1remind the student that tbe purpose ofgrades is to assess and promotelearning. A low grade simply communi-cates a learning gap; tbe way to raisethe grade is to learn more, 1 explainthat although I do not believe in extracredit, I do believe in opportunities forfurther leaming. A student who scaredlow on a formal paper, for example,may seek extra writing help, rewrite thepaper, and try for a higher grade. If astudent received a low quiz grade, heor she may take the quiz again todemonstrate mastery of the material.This approach helps reinforce the viewtbat grades are a communication tool,not the goal.

64 E D U C A T I O N A L LEADERSHiP/NoVEMBER 2005

Finding a Better Way to MotivateIf we want to keep the focus on leaming,we must not depend on grades to moti-vate our students. In 1945, junior highschool teacher Dorotby De Zouchestated. "If 1 can't give a child a betterreason for studying tban a grade on areport card, I ought to lock my desk andgo bome and stay there" (p. 341). Sixtyyears later, assessment expert RichardStiggins (2005) declares tbat "we cansucceed as teachers only if we help ourstudents want to leam" (p. 199).

As they begin tbeir schooling, youngleamers are quite inquisitive, eager toread tbeir first cbapter book andexcited to discover tbeir place in tbeworld. But many students' innatecuriosity is stifled by an educationsystem that too often values compli-ance over creativity, taking tests overtesting theories, memorizing overunderstanding, and high grades overlearning.

If educators wish to convincestudents that we value tbeir under-standing, their reasoning, their ideas,and their creativity we must practicewbat we preacb. By creating mean-ingful grade components rooted inessential learning, separating outnonacademic factors to ensure tbat weassess true learning, and sharing ourpassion for wbat we teacb, we can usegrades as a communication tool ratherthan as the goal. 13

ReferencesDe Zouche, D. (1945). "The wound is

mortal"; Marks, honors, unsound activi-ties. Clearing House, 19, 339-344.

Marzano, R-J. (2000). Trans/orming class-room grading. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Stiggins, R. (2005). Student-involved assess-ment/or leaming. Upper Saddle River, Nj:Pearson/Prentice-Hall.

Tony Winger is an instructional coachand social studies teacher at HeritageHigh School, 1401 W. Geddes Ave.,Littleton, CO 80120; 303-347-7618;twinger@lps.k12.co.us.

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