US School Districts: Changing Grading System - Is It A Good Idea?

[Evo]

The new standards are being considered or implemented around the US. A link in phind's article, this isn't just happening in San Diego.

Mila Koumpilova writes in the Twin Cities Pioneer Press article, Minnesota schools give standards-based grading system a closer look:

Standards-based grading often uses a 1-to-4 scale, which corresponds to the four outcomes on state tests: does not meet, partially meets, meets or exceeds standards.

Across the country, as well, standards-based grading is gaining traction. Most districts remain reluctant to experiment with it in high school because of the key role GPAs play in college admissions.

“Standards-based grading is beginning to grow exponentially,” said Robert Marzano, a Colorado-based expert on the subject.

Marzano said some districts are doing it right. Those that fail to spell out what the new grades mean are taking “a step backward."[/quote}

https://drwilda.com/tag/pros-and-cons-of-standards-based-grading/

 

[symbolipoint]

Is the goal making citizen that blindly follow what they were asked to do? Maybe you need people who can think by themselves and choose the way that work best for them? Especially, being able to ignore tasks that are not helpful.

That is a tricky one. Not so much in school, but out in the real(?) or working world, you can find yourself in that situation. Listening or trying to / trust other people may not always be the best advice to follow. Like sometimes wrong approaches, or inadequate methods. (I've already been through some of those.)

 

[Dr. Courtney]

The broader stupid stuff is implemented by a centralized authority, the more damaging the impact.

Universities and employers will likely still want reliable metrics of learning and accomplishment, and (if allowed) odds are pretty good the free market will provide them in most cases.

So many grading systems are already bankrupt as reliable measures of student ability, I don't lose any sleep of the next wave. Straight As in high school means nothing. Show me the ACT scores.

I can name a few universities where the mean GPA in a lot of courses required in their education majors is north of 3.8. If grades education majors receive are participation trophies, how long could we expect it to be before the grades they give are the same thing.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Absolutely. I am not sure why you think education is an exception in this regard.

Because Ms. Brown doesn't have to teach any better. All she has to do is give out more (or only) A's.

Education is an exception because the person evaluating the teaching is the person doing the teaching. Efforts to change this, such as your example of standardized testing, have proven unpopular.

Improving education is hard. Improving education for people who have been served poorly in the past is even harder. I am very cynical that changing the way assessments are done will do anything to help the students the district is failing (and by failing I mean failing in their responsibilities, not handing out F's) and will simply hide things.

 

[symbolipoint]

Definitively NOT my experience. Homework has always had a bad effect on my learning experience.

Why would the exception pay a price for the others? In the end, if you know your material, you know it. If you don't, then find a way (with the help of your teacher) that best work for you. (It may include doing - or not - homework).

Simply, you need the credit? You do the work, and turn in the work for "GRADING". The teacher may be trying to give equal treatment to all students in the class.

The assigning of homework and turn-in for crediting purposes is definitely a well. long established educational practice. The exception such as you may be, should find paying this price (doing, turn-in the homework) is a small one you can afford much better than the other students in your class.

 

[PeterDonis]

I like to have tests whose difficulty level is targeted such that no student makes either a 0 or a 100 and the average student makes around a 50. Students tend to not like that.

I had several teachers in high school who did something similar, except that the targeted percentages were different because of the grading scale (a 50 would have been an F on the scale in use and an average student should get a C). One of them explained it this way: if an A is 90 percent or better, then there will be a 10-point question on the test whose purpose is to distinguish the A students from the B students. And so on down the line for each grade.

I personally was fine with this system because I almost always aced the tests. But I could understand why it wasn't popular with a lot of students; the prevailing belief seemed to be that it was unfair to have questions of markedly different difficulty level on the same test.

(Btw, I do think it should be OK for a student who truly has mastered all of the material, even the fine points that go into the "distinguish the A's from the B's" question, to get 100 percent. But I agree it shouldn't necessarily be easy or common.)

 

[PeterDonis]

You almost always want to calibrate your measurement device such that the thing you are measuring is in the center of your measurement range and your measurement range covers the entire range you expect to see.

This is a fair point, which obviously wasn't taken into consideration by any of the school districts I went to as a kid. The basic idea of the grade on a 0 to 100 scale was that it was "the percentage of the total subject matter that you learned", with the expectation being that you had to learn at least 60 percent or so (the bottom of the D range) to pass. Which of course is a very different way of looking at it from yours.

 

[mfb]

The assigning of homework and turn-in for crediting purposes is definitely a well. long established educational practice.

That doesn't mean it's good. Luckily we got rid of many bad long-established educational practices in the past.

The exception such as you may be, should find paying this price (doing, turn-in the homework) is a small one you can afford much better than the other students in your class.

I still don't see an argument for the benefit. You just claim that there is one, and that's it.

