8/20/2019 Grading and Reporting Reflection

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Grading and Reporting (Reflection)

Ongoing communication between teachers, students and parents informs and

supports learning. Feedback ensures that teachers, parents and students clearlyunderstand and can support the student’s progress towards learning outcomes.Effective communication practices ensure that parents are informed about how theirchild is doing at school.

Daily, ongoing assessment and report cards are not separate. They inform eachother. Both are based on outcomes from the Programs of Study and inform next stepsfor learners and teachers.

During a unit of study, students have multiple and varied opportunities todevelop, demonstrate, check and refine their understanding of content. This process is

called formative assessment.

At times, often at the end of a particular unit of study, the learning of a studentis verified through a summative assessment. Teachers then use multiple summativeassessments aligned with outcomes from the Programs of Study and the report card, toassign a 'grade'.

Report card grades are used to formally communicate student achievement oflearning outcomes to students, parents, the CBE and the province. Grading forreporting requires teachers to summarize a term or semester’s worth of learning.

Indicators (symbols/grades/descriptors such as ABCD, 1-4 or %) are used torepresent the extent to which the student has demonstrated achievement of learningoutcomes.

The first step in sound classroom assessment practices associated with gradingis to ensure that grades are meaningful. In determining students’ grades, teacherstypically merge scores from major exams, compositions, quizzes, projects, and reports,along with evidence from homework, punctuality in turning in assignments, classparticipation, work habits, and effort.

To make grades more meaningful, we need to address both the purpose ofgrades and the format used to report them.

The purpose of grading is to describe how well students have achieved thelearning objectives or goals established for a class or course of study. Grades shouldreflect students’ performance on specific learning criteria. Establishing clearlyarticulated criteria for grades makes the grading process more fair and equitable.Unfortunately, different teachers often use widely varying criteria in determiningstudents’ grades, and students often aren’t well-informed about those criteria.

Grading and Reporting Student Progress provides educators a refreshing newview of a stagnant and traditional practice. Report cards and grades are pools of waterthat for a variety of reasons, have seldom been stirred. The video segments giveexamples of educators who are vigorously challenging these sacred cows in pursuit ofbetter communication and student learning.

Submitted by:Pavankumar M. Gogna