Grading Redux

Earlier this year (in my posts of August 31 and October 3) I mentioned that I was trying out a grading style which involved a 4-point scale. At the twelve week mark I solicited feedback from the students in my sophomore classes, and you can read the comments for both first and fifth hours. While some students embraced the new system, the majority were uncomfortable with it. Their three main concerns were (1) it was too hard to determine their overall grades from a series of 4s, 3s, 2s and 1s, (2) it was frustrating that Infinite Campus reported the grades based on pure percentages rather than what they were supposed to be (for instance, a grade of Proficient or 3 appeared as a 75% rather than the equivalent of a B), and (3) with only 4 grades, there was too much of a gap between grades; they only knew that they were “Proficient,” not how close to being “Advanced” they were (apparently the extensive comments I write on each essay do not explain this clearly…).

I’m not so concerned over item #1; part of my hope was that students would dwell more on the quality of each assignment rather than on the overall grade, so it’s OK with me if they really have to think about what their grades should be, based on the quality of their work. But I actually have shared their concerns over items #2 and #3. I think a grading system should give useful feedback, and I had already started “cheating” on the 4-point scale by using plusses and minuses. To solve the Infinite Campus problem, I have changed the grades to simple percentages so that IC can do its calculations. I still plan just to write “Advanced” and “Proficient” and so forth on the assignments, along with explanatory comments. My hope is that students will ponder this feedback a bit before they rush to their computers.

So far, I feel that I have been largely unsuccessful in conveying the idea that learning is more important than grades. My students seem less interested in improving the quality of their work than in accumulating points. Maybe next semester…