I.P.T.S Teaching Diverse Students I.P.T.S Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge I.P.T.S.

Planning for Differentiated Instruction I.P.T.S Assessment

SARA CONLEY

THE CURRENT GRADING SYSTEM IS FAILING STUDENTS BY: SARA CONLEY

The first recorded grade given in the Unites States was in 1833; it was a B at Harvard University (Jay Mathews, A to F scale gets poor marks but is Likely to Stay 1.) The record did not indicate how the student felt about the grade nor does it give any other information on what happened to the Harvard student afterwards. I find this interesting in because the record was more worried about the grade over the student but I digress. According to Grading in the Post-Process Classroom before the recorded B at Harvard various methods of ranking and sorting students were tried, including attempts to sort students based on social position of their families (Libby Allison, Lizbeth Bryant, Maureen Hourigan, 2.) Since the A-F grading system was implemented it has only been getting worse for everyone at all levels. Perhaps the system worked for a while in the mid to late 1800s and maybe even into early to mid 1900s, after all students and teachers alike needed some way to tell if the student was doing what was required to pass classes in a fair way. Perhaps, teachers needed a fair way of assessing students that did not include anything other than evaluation of the student on their work. But now, in the year 2012, the A-F system is not working. Students and parents need some sort of feedback, and teachers need a stress-free and fair way to assess students on their work. Feedback that will help students know what they are doing wrong and let students

I.P.T.S Teaching Diverse Students I.P.T.S Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge I.P.T.S. Planning for Differentiated Instruction I.P.T.S Assessment

know what teachers expect. In the current A-F grading system; intelligent students are failing school, parents are becoming more and more frustrated, teachers are overly stressed, and underfunded schools are becoming even poorer Something needs to change or things will only continue to get worse for everyone on all levels, which will be discussed more in detail shortly. The bottom line is the current A-F grading system is failing students. The current A-F grading system is not only failing our students but also our teachers, the parents, administrators, and the school districts; everyone. That is not where it ends either; because of low grades the schools gets less funding. This makes no logical sense! Take a second to actually think about this, the school districts with higher funding usually have higher grades; because of this the school district can afford new books and / or better teaching techniques. Okay, that sounds okay so far, now to the other side of this problem. The poorer schools usually have bad grades because they cannot afford new books and / or better teaching techniques. So what are they supposed to do? Poorer school districts like this are stuck in a never ending cycle, they cannot teach the kids well without resources, like funding, and yet they cannot get those resources without teaching the kids well. In his book Grassroots School Reform Kent A. Farnsworth speaks about an essay written by Martin West, He speculates the one of the shortcomings of our assessment programs in the Unites States is not that we are testing out children, but that we are evaluating their learning too narrowly and are encouraging state and schools to do so by imposing benefits and sanctions on narrowly focused criteria (63.) A little off subject but it rings true none the less, schools are only going to keep getting worse off if everyone keeps narrowly evaluating students instead of using a more broad stroke approach. There has to be a better way to assess students, and I personally believe there is a way, but I am getting ahead of myself that will be discussed later in the essay. That is, sadly, only one of the many problems the current A-F grading system causes. For example, as a student I know that after I get the letter grade back on a test, or any other work I have done, my mind promptly does away with any information I know wont be used later. Go to any college student in their

I.P.T.S Teaching Diverse Students I.P.T.S Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge I.P.T.S. Planning for Differentiated Instruction I.P.T.S Assessment

