What is a Grade?

Our Assistant Superintendant of Curriculum and Instruction has called together a committee of volunteers to examine our district's current practices in assessment and reporting.  I was quite excited to see that the committee is comprised of volunteers representing teacher from elementary, middle and high school.  After two 'whole group' meetings, we divided into subcommittees.  We will be reading various books (provided by the district) throughout the summer -- I will post a bibliography later. 

In initial discussions among the entire group, two essential questions became apparent:

• What does a grade mean?
• What is a grade's purpose?

I have posted my thoughts below:

I think that it is important to recognize that we are focusing on two different things as we work on this committee – assessment and reporting.  Assessment being the evaluation of student work based on a particular set of expectations.  Reporting being the communication of that assessment to a particular stakeholder.  It is also important to recognize that there are multiple stakeholders involved in the reporting of student work/progress – student, parent, and teacher.    The term grade specifically relates to the reporting component of our work.

I would argue that the most important facet of reporting the assessment of the work to a student is feedback.  The educator should not take on the role as ‘final judge’ of student learning, but as the student’s partner and guide in learning.  Reporting should be used to help the student understand where their current quality of work falls as it relates to expectations.  A letter grade or percentage is truly not specific enough to help a student understand this.  A rubric showing a continuum of expectations or narrative feedback are much more powerful means of communication to help students know ‘where they stand’. 

The reporting of assessment to parents is a tricky situation.  Parents are expecting letter/percentage grades because that is what they experienced as students – it is safe and comfortable.  Sadly, many parents do not immediately ‘care’ what their child doesn’t know – they just care about the grade.  I would argue that with parent education, we could train parents to be more concerned with what their child is missing as opposed to what their overall letter grade is.  I would think that parents ‘need’ a letter/percentage grade, but teachers should also communicate progress toward specific standards as well.

The reporting of assessment for teacher purposes is also important.  Teachers need some sort of scale in which to compare students in their classroom.  This will allow them to group students in such a way to facilitate differentiation more easily. 

This is a first round of my thinking on the topic – I may revise/add to this post once I think through it a bit, discuss it with colleagues and explore research more deeply.