Teachers agree that grades should motivate students and accurately measure learning, however, not all grading systems achieve this. To enhance student achievement and to promote more fair student development, educational leaders across the country have implemented alternative grading systems.
Our current grading system doesn’t meet our needs in many ways. However, we haven’t formally defined how to evaluate it or what we want it to do. What would a better system provide that we do not currently have? In addition, it must be easily implemented and feasible.
False perceptions of excellence and negative competition
As we’ve seen, giving students partial credit for less-than-good work makes them less likely to try to do their best. It makes it less useful to spend more than a small amount of time and effort on something. It lets students slither through their classes and win the game of higher education.
A better way to grade students would be to give them reasons to aim high, work hard, and do their best. To get any points, you would have to do good work, and bad work would not be acceptable.
Grading by letter has significant drawbacks
The letter-based grading system has big drawbacks that can lead to inconsistency and widen achievement gaps.
Methods of grading that are inconsistent
Letter grades are not always accurate indicators of student learning and performance. Few educators receive comprehensive training in grading best practises and research. As a result, teachers apply a number of grading strategies, including:
- When calculating grades, soft skills, behaviour, test scores, and attendance are all taken into account.
- Students’ grades are determined by a combination of effort and academic achievement.
- Academic performance and assignment completion are used to assign grades.
- Grades are crucial. Grade point averages determine college acceptance, scholarships, and other important opportunities. Students are subjected to an inherently flawed and unfair system due to the wide variation in what a letter grade may represent: “A” work to one teacher may be “C” work to another.
There can be an unspoken prejudice
Like everyone else, teachers can have unconscious biases that affect how they see students based on their race, gender, socioeconomic status, and other things. These implicit biases can change how teachers see the behaviour and effort of their students. Some students can get unfairly lower grades because of how others see them.
For example, studies have shown that white teachers tend to give Black students lower grades than white students when it comes to judging effort and participation. These lower grades can stop students from going to school, which can make the achievement gap even bigger.
Some different ways to grade that can be tried
Instead of the traditional letter-based grading system, teachers can try out a number of other methods. Each alternative has benefits that should be taken into account. The following methods change the focus of learning and help students grow.
1. Games are used to evaluate
Gamification in education means using game design ideas to help students learn in a way that makes it easy to track their progress. It turns learning skills and information into a game. So, gamification is a fun and motivating alternative to giving grades with letters.
For example, instead of letter grades, teachers can use point systems. Students get points for many different things. Students can use their points to buy badges that show what they know or how well they can do something. With this method, homework and class time become chances to move forward, just like in a game. It can be a good way to get going.
2. The Pass/Fail Method
The pass/fail system is easy to understand. Students either get credit for a class or do not. With this two-way system, students can move on as long as they do enough work to pass a failing threshold.
The pass/fail grading system can make it less important for students to get good grades. This stress can make it hard to learn. Getting good grades can sometimes make students want to cheat. In others, it could make students who are having trouble drop out and give up. Because of these things, there are fewer chances to learn. A pass/fail system moves the focus away from grades and stops using grades as rewards. Instead, students are rewarded for learning.
When students’ attention is taken off of their grades, they are redirected. Students who don’t do extracurricular activities to get all As in a traditional grading system, for example, learn more about what it takes to do well in school. The pass/fail strategy can also make it harder for people to compete.
Instead of worrying about who gets the best grades, students can spend more time thinking about how they learn and what they want to get out of it. The pass/fail system gives students who are having trouble a lot of relief and lets them focus on what they need to work on.
3. Responses in real time
Live feedback means giving students helpful feedback and suggestions as they work. Instead of getting a grade at the end of an assignment, teachers give students help and feedback as they work.
The live feedback approach puts an emphasis on how teachers and students can work together. Teachers walk students through the process and meet each student’s needs as they go. When students don’t understand something right away, they are helped and encouraged.
Live feedback also tells teachers important things about how their students are learning in real time. This makes it easier for teachers to decide what to cover in lessons and how to pace them.
4. Self-Assessments
Self-evaluations are another way to keep track of how well students are doing. Students think about the goals and learning goals of the assignment and then judge the quality of their work based on those standards. Their self-evaluations help them figure out what they do well and what they could do better.
Reflection is self-evaluation. Students set up performance measures to track how well they are learning. They also get more say over what they learn. Self-evaluations help students learn how to solve problems. The process moves the focus from the end result to how it was done.
5. Useful portfolios
Students’ multimedia projects are put together in digital portfolios. They show what students have learned and how well they can do things. They also let teachers and students choose the best work that their students have done.
Students talk about the things in their portfolios. This gives them a chance to think about themselves. Teachers can also use portfolios to get a full picture of how their students are doing. A portfolio is usually made up of work from the whole school year. By choosing representative pieces over time, students can look back on their learning and see how far they’ve come.
Portfolios also give students more than one chance to show that they have met learning standards and goals.
6. Mastery-based education
Students learn a set of skills that are right for their grade level through mastery-based education. When a student has mastered a skill, they move on to the next level. In math class, for example, students might work on learning the multiplication table. They move on to the next skill after showing that they know how to do it a certain number of times.
When a student is having trouble, they don’t get failing grades. Instead, they work on concepts until they understand them, and then they move on to something else. Teachers let students know how they’re doing and what skills they still need to learn. Students can move up to the next grade level if they have learned what they need to know by the end of the school year.
With this system, students can move forward at their own pace. People who learn quickly can move ahead quickly and do well, while people who learn more slowly can take their time.
Key Takeaways
Assessment strategy knowledge is needed to find good grading systems that measure student learning fairly and keep students interested. Educational leaders should think about how different grading methods and problems like implicit bias could be solved with different grading systems.
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