second year of college on and ask them what they learned in their first year in college. They can tell you the most basic information, and that is it. Students do away with information they will not need later on and that is a serious problem. In his essay Getting along Without Grades-and With Them, Too, Peter Elbow states lists reasons why he has problems with grades, one of them being They lead students to work more for the sake of the grade than for learning (494.) Students become so worried about a letter grade that they become overly stressed and cannot be happy until they know what the grade is. Most students I talk to, and I even do it myself, after they get a test back (for example) they will look directly at the grade. That is it, just straight for the grade, students do not question how or why any of the questions are wrong, students just get the grade that is on the paper and deal with it. Alfie Kohn states Grades tend to reduce the quality of students thinking. They may skim books for what theyll need to know.' They are less likely to wonder, say, How can we be sure thats true? (The Case Against Grading, 9) Students are so accustomed to getting grades that they are forgetting to question why these answers are wrong. I hear this phrase all the time, even at a college level, as long as I get a C Ill be happy. A letter C grade and students are happy? This is mind boggling to me, why not try for a better grade, study, anything? The A-F grading system makes students not care about how well they are doing in classes as long as they pass the classes, which is another serious problem with the A-F grading system. Students become more worried about how poorly they are doing rather then what they are learning in the first place; this is truly heartbreaking and unhealthy. Now this all being said there has to be something good with the current A-F grading system, after all why would they have implemented the A-F system in the first place if it did not work? In his essay Unintended Consequences of High-Stakes Testing Gregory Cizek states there are 10 unanticipated consequences (478.) These consequences range from Professional Development (479) to Quality of Tests (482.) I would like to point out a certain one Gregory Cizek points out and that would be Accountability System (480.) Gregory Cizek states that if a pupil doesnt pass a high-stakes test, there are a lot of possible (and confounded) explanations: lack of persistence, poor teaching, distracting learning environment, inadequate resources, lack of prerequisite skills, poorly- constructed test, dysfunctional home

I.P.T.S Teaching Diverse Students I.P.T.S Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge I.P.T.S. Planning for Differentiated Instruction I.P.T.S Assessment

situation, and so on (481.) Gregory Cizek goes on to blame everyone for this child doing poorly on the test. I can think the same can be said for assessing a student. If a student received a bad grade the, for lack of a better phrase, blame game begins. It is a good thing to know when a student does poorly who to hold accountable, do not get me wrong, but we need to do it in a fair way. For example if a student does poorly in all of their classes and does not show signs of caring it can be assumed the student does not care about how they are doing in school. But if, for another example, all students are failing one teachers class it is safe to assume this is the teachers fault. There is always a reason a student fails a class, someone just has to dig a little to find out. So the accountability system is one good thing that has come out of the A-F grading system. But that is not good enough; administration should not keep a grading system because only one thing is working. Administration needs to sit down and think, surely there is something better out there, and there is. That is where alternative grading systems come into play. These systems offer a wide variety of helpful changes to the A-F grading system, and yes, change is possible. These changes can range from anything, from getting rid of letter grading completely or just something as simple as giving feedback beside a letter grade. Before I go into too much detail on alternative grading though, I would like to point to Evergreen State College and Hampshire College. These two colleges do not use the A-F grading system at all; they use something called narrative evaluations. How narrative evaluations work is Students will receive multiple evaluations from faculty, as well as write their own self-evaluations, which can contribute to their overall transcript (evergreen.edu.) To better explain this Evergreens website goes on to say While a grade can reveal nothing about the thinking that went into a student's work or what work the student completed, evaluations express the reactions of both students and faculty members to that particular student's work (evergreen.edu.) This is in a nutshell what alternative grading is about, to give better feedback in place of or beside a letter grade. This is honestly the most fantastic way of assessment I have heard of to date. It seems fair to everyone and the accountability is still in place. Alternative grading is a great step in the right direction but like the A-F grading system it has its

I.P.T.S Teaching Diverse Students I.P.T.S Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge I.P.T.S. Planning for Differentiated Instruction I.P.T.S Assessment

