Tuttle022709GradingPurpose

Harry Grover Tuttle

Why do grades exist? To reward students for doing well on quizzes, tests, and homework? To give parents' bragging rights about how smart their children are?  To give parents reasons to “ground” their children for their low grades? To allow schools to have “Honor Rolls” and grade point average?  To  allow students with As to get a free ice cream cone at the local ice cream store?  No! The sole purpose of grades is to help students demonstrate where they are in terms of the course's standards.

The change from grading as being an abstract  of learning to grading as being a physical manifestation of students' progress in the learning goals changes the classroom dynamics. Teachers do not give low grades as a punishment for not doing work or doing poorly.  A low initial grade only indicates that students have not yet learned necessary information or skills. A low grade only implies that the teacher and student have to figure out what prerequisite skills, knowledge or strategies are missing or what , misconceptions exist so that the student can change from being temporarily lost to moving forward..

When educators change to students' progress in the learning goals mentality, their goal in class becomes clear; they are to help all students to be successful. They do not “write off” students, instead, they try to figure out which strategy will help each student to achieve the goal.  These teachers spend more time in planning for students' success than in giving lectures. They spend time in developing reteaching material in different learning styles and different groups. They develop alternative assessments that help the students to measure their own progress. By looking at a listing of the goals achieved by individuals and the class, the teachers can see  the students' progress in the course; these achieved goals are the educators' signs of success.

Grading based on learning goals alters students' behaviors and attitudes.  Learners who have not succeeded the first time do not give up; they do not become discouraged. These pupils know that their teacher will provide them with formative feedback so that they can succeed.  When they try a new strategy, they are aware that they may be uncomfortable with that strategy for a while but that the new strategy will  prevent  them from making the same learning mistake over and over. They realize that their initial low grade will be replaced with their higher score.

Proficiency based grading modifies the parents' attitude about grading..  This grading  no longer focuses on whether children have As or on the\ honor roll but on what skills the\children have mastered. Parents know that if their children have not yet mastered the skill that there are formative assessment structures built into place to help the students be successful. Parents whose offspring are missing many skills do not feel that their children are doomed to failure. The bragging rights come when the youth have shown proficiency in the learning goals.

Administrators prefer learning based grades. They can observe the progress of an individual class by looking at a class listing of the goals that all students have achieved.  Likewise, they can compare the progress of all classes of the same subject. These administrators realize they are really comparing class to class as opposed to when teachers assigned letter grades; an ambiguous A in Miss Brown's class is not equal to an ambiguous  A in Mrs Cooper's class.  As they see the big picture of learning  at a grade level or at a subject level, they can suggest that teachers whose students have not achieved the goal  talk with another teacher whose students have achieved the goal in order for the teachers to  learn new strategies.

Grades can become signs of actual learning. Learning goal based grades create a positive atmosphere of hope for all students, teachers, parents and administrators. School becomes a place of success and not failure.

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