Grading to Communicate

I reading an article I found on Twitter called Grading to Communicate by Tony Winger.  This article discussed the complexity of grading and what are we really assessing by grading.  There are several important points to this article.  The first is that students often do the work for the grade and not to learn.  Another important point is that when students turn in work late, how do we grade it i.e. are students penalized for turning it in late.  Tony Winger presents a solution to this problem by separating out the grading into categories.  I am observing in Waukee this year and they are transitioning to a standards based grading system.  This article would be good for Waukee to present to parents who are opposed to standards based grading.

As the author wrote, most of his students want to know how their work will be graded and what they need to do to earn the grade they want.  This is pretty standard in students who are "teacher pleasers."  The reward for them is the grade and not necessarily the learning.  Consequently, students can receive high grades and not be able to apply their learning.  One example used was a honor roll student who struggled with writing skills.  The student accomplished the assignments to the satisfaction of the grader, but was unable to effectively write.  

Another major point to this article was that students are often penalized for turning in work late.  The quality of the work might be high, but the grade will be low because it is turned in late.  This has been an issue for administrators and teachers for a long time.  It seems that each district comes up with its own "late policy" to help address the situation and even it for all students in all classrooms.  Tony Winger would argue that this is a "fix that fails" as it doesn't get to the root of the problem which is the work should be graded for its merit and a separate grade for turning in the work late should reflect that non-academic aspect.

Mr. Winger's solution was to break up his assignments into various categories that he would grade.  Some examples of how he would grade students is reading comprehension, writing process, writing product, speaking, literary elements, effort/citizenship, conceptual understandings, application, analysis and evaluation, and formal writing.  This way he felt that the grade became a "meaningful communication."  When assignments were late, he still gave the student the opportunity for full points based on the learning being made by the student.  

In Waukee, they are transitioning to standards based grading.  These standards are somewhat similar to what the author is recommending.  Through this approach, educators and parents will have a better idea of where students are academically.  A paper can be graded for different content areas.  Instead of a letter grade that only reflects the overall grade, students and their parents can see the areas where growth is still needed.  The largest concern is that this breaks the current mental model of letter grades and parents don't understand what each letter or standard means.  While there is some push back from the community about these changes, they will ultimately see how much more accurately this system grades their children.

Tony Winger concludes his article with the following two paragraphs.  They are will written and capture what he is saying well.  

"As they begin their schooling, young learners are quite inquisitive, eager to read their first chapter book and excited to discover their place in the world. But many students' innate curiosity is stifled by an education system that too often values compliance over creativity, taking tests over testing theories, memorizing over understanding, and high grades over learning.

If educators wish to convince students that we value their understanding, their reasoning, their ideas, and their creativity, we must practice what we preach. By creating meaningful grade components rooted in essential learning, separating out nonacademic factors to ensure that we assess true learning, and sharing our passion for what we teach, we can use grades as a communication tool rather than as the goal."