good and bad points. I only point to these two colleges because I am very aware of the people out there who are so stuck in the ways of the A-F grading system that they believe that any other way would not function the way it should. Alternative grading main good points include better feedback and students retaining knowledge. Starting with better feedback in alternative grading, student and parents alike are able to look at the comments left by the teacher and see what the student is excelling in, which promotes encouragement, and also see where the student is lacking, which helps target the problem. This is important because when a student is only given a letter grade they usually have no idea what they did wrong. Feedback provides the exact reason why they got the grade they did, which in turn will help the student improve in the long run. Students retaining knowledge is extremely important to furthering education. For example; think of a student who did not learn fractions well, every time they encounter fractions from now on they will recall having fractions before but they also remember they are bad at them (Lalley and Gentile Classroom Assessment and Grading to Assure Mastery 29.) Students must first retain basic knowledge so they can build on it. Think of it like a house, a house with a strong foundation will last, but a house with a weak foundation is bound crumble. Now, to the bad part of the alternative grading system, this would be implementing the system. Honestly, this is the only downfall to the alternative grading system. The problem is the education system is so used to the A-F system that if they were to just switch to the alternative grading system it would be such a shock to students they would not know what to do. Teniell L. Trolin and Kristin S. Fouts in their paper No Child Left Behind: Implications for College Student Learning bring up the excellent point of The responsibility students often feel early in their college career responsibility for attending class, applying learning skills, managing their own schedule leaves many with a since of traditional shock (5-6.) Seeing as teachers and administration are not trying to, for lack of a better phrase, shell-sock students as soon as they get to college there needs to be a transitional stage. There needs to be a way to slowly integrate the alternative grading system into schools and helping students get a better education.

I.P.T.S Teaching Diverse Students I.P.T.S Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge I.P.T.S. Planning for Differentiated Instruction I.P.T.S Assessment

This is where my plan comes into play; it is what I call the Enhanced Education Technique. I have combined the best of the A-F system and the alternative grading system to bring to the educational world a better way of teaching, and to bring the students a better way of learning. I have taken the accountability system from the A-F system and then adding students retaining knowledge and better feedback from the alternative grading system. These together make something magical happen. With accountability still in place student and teachers will no long have to worry about grade based assessment and can go to a new level of learning. This new plan resembles the one used at Evergreen State College and Hampshire College, but only one thing differs. The Enhanced Education Technique differs, somewhat, in the way that there are steps to integrate the new system, no school district (or anyone else that is interested) that uses the Enhanced Education Technique will have to just jump into this system all at once. This in turn means no shell-socked student or staff. The system is separated into three segments. Segment one, of the Enhanced Education Technique, consists mainly of improved feedback along with traditional A-F grades. Segment two, of the Enhanced Education Technique, consists of dropping the letter grade and helping students learn in a way that will let them retain knowledge. Lastly, segment three, of the Enhanced Education Technique, consists of keeping the accountability system in place. When these three segments combine the Enhanced Education Technique works at its best; that being said they also work well on their own. Now I will elaborate more into the three segments of the Enhanced Education Technique. Starting with segment one of the Enhanced Education Technique, which included improving feedback. This first segment is the easiest out of the three segments because its not changing the much from the A-F system everyone is so used to. This is merely adding feedback alongside a students A-F grade. This simply lets the student, parents, and teachers who all see the grade know why the student received the grade on the paper or assignment. This is very helpful in classes such as English or Art that dont have set correct answers such as Math. This will not only help students understand what the teachers expectations are but it also helps student understand what they need to do to get a better grade in the class or on assignments.

I.P.T.S Teaching Diverse Students I.P.T.S Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge I.P.T.S. Planning for Differentiated Instruction I.P.T.S Assessment

