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Marking System Is Better Than Grading System

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Marks into Grades A Review of the Underlying Issues The views expressed in the report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of SQA or any other organisation(s) by which the author(s) is/are employed. SQA is making this research report available on-line in order to provide access to its contents for those interested in the subject. Marks into Grades: A discussion of the underlying issues Executive summary Grades and grading This report was produced by Dr Mike Kingdon, Principal Education Consultant, Entity Group Ltd, in March 2009. Given the inevitable annual variations in the standards of individual examination components, most writers concur that marks alone are inadequate for reporting results. Converting …show more content…

The position of SQA’s National Qualifications on the norm-referenced, criteria-referenced continuum is determined. The implications for grading following from the use of criteria rather than norms are discussed, with an example. Possible methods of extending the principles of mark-based grading to competence-based awards are proposed. It is argued on resource and psychometric grounds that for grading to be efficient the numbers and variety of components used to assess particular qualifications and subjects should be kept to the minimum compatible with adequate coverage of the content and skills that characterise them. Similar cautions are made about the aggregation of grades from heterogeneous subjects to form group awards. Annex 2 discusses the psychometric background to these arguments. The future Ongoing societal changes discussed in Section 3 continue to create new needs and assessment opportunities. Section 5 discusses a number of new developments — in qualification delivery and responses to perceived needs — that will all create their own grading demands. Background material Annex 1 reports an analysis of the grading systems of school leaving qualifications from 62 countries outside the UK, which considers 72 different national, regional and other systems. Three approaches to grading are identified — percentiles, quality of work and marks. In common with the majority of countries that use grades,

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