Efforts to change this, such as your example of standardized testing, have proven unpopular.

They are quite popular in some states in Germany, for example. Not at every level, but in places where you want a comparable result like the Abitur.

 

[Dale]

I do think it should be OK for a student who truly has mastered all of the material, even the fine points that go into the "distinguish the A's from the B's" question, to get 100 percent.

I would still consider a test where a student made a 100 to be a failed measurement of the student’s ability. But in practice of course if you have a test where only one student every few years gets that 100 then from a practical perspective it doesn’t matter. You still know those students all have truly exceptional mastery of the material even if you cannot tell which of those rare students has the greater mastery.

 

[PeterDonis]

I would still consider a test where a student made a 100 to be a failed measurement of the student’s ability.

Meaning, I assume, that the range of the measuring device wasn't broad enough?

 

[Vanadium 50]

One of them explained it this way: if an A is 90 percent or better, then there will be a 10-point question on the test whose purpose is to distinguish the A students from the B students. And so on down the line for each grade.

You could take it a step further. To get an A, you need to co`rrectly answer question 1. No need to answer any other question. To get an B, you need to co`rrectly answer question 2. No need to answer any other question. And so on. Kind of the Priceline of grading.

If you thought they hated it before, they'd really hate that.

 

[atyy]

(Btw, I do think it should be OK for a student who truly has mastered all of the material, even the fine points that go into the "distinguish the A's from the B's" question, to get 100 percent. But I agree it shouldn't necessarily be easy or common.)

I would still consider a test where a student made a 100 to be a failed measurement of the student’s ability. But in practice of course if you have a test where only one student every few years gets that 100 then from a practical perspective it doesn’t matter. You still know those students all have truly exceptional mastery of the material even if you cannot tell which of those rare students has the greater mastery.

In one of my undergraduate classes (organic chemistry taught by Daniel Kemp), the teacher's aim was that everyone should get an A. But he also said that it would be based on mastery of the material, so if anyone deserved an F, they would get it.

Another class I enjoyed was statistical physics. I'm not sure what the grade distribution was when I took it, but you can see the mark distribution is quite high in a recent version: http://web.mit.edu/8.333/www/grades/index.html. In that class, part of the grading policy was "In accord with MIT Rules and Regulations of the Faculty section 2.62, the Physics Department does not grade on a curve. Students are assessed individually, and there is no pre-determined grade spread in any subject. Consistent with this, after Drop Date, students who remain in a class are not in jeopardy of seeing their grades change due to the change in class composition." http://web.mit.edu/8.333/www/admin/Organization.html

 

[Dale]

Because Ms. Brown doesn't have to teach any better. All she has to do is give out more (or only) A's.

Education is an exception because the person evaluating the teaching is the person doing the teaching. Efforts to change this, such as your example of standardized testing, have proven unpopular.

I see your point but it is not because education is an exception to the what you measure is what you get rule. In fact, it is a great example of the correctness of the statement.

If the grades measure the teacher’s whims then because the education system is not an exception you will get what you measure: the whims of the teachers will shift away from Ds and Fs (regardless of student mastery of the material). However, if the grades measure the student’s mastery then because the education system is not an exception you will get what you measure: the material mastery of the students will improve.

One of the big corollaries to the “you get what you measure” rule is that you have to be very careful about your measurement

Efforts to change this, such as your example of standardized testing, have proven unpopular.

Yes. That is a big problem because I don’t know how else to accurately measure students. Our local superintendent complains about the standardized testing, but I have yet to see him propose an alternative measurement. And universities still rely heavily on standardized testing for assessing incoming students.

I think this is a big problem. I know why teachers oppose standardized testing, but I don’t know why anyone else does.

 

[etotheipi]

Another class I enjoyed was statistical physics. I'm not sure what the grade distribution was when I took it, but you can see the mark distribution is quite high in a recent version: http://web.mit.edu/8.333/www/grades/index.html.

I didn't know Obi-Wan Kenobi studied statistical mechanics of particles??

 

[Dale]

Meaning, I assume, that the range of the measuring device wasn't broad enough?

Exactly, yes. I was trying to measure a 1 m object with a 90 cm ruler.

 

[PeterDonis]

Exactly, yes.

Ok. I would say that, in this particular case, lengths greater than 90 cm are rare outliers and the cost of measuring them, for the system in question, is probably greater than the benefit. But that's a difficult judgment call either way.

 

[Office_Shredder]

It seems like a waste of time in my opinion to distinguish the top student in one year vs the top student in another. They will both go on to do exactly the same thing next year anyway, which is go to their class/school of choice. The amount of effort you would put into this meaningless ranking is time you could have spent on other things.