The segment is simple to initiate because it does not require much except adding feedback to the A-F assessment system. Now moving on to segment two which consists of dropping the letter grade and helping students retain knowledge. Elizabeth Greville in her article A Rose by Any Other Name: Grading and Assessment states that grades are not an acceptable means of assessing a discrete learning outcome. Yet the entire system by which earn credits, maintain academic standing, and secure other benefits is built on course grade (1.) I could not have said it better myself, and to make matters worse there is no fair way to give grades to students on the A-F system. Which is why is must be dropped, as a side effect of these grades being dropped students stop worrying so much about how badly they are doing. Instead students turn their attention on how well they are doing and they can easily find this out by looking at the feedback on their assignments and see exactly what they need to do as students to do well in a class. This is why dropping the letter grade and helping students retain knowledge are together in one segment. They go together hand and hand. As Barbara E. Walvoord and Virginia Johnson Anderson say in their book Effective Grading they use something called stealth assessment(5.) They do not really describe what it means in the book but I think it is a good way to describe the Enhanced Education Technique when it is in the full effect. With the grades now dropped and students only receiving feedback there still needs to be a way to hold someone accountable for students not doing well. That is explained in segment three of the Enhanced Education Technique. Lastly, segment three of the Enhanced Education Technique which covers keeping the accountability system in place. This is very important for the system to work. Without this third segment in place the Enhanced Education Technique system would be like the house I mentioned earlier, with the bad foundation, it is bound to crumble. If there was no accountability system in place in the Enhanced Education Technique no one would be able to know if the teacher is failing the student or the student is failing the teacher. In other words there would be no way of knowing who is not doing their job correctly. This can be easily fixed however, by having the student and teacher write an end of

I.P.T.S Teaching Diverse Students I.P.T.S Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge I.P.T.S. Planning for Differentiated Instruction I.P.T.S Assessment

semester reflective essay on the class. If you put it with the where assessments (grades) would go (like Evergreen does) you can always go bad and look to see how and where the student excelled. These essays will always be a better indicator of how a student did rather than just a simple letter grade. In the long run the Enhanced Education Technique works well by themselves as segments but works fantastic together. These three segments, working together, will provide an easier and fairer way for students to be evaluated on their work as a student. First, with this strong foundation from the Enhanced Education Technique students can better themselves with a better and more stress-free educational experience. This in the long run would raise attentence rates among students. Next, teachers have a more fair way to evaluate student's work on a more individual basis. Kris H. Green and Allen Emerson define evaluating as the process of giving feedback in order to help students improve their understanding of the course material (A New Framework for Grading, 497.) Also, parents and/or tutors can help student where they need it most instead of being left in the dark. Robert J. Marzano and Tammy Heflebower in their essay Grades That Show What Students Know they talk about traditional grading systems and say these practices provides little useful information about a specific student (34.) This is the main reason why feedback is so important. Lastly, as a side effect of the Enhanced Education Technique working well, administration can sit back and watch as enrollment increases, attendance increases, and more money is brought into the school district. I realize the Enhanced Education Technique may seem a little broad-stroked at the moment but this is a good thing. In the book Creating New Schools : How Small Schools Are Changing American Education Author Evans Clincy says Broad standards are helpful in shaping effective schools if they are one piece of a broader effort to realize a new vision of learning, teaching , and assessment as well as how schools should be structured for learning (62.) Dare I say it; I believe my Enhanced Education Technique fits that description pretty well. With the broad approach of the Enhanced Education Technique everyone, on all level, jobs become easier and more stress free.

I.P.T.S Teaching Diverse Students I.P.T.S Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge I.P.T.S. Planning for Differentiated Instruction I.P.T.S Assessment

As a small side note I would like to list the benefits of the Enhanced Education Technique, this will be with a little help for Jerome S. Alcarno in his book Quality in Education : An Implementation Handbook (25.)

What are the benefits of the Enhanced Education Technique: Increased cooperation at all levels (Alcarno) The creation of a better learning and working environments for all (Alcarno) Improved efficiency and productivity by all (Alcarno) Improvements in education recognized by community, staff, and students (Alcarno)

Now with these listed I would like to go into each one briefly. First, increased cooperation at all levels means students, teachers, tutors, parents, and administration will all work together to make the Enhanced Education Technique become a successful program that not only works but puts the current grading system to shame. It will also help everyone, on all level communicate easier. Second, the creation of a better learning and working environments for all means that, for students and teacher, classrooms becomes less stressful. They become less weighted down by fear of grades and more about learning. Third, improved efficiency and productivity by all, which means every level from students to administration, will become less weighted down by the loom of grades and funding based on grades. Everyone will have the time to turn their attention to more important things. Lastly, improvements in educations recognized by community, staff, and students, I believe this is pretty self-explanatory. The school and everyone involved in it will become more recognized for all the accomplishments it achieves. With all these things working together the school will have improved attendance and higher enrollment.

