Sunday, March 19, 2017

Grading assessments as a whole or as parts?

One of the key changes that has gone along with our 4 part assessment model is the move to a sort of modified standards or mastery based grading on a 4 point scale. On an approximate level this means that a 4 is an A, 3 is a B, 2 is a C, 1 is a D, and below that is an F (though the actual comparison varies slightly). The key effect of this is that it is much more achievable for a student to not fail. 

When discussing grades with struggling students we can discuss an achievable goal to get them to reach a passing grade and demonstrate understanding. On the traditional 100% scale you would have students who would work and work to try to raise their grade, but seem stuck below that 60% mark. If I have a student who wants to put in the effort and show their understanding I want to have a grade system to let them do that.

As part of this change students get one score per assessment, based on how far they demonstrated proficiency. So a student who mastered the first two parts of the assessment, but not the last two, would score a 2/4 on the assessment. A student who mastered all parts would score a 4. This system worked fine, but I felt like my students (and parents) didn't really get where that grade was coming from. It is our first year making this change to NGSS, this assessment model, and mastery grading. So I began semester 2 differently. 

For the second semester, with the aim of improving understanding of the grading system, I moved to giving a score for each part. If a student received mastery on the first and second parts of the assessment, but none of the others, they scored a 4/4 on part 1, a 4/4 on part 2, and zeros on the next two. Ultimately, they scored an 8/16 on the combined assessment grades giving them the same percent of points that they would have had the first semester. I felt like this did help clarify the grading system, and now that it has done that I am happily changing my grades back to what I did semester one, the combined assessment grade.

There are a few reasons why I like this combined grade:
1) It makes student understanding on the assessment and standard more obvious. A student scoring 3.5/4 on the whole assessment is a more succinct measurement than having to consider a number of parts.
2) Not every student is able to master the whole assessment. Yes, I am there to support them and try to guide them to understanding, but the fourth part of the assessment can be rather difficult. Having a zero (or a missing assignment) in the gradebook puts a lot of focus on an assignment, rather than assessing overall understanding.
3) Finally, it is way more time consuming entering each individual score and keeping those updated with revisions and work that comes in late, than just managing one score. I honestly, didn't expect it to be so much more consuming on my end, but it has been. 

I don't regret having the separate scores for a while, I feel like my students now have a better idea of how the assessment score comes together, but I am sure glad to go back to the combined score. 

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