Types of Grading Systems
By Ashley Leary, eHow Contributor * * * * Print this article
Schools use grading systems to communicate with students and parents about student performance. Grades also help teachers communicate with one another, providing easy-to-understand data about student performance. Grades are meant to be a concrete evaluation of student knowledge. Perhaps the best-known type of grading system uses letters---A, B, C, D or F---to represent student achievement. The 4.0-scale and mastery grading are two other types of grading systems.
Other People Are Reading * What Is Mastery Level Grading? * What Is a Standard Grading System? 1. Letter Grades * With the letter grade system,
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This style of grading uses M for mastery, which demonstrates that a student has mastered the standard by showing accuracy 80 percent of the time. If a student is not quite showing mastery, he is progressing and is given a score of P. If a student exceeds mastery of the standard she can receive an E. If a student is failing to progress toward mastery, he receives an LP grade. The goal is a report card containing all M grades, meaning the student has mastered all the standards for his level.
More on Mastery * Mastery grading demonstrates to students that their achievement is a work in progress. It emphasizes that it is OK to be progressing (P) toward mastery, with the assumption that eventually the student will reach a mastery (M) score. In the mastery grading system, grades are broken down by each content standard, rather than broad subject area, with a score of E, M, P or LP given for each standard.
Considerations
* Students who do not master a standard can continue to practice, and demonstrate mastery at another time, say researchers Thomas Guskey and Jane Bailey. This system clearly shows students and parents what the student knows and doesn't know,
Education is a long-term investment. We, as students, work hard to acquire knowledge and to hone our skills so that we may use them one day. The effort we put into a single assignment should be considered as both for that specific assignment and for our rounding as complete, educated individuals. And with this mindset, students should be motivated even more to put more effort and hard work into academics, with the goal of bettering themselves for the future and advancing their prospects as individuals. And with this hard work and effort will come progress, and this progress should be reflected in the grading—not necessarily on individual assignments, but on the student’s education as a
According to a survey conducted by Robert Winberg, two of every four students prefer taking traditional tests over any other grading evaluation. In fact, most schools do not use a typical grading system like most people would think. Most schools have decided to try a different method. This method assigns students a long-term assignment where they must produce a project and present it at the end of the period, to show what they have learned. Teachers may find this effective, however I do not believe this to be the best option. Despite the horrible opinions and rude sayings about tests, homework, and quizzes, I think they are more effective. I believe the traditional grading system is a more effective way for teachers to grade than an oral-presentation because it is less time consuming, better for kids with social anxiety, and it gives students time to prepare and learn.
Standardize tests can be used to evaluate a student's understanding and knowledge in subject area. For example, The Georgia Milestones Assessment System (Georgia Milestones) is a comprehensive summative assessment, which measures how well students have learned the knowledge and skills outlined in the state-adopted content standards in English Language Arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. Standardize test have a positive effect on instructional decision making in the classroom. Standardize testing can help teachers diagnose student issues, evaluate student academic performance, form small groups, and develop instructional plans.
Pragmaticism, indeed, will dictate that schools, assessments, and organizations long-established will not be altered for light and short-lived causes. Hence, a gradual shift in culture and method must occur which reforms the quantitative nature of grading systems. However, let the negative effects of the current grading system be known in a direct way:
pleased or disappointed with the results, as these assessments provide a roadmap for how we can better prepare students.” Teachers use this to help these students get better test scores. The four levels of achievement are: standard exceeded, standard met, standard nearly met,
The grading system is failed cause student focus on score and being on top of the class. In school, children may learn basic academic skills. Also, they may discover social knowledge by attending at the school, which the educational system base for testing and grading; therefore, they will evaluate with marks and understand of teacher’s technique “This stage lasts twelve years, a period during which the child learns that success comes from telling testers what that want to hear”(Baker 72). In fact this structure helps student to prepare for
1.1 Assessment measures the learner’s progress towards or the completion of, the learning aim and criteria, and can be used at any point during the learning cycle. It can provide information to adapt the delivery to suit the learner’s needs and abilities; a learner may need more help or time on some aspects, or has progressed quicker than planned and requires additional goals. By standardising the assessment process this creates uniformity for all learners.
