Repair Kit for Grading - Fix 11

The past 10 weeks we have been focusing on Ken O'Connor's 15 Fixes for Broken Grades.  I highly suggest reading through the whole book, it will change the way you approach grading in your classroom.  It's a very quick read, and well worth the time!

Fixes 1-6: Fixes for practices that distort achievement
Fixes 7-10: Fixes for low-quality or poorly organized evidence

1. Don't include student behaviors in grades; include only achievement.
2. Don't reduce marks on "work" submitted late; provide support for the learner.
3. Don't give points for extra credit or use bonus points; seek only evidence that more work has resulted in a higher level of achievement.
4. Don't punish academic dishonesty with reduced grades; apply other consequences and reassess to determine actual level of achievement.
5. Don't consider attendance in grade determination; report absences separately.
6. Don't include group scores in grades; use only individual achievement evidence.
7. Don't organize information in grading records by assessment methods or simply summarize into a single grade; organize and report evidence by standards/learning goal.
8. Don't assign grades using inappropriate or unclear performance standards; provide clear descriptions of achievement expectations.
9. Don't assign grades based on student's achievement compared to other students; compare each student's performance to preset standards.
10. Don't rely on evidence gathered using assessments that fail to meet standards of quality; rely only on quality assessments.

Fixes 11 & 12 deal with fixes for inappropriate grade calculation

Fix 11: Don't rely only on the mean; consider other measures of central tendency and use professional judgment.

In a truly standards-based reporting environment this fix would be irrelevant.  The student either Exceeds, Meets, Partially Meets, or Does Not Meet the standard.  Unfortunately many teachers are not ready to take the full plunge into the world of standards-based reporting, so we are stuck with giving scores and calculating grades.

Using the mean, or averaging the scores, can be a flawed system.  For example:

A student has the following scores on assignments:

 91, 92, 91, 93, 92, 92, 64, 94, 93, 92

You would probably say this is an "A" student.  They have done "A" work for the majority of the quarter.  However, it averages out to an 89.  Think about if that score of 64 was never turned in and it was a 0.  What would that do to the average?  This is where professional judgement would come into play.  If this student deserves the grade of an "A", then that is what they should get.  You could also drop the lowest and highest score to get a better determinate of the average.

The next time you average out scores, think about how averaging is an inaccurate way to determine grades.