 

[HAYAO]

I'm some random Japanese guy working as assistant professor in a college. I also have grade-school teacher's license. Since most people are talking about the academic performance itself, I'm going to talk about nonacademic grading that was mentioned in post #10.

I'm also one of the advocates for eliminating "behavioral parameterization" in grading. I do not think that most teachers are trained enough in psychology to assess whether a behavior is "good or bad" nor do I think they know how to deal with it. For example, let's say that you have an ADHD student that has not been diagnosed yet. There are several classification of ADHD that may show slightly different behavior. One of the misconceptions about ADHD (depending on the types) is that people believe they can't get anything done. 10% of the entrepreneurs are successful in their new business, while 66% of ADHD entrepreneurs are successful. That's a huge difference. Who is in the position to judge if ADHD is good or bad? I'm unsure. However, most teachers tend to have hard time dealing with ADHD students and they tend to grade them low not just in performance (because they can't concentrate) but in their attitudes and behavior. Labeling certain behavior as "bad" is merely attacking the symptoms instead of assessing the cause, so not only does it not solve anything but it could lead to secondary disorders and low mental health.

That goes the same for personality. In psychology, there is no such thing as "good" or "bad" personality, but how it is used. I've seen several teachers both in USA and in Japan grading their student's behavior based on obedience, which has to do with the personality of agreeableness. High agreeableness is not always a good thing (it could mean that you are a push-over), and similarly low agreeableness is not always a good thing (it could mean that you are too assertive). However, most teachers tend to grade former good and latter bad in class attitude. This favors certain personality trait and this is partially why girls tend to have higher grades than boys because girls naturally have high agreeableness. But let's say for example you have a rather aggressive personality. There is a big difference between becoming a police officer and a mob. 80% of inmates are male, but 93% of the police officers are also male in Japan. It's how you use your personality, not the personality itself.

Many of the teachers I had in the US were great (mainly because I lived in a good district). If a child was too obedient, good teachers taught them personally how to be assertive in the right situation. If a child was too aggressive, good teachers taught them when to use aggression and when not. My parents were toxic parents but I had mostly great teachers when I was in grade school and am really thankful about that.

However, being able to teach "how to use your personality well" is a difficult thing to do, sometimes, even for clinical psychologists. It also has to do with how parents interact with their children. I'm not saying I have a good solution to this, but I do think that a lot of parents and teachers should take advantage of clinical psychologists who knows their stuff, instead of making a judgement of their own. I definitely don't think it is appropriate to grade children based on their behavior without understanding the root cause of human behavior.

 

[symbolipoint]

That doesn't mean it's good. Luckily we got rid of many bad long-established educational practices in the past.I still don't see an argument for the benefit. You just claim that there is one, and that's it.They are quite popular in some states in Germany, for example. Not at every level, but in places where you want a comparable result like the Abitur.

Exactly what is wrong with homework? Exactly what is bad about assigning some credit for it? Do you find that homework is of very little value?

 

[phinds]

It seems like a waste of time in my opinion to distinguish the top student in one year vs the top student in another.

I disagree. It gives high achievers something to shoot for - a motivating force and so it elicits better performance out of a number of students, not just the one who comes out on top (which in and of itself is not, I agree, particularly important, other than that it will look good on a college application or a job application)

 

[HAYAO]

Exactly what is wrong with homework? Exactly what is bad about assigning some credit for it? Do you find that homework is of very little value?

Sorry for butting in, but there's definitely nothing wrong with "homework" itself. I think it's about how we use it. I don' think the argument is that teachers shouldn't hand out assignments and homework. I think it's about assigning some credit to it that goes into the final grades.

As I mentioned in the post above, low agreeableness children and/or low conscientiousness children tend not to do homework. If we focus solely on conscientiousness, even contentiousness have some types (industriousness and orderliness). Girls tend to be high on orderliness while boys tend to be high on industriousness. High orderliness means being able to manage various things with a good balance. That's why girls are more attentive and are consistent in their effort in assignments and homework. High industriousness means being able to put an effort in achieving certain goal. That's why boys may not do too much homework and not pay attention, but conversely do as well as girls in finals. However, there's no real "good" or "bad" in this.

When you assign credits to homework, you automatically put certain personality at advantage; in this particular case, you are putting orderliness higher than industriousness. However, industriousness is no better than orderliness in terms of personality. They are something that works great in certain situation and works bad in certain situation. Considering that everyone is graded by finals equally, putting some credits into homework (which is not the ultimate attainment) doesn't make any sense because it favors certain type of personality.

@Dale made a great point regarding homework, that they are something to be used so that children can learn something from it, and that their ultimate result (the final test) is the "current academic achievement". They should be graded mainly on that. Not on homework.

 

[PeterDonis]

their ultimate result (the final test) is the "current academic achievement". They should be graded mainly on that.

