Transforming+Classroom+Grading

=Transforming Classroom Grading=
 * by Robert Marzano**

**Text-Based Discussion:**

 * "Grades are so imprecise that they are almost meaningless." (1)
 * "There are three primary criticisms of the current system:
 * (1) teachers consider many factors other than academic achievement when they assign grades,
 * (2) teachers weight assessments differently.
 * (3) teachers misinterpret single scores on classroom assessments." (3)
 * "[B]y using "total points" as the overall indicator of how students have performed, we lose a great deal of information about students' understanding." (7)
 * "[T]eachers in U.S. schools design their own systems for classroom grading and assessment by making individual decisions about the specific factors they will consider, how they will weight these factors, and how they will combine scores on these factors in homework, quizzes, and tests. It is true that this practice provides individual teachers with a great deal of latitude and freedom. It is also true, however, that American education pays a great price for this latitude and freedom." (8)
 * Can we fix the problems and maintain freedom?
 * "[E]ducators use grades primarily (1) for administrative purposes, (2) to give students feedback about their progress and achievement, (3) to provide guidance to students about future course work, (4) to provide guidance to teachers for instructional planning, and (5) to motivate students." (14)
 * "[S]tudents should not be compared to one another but, rather, to the amount of progress they can legitimately be expected to make. One challenge in this approach is to design a scale that can accommodate the different beginning points of reference for each student." (22)
 * "[T]eachers commonly include these factors: (1) understanding of and skill in content, (2) effort, and (3) aptitude." (23)
 * THIS LEADS TO NUMBER ONE... GRADES ARE IMPRECISE
 * "The most powerful single innovation that enhances achievement is feedback. The simplest prescription for improving education must be 'dollops of feedback.'" (23)
 * "[T]he point method makes sense if a teacher addresses only one topic within a grading period." (42)
 * "The key to designing assessments that can be scored on multiple topics is to make clear which items measure which topics." (53)
 * "[T]he average score does not accurately reflect a student's knowledge and skill at the end of a grading period." (70)
 * "[E]ssays are highly effective tools for assessing informational topics, thinking and reasoning, and communication." (92)
 * "Although portfolios are not the best tools for large-scale assessments, they are very useful in the classroom... for student self-assessment..." (99)
 * "[T]eacher observation is highly effective for assessing process-oriented topics and nonachievement factors... Other researchers have cautioned that for observations to be useful, teachers need clarity about the skills they are observing." (99)
 * "[S]elf-assessment is central to the development of higher order metacognitive skills and that it also leads to the identification of individual learning goals, which are at the heart of the assessment process..." (102)
 * Provided lots of good information and research as to what is wrong with current system
 * Last part…not content based, but based on student study habits.
 * Question: - seems like an oversimplification of what teachers do…agreed with some…took offense with other parts
 * Broke out categories, which was liked…identifying for students what they should know
 * How to address the teacher management…what to do when students don’t meet the standards?
 *  I really like the teacher observation aspect of this and the emphasis placed on it, but it seems the very antithesis of standards-based.
 * It still comes down to teaching agreeing on performance levels... do you teach to mastery or to a students current level.
 * What is the mastery level? What would RISC say?
 * How do you state that?
 * The content standard is how well level we expect a student to understand.
 * There often feels like there is a disconnect... when a student doesn't meet a standard, the answer is often that we need to re-teach it when there are so many more answers.
 * Are we being self reflective about our own teaching.