GRADING AND STUDENT EVALUATION

EFL Learners

Critical questions

• What is the purpose do grades serve?

• What is the trouble with evaluation of students?

• How to make grading more effecient?

Definition of Grading• Grades in the realm of education are

standardized measurements of varying levels of comprehension within a subject area.

• Grades can be assigned in letters (for example, A, B, C, D, or E, or F), as a range (for example 4.0–1.0), as a number out of a possible total (for example out of 20 or 100), as descriptors (excellent, great, satisfactory, needs improvement).

Philosophy of GradingBase grades on student achievement, and achievement only. Grades should represent the extent to which the intended learning outcomes were achieved by students. They should not be contaminated by student effort, tardiness, misbehavior, and other extraneous factors. . . . If they are permitted to become part of the grade, the meaning of the grade as an indicator of achievement is lost.

Gronlund (1998) (pp. 174-175)

Philosophy of Grading• Guidelines for Selecting Grading Criteria• Calculating Grades: Absolute and

Relative Grading• Teachers’ Perception of Appropriate

Grade Distributions

Institutional Expectations and Constraints• Being cognizant of an istitutional philosophy of

grading is an important step toward a consistent and fair evaluation of your student.

• Cross-Cultural Factors and the Question of Difficulty

• What do Letter Grades “Mean”?

Alternatives to Letter Grading

12 Alternatives to Letter Grades1. Gamification2. Live Feedback3. Grade–>Iterate–>Replace4. Always-on Proving Grounds (Continuous Climate

of Assessment)5. Standards-Based Reporting6. “So? So What? What Now?”7. Curating the Highlights8. Pass/Fail9. P2P, S2S, or Mentor Celebration10.Non-points-based Rubrics11.Publishing

Some Principles and Guidelines for Grading and Evaluation• Principles• Grading is not necessarily based on a universally

acceptedscale.• Grading is sometimes subjective and context-

dependant.• Grades may not “mean” the same thing to all

people.• Alternatives to letter or numerical grades are

highly desirable as additionalindicators of achievement.

Some Principles and Guidelines for Grading and Evaluation• Guideline• 1. Develop an informed, comprehensive personal

philosophy of grading that isconsistent with your philosophy of teaching and evaluation.

• 2. Design tests that conform to appropriate institutional and cultural expectations of the difficulty that students should experience.

• 3. Select appropriate criteria for grading and their relative weighting in calculatinggrades.

• 4. Communicate criteria for grading to students at the beginning of the course and atsubsequent grading periods (mid-term, final)

• 5.Triangulate formal graded evaluations with alternatives that are more formativeand that give more washback.

What is the purpose do grades serve?

What is the purpose do grades serve?

Barbara Walvoord and Virginia Anderson identify the multiple roles that grades serve:

• as an evaluation of student work;• as a means of communicating to students,

parents, graduate schools, professional schools, and future employers about a student’s performance in college and potential for further success;

• as a source of motivation to students for continued learning and improvement;

• as a means of organizing a lesson, a unit, or a semester in that grades mark transitions in a course and bring closure to it.

What is the trouble with evaluation

of students?

What is the trouble with evaluation of students?

Suskie identify some problems with student evaluation :

• Evaluation is a highly inconsistent process. Teachers give different numbers and types of assessments and weight them differently.

• There is disagreement on issues like the role and value of work. Some teachers assign homework frequently and weight it heavily, while some don’t assign it at all.

• Some teachers will allow retakes of tests and quizzes, others do not.

What is the trouble with evaluation of students?• Different policies exist for work turned in late.• Districts may or require different final grades as a

passing mark – 60 to 70 is a common but large range.• Districts may set a minimum score that teachers can

record – e.g., no grade lower than a 50 is allowed.• The validity and reliability of student assessments

vary.• There are major philosophical differences regarding

evaluation. Some teachers view learning as primarily a student responsibility, while some place the responsibility for teaching mainly on themselves.

What is the trouble with evaluation of students?

• There is little agreement on many assessments and what kinds are needed for evaluation.

• Even within the same school different teachers teach differently and test differently for the same course.

How to make grading more efficient?

♣ At the very beginningConsider the course grading policies.

♣ Before you grade Try creating a rubric, or grading scale, and test it out on a

sampling of papers. ♣ While you are grading

Grade while you are in a good mood.♣ Commenting on Student Work

Identify common problems students had with an assignment and prepare a handout addressing those problems.

♣ After You’ve GradedIf appropriate for your course or section, use a spreadsheet or the Space Grading feature to calculate grades.

There are some strategies that we can use to make the grading process more efficient.