Note that this point of view also favors a certain type of personality: a good test taker, someone who can demonstrate their knowledge in the highly artificial environment of a standardized test. This does not always correlate well with the ability to put that knowledge to actual use.

 

[atyy]

I didn't know Obi-Wan Kenobi studied statistical mechanics of particles??

Probably because it's a prerequisite for statistical physics of fields.

 

[HAYAO]

Note that this point of view also favors a certain type of personality: a good test taker, someone who can demonstrate their knowledge in the highly artificial environment of a standardized test. This does not always correlate well with the ability to put that knowledge to actual use.

What's wrong with "good test taker"? Being industrious is not a bad thing at all in this world. On one hand, you have someone that requires good attention and daily effort to achieve certain goal, and on the other hand you have someone that would just intensively study the night before and reach the same goal. There's no good or bad here. No one is being favored. Whether or not such "test" reflects the real-world practicality or not is not the point of the argument, and even if it does, all it comes down to is "just make better tests".

IQ tests correlates well with career success with about 0.2 - 0.4 correlation. That's definitely not big enough to be considered a deciding factor, but it's still the biggest compared to any other factors such as 5 dimensions in the personality, family background, district, etc. Students and professors of physics and mathematics department have the highest IQ in most universities, and I'm sure you can understand why, because essentially, fair portion of them are "good test takers".

 

[mfb]

Exactly what is wrong with homework? Exactly what is bad about assigning some credit for it? Do you find that homework is of very little value?

Nothing is wrong with homework. Nothing is wrong with assigning a grade to it. But I don't think it's a good idea to make that go into the final grade. That - and only that - is where people disagree with you. Suggesting that anyone wants to abolish homework isn't helpful. No one wants to do so.

 

[atyy]

Nothing is wrong with homework. Nothing is wrong with assigning a grade to it. But I don't think it's a good idea to make that go into the final grade. That - and only that - is where people disagree with you. Suggesting that anyone wants to abolish homework isn't helpful. No one wants to do so.

This teacher tried to have the best of both worlds:
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-04-quantum-physics-i-spring-2013/syllabus/
The final grade for the course will be based on the following equation:
Final Grade = Exam Average * (1 + .2 PSet Average + .05 Clicker Average)
The exam average will be 50% Final and 25% for each mid-term exam.
For example, if you ace the exams, you will get an A regardless of your problem set or clicker averages.
However, if your exam average is low, a strong problem set average can bump you up by a letter grade or more.
If you answer most of the clicker questions correctly, too, you could get nudged up further, e.g., from a B to a B+.

 

[PeterDonis]

What's wrong with "good test taker"?

This:

This does not always correlate well with the ability to put that knowledge to actual use.

Not necessarily "wrong", just that "good test taker" is not the same as what is actually desired: a student who can put the knowledge learned to actual use.

Whether or not such "test" reflects the real-world practicality or not is not the point of the argument

I disagree. See above.

even if it does, all it comes down to is "just make better tests"

Which is much, much harder than your remark here suggests.

 

[symbolipoint]

Nothing is wrong with homework. Nothing is wrong with assigning a grade to it. But I don't think it's a good idea to make that go into the final grade. That - and only that - is where people disagree with you. Suggesting that anyone wants to abolish homework isn't helpful. No one wants to do so.

EVERY course I attended, high school, college, or university, had assigned homework which was required to be turned-in (yes, to the best of my memory- cannot recall any exceptions); and the homework counted for anything from 5% to maybe 15% of the course final grade. Maybe those teachers were using this credit as bribe to make the students study and do homework.

 

[PeterDonis]

IQ tests correlates well with career success with about 0.2 - 0.4 correlation. That's definitely not big enough to be considered a deciding factor, but it's still the biggest compared to any other factors such as 5 dimensions in the personality, family background, district, etc. Students and professors of physics and mathematics department have the highest IQ in most universities, and I'm sure you can understand why, because essentially, fair portion of them are "good test takers".

None of this addresses my concern. My concern is not that "good test taker" has zero correlation with things we actually care about; I never made any such claim. My concern is that "good test taker" is not the same as the things we actually care about. The things we actually care about probably cannot be tested directly in an artificial environment at all. Whether or not standardized tests, or grades in school, are a good enough proxy for the things we actually care about to make using them as metrics worthwhile is a difficult question involving a lot of judgment calls; it is not the straightforward cookie cutter process you appear to believe it is.

 

[Dale]

Not necessarily "wrong", just that "good test taker" is not the same as what is actually desired: a student who can put the knowledge learned to actual use

This is a good point. What we want is to measure the students’ mastery of the material. A test is one way to do that but not the only way.

A standardized test is the most feasible approach I know for judging student achievement across multiple schools and teachers, but for an individual teacher simply with the goal of assessing their own students they could be much more creative.