Slide 1

DILTSeptember 12, 2012

At What Price?Describe a grade you received that was a flagrantly inaccurate representation of your achievement in a course of study? How do believe that grades you received in school were not an accurate representation of your achievement?

Payson Wallace Lane

Why Change the Current Grading System?We Consider Factors Other Than Academic Achievement when Assigning GradesWe Weight Assessments DifferentlyWe Misrepresent Single Scores on Classroom AssessmentsWe compare students against each other instead of what they need to learn (standards)

(Source: Transforming Classroom Gradingby Robert Marzano) Fix #7

Dont organize information in grading records by assessment methods or simply summarize into a single grade; organize and report evidence by standards/learning goals.

The use of columns in a grade book to represent standards, instead of assignments, tests, and activities, is a major shift in thinking . . . Under this system, when an assessment is designed, the teacher must think in terms of the standards it is intended to address. If a (test) is given that covers three standards, then the teacher makes three entries in the grade book for each student - one entry for each standard - as opposed to one overall entry for the entire (test).

Marzano, R., and J. Kendall, A Comprehensive Guide to Developing Standards-Based Districts, Schools, and Classrooms, McREL, Aurora, CO, 1996, 150

Fix #7

The principal limitation of any grading system that requires the teacher to assign one number or letter to represent . . . learning is that one symbol can convey only one meaning. . . . One symbol cannot do justice to the different degrees of learning a student acquires across all learning outcomes.

Tombari and Borich, Authentic Assessment in the Classroom, Prentice Hall, 1999, 213

What Are Grades For?On Post-it Notes write what you like and do not like about the sample Standard Based Grading Report Cards.

Place them on the chart at your table.

As a group place statements into themes and be prepared to share thoughts with the entire group.