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently,” Henry Ford stated. Students need to learn to fail in life to eventually succeed. Standards Based Grading (SBG) was created by Thomas R. Guskey. The point of SBG is to focus on the most recent work the student displayed. Frankly, that concept is unrealistic. The reality is traditional grading provides a more effective means of showing student progress and engagement. Not only is traditional grading understood universally, but the system motivates students to try their best on every assignment. Standards Based Grading may make the learning environment more relaxed for students, but is that always positive? To put it differently, civilians who have the perception that SBG is better are not understanding the reality that traditional grading is a more superior method.
The third choice of the required reading that I read for my internship is Fair Isn’t Always Equal written by Rick Wormeli. This book is written to help schools and school districts transform their standard grading on assessments and homework to a standards based grading system. The book reasons why schools should look to change to a standard’s based grading system, and the benefits and the amount of information that this type of grading can give us about our students. Not only does this book give the benefits of the grading, it discusses ways to rewrite tests, how to use attendance and effort to give grades, and how to differentiate instruction and assessments to get a true picture of our students and their knowledge of the materials. Wormeli uses quotes from teachers and educational leaders in the different section of the book that have opposite views of standards based grading and the process they used to get to where they are at. This book was assigned to me to read over summer break to begin to prepare us for the change in grading formative assessments using standards based rubrics and the reasons why the change in necessary to truly see if students are learning.
Education is without a doubt one of the most significant factors in our society. We spend twelve years of our lives in the schooling system, and our system has been the most accurate technique for assessing students for decades now. Lately, there has been controversy over the traditional grading system that we currently use in our classrooms across the United States. There is a multitude of individuals who believe we should alter our grading system, and begin using a recently developed system which involves working on a long-term assignment throughout the semester to show what students have learned during the length of the course. There are many benefits to our traditional system that people often seem to overlook. We should be
While examining the pros and cons of Blackboard’s grading system, GradeBook, it was determined that even though Blackboard is flexible and comprehensive, its automated grading system does not grade essay questions automatically, but you can assign point values to each question prior to students viewing the grade in “Grade Center.” The other hindrance or negative aspect is you are provided only one view of GradeBook.
I have experience with standard referenced grading in helping students learn the key material in class to mastery over time of specific outcomes. At the beginning of each unit I give the students a detailed rubric, that is referenced throughout the unit consistently. My students are tested and reassessed to mastery in various ways including but not limited to test, projects, discussions, reports, etc. Students are also given a plan for reassessment set as a team with the student, parents, and me. At all times the student, parent, and me have an accurate picture of student strengths and weaknesses thru productive feedback.
Proficiency based grading is when they break down what you do in different categories and give you individual grades for each category. While in traditional grading is just being able to remember things for a short period of time and they smashed it all down into one average grade at the end of the unit.
Teachers have always used grades to measure the amount a student has learned. This practice is becoming ineffective. Many students have a wide range of grades, which show that grades may not show what a student really knows. Therefore, the standard grading system should be replaced. Some reasons why grades should be replaced are bad grades can hinder a child’s performance, grades define who a student is in the classroom, and grades are not an effective way to see if students have learned the material. The current grading system should be upgraded and every school should incorporate the plus/minus system in their method of grading.
Over the past few years, the traditional grading system of A’s, B’s, C’s, D’s, and F’s have slowly faded away only to be replaced by the insufficient “Standards-Based Grading”. While some schools are adopting this unorthodox grading system, several others still continue to follow the traditional “A-F” grading system. Many believe that the standards-based grading system does not work well with all students and doesn’t accurately grade them. Standards-based grading is a fairly new system of grading where the student is evaluated on his or her ability to complete an assignment and master the concept, not by what they get right or wrong on each individual assignment. This has been very confusing to those who are unfamiliar with standards-based