I.P.T.S Teaching Diverse Students I.P.T.S Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge I.P.T.S. Planning for Differentiated Instruction I.P.T.S Assessment

All of these wonderful things are all in reach. The Enhanced Education Technique is still rough by all means but it will get no better if no one will at least give it a try. Start small, start segment one with freshman college classes, the segment two with sophomore classes, and segment three will be in place for all others. This way no student is just pushed into anything suddenly and no one is reduced to a shell-shock student. It really is that simple, and if that is still too big for you perhaps just one teacher tries it. Gives the students the choice in rather they would like to try the Enhanced Education Technique or stick with the A-F grading system. Give them the choice because everyone should have one. It wouldnt be that hard, simply follow the three segments of the Enhanced Education Technique to implement it.None of this will be possible, however unless one teacher tries it. Just one teacher who is willing to put themselves out there in the name of education and try the Enhanced Education Technique will be making a huge step in the right direction. So To Whom It May Concern and to whom has the power to do so. Won't you give the Enhanced Education Technique a try? If it doesn't work I understand, like I stated before it's pretty rough yet. But if I can get the information I will know why and how it does or does not work. Getting feedback on the parts of the Enhanced Education Technique will only help it grow and then it can be fixed as it goes. For the good of the educational system, we need to get rid of everything we know assessment wise and try something better, something new. Just remember it cannot get any worse than what we already have in place. So what is the harm in trying? The Enhanced Education Technique will help everyone. Students get a stress free learning environment. Teachers get a fair way to assess students work. Administrations get better results within the school. There is no bad ending to this. So please, please at least consider the Enhanced Education Technique. Thank you.

I.P.T.S Teaching Diverse Students I.P.T.S Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge I.P.T.S. Planning for Differentiated Instruction I.P.T.S Assessment

Works Cited Allison, Libby, Lizbeth Bryant, Maureen Hourigan. Grading in the Post-Process Classroom When Theory and Practice Collide Grading in the Post-Process Classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook. 1997. Print. Anderson, Virginia J, Barbara E. Walvoord. Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment. San Francisco. Jossey-Bass,1998. Print. Arcaro, Jerome S. Quality in Education: An Implementation Handbook.Dalray Beach, Florida. St. Lucie Press. 1995. Print. Cizek, Gregory. Unintended Consequences of High-States Testing The Informal Argument.Ed. Robert P. Yagelski. Robert M. Miller. Belmont, MA: Wadsworth, 2012. 475-484. Print. 1 Oct. 2012. Elbow, Peter. Getting Along Without Grades-And With Them, Too.The Informal Argument.Ed. Robert P. Yagelski. Robert M. Miller. Belmont, MA: Wadsworth, 2012. 493-508. Print. 1 Oct. 2012. Emerson, Allen. Kris H. Green. A New Framework for Grading Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 32.4 (2012): 495-511 EBSCOhost. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Nov. 2012. Farnsworth, Kent A. Grassroots School Reform. New York. Palgrave Macmillan. 2010. Print. Fouts, Kristin S. Teniell L. Trolian. No Child Left Behind: Implications for College Student Learning About Campus 16.3 (2012): 2-7 EBSCOhost. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Nov. 2012. Gentile, J. Ronald. James P. Lalley. Classroom Assessment and Grading to Assure Mastery.Theory Into Practice. 48 (2009):EBSCOhost. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. Greville, Elizabeth C. A Rose by Any Other Name: Grading and Assessment Assessment Update 21.5 (2009): 1-2 & 13 EBSCOhost. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Oct. 2012.

I.P.T.S Teaching Diverse Students I.P.T.S Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge I.P.T.S. Planning for Differentiated Instruction I.P.T.S Assessment

Guskey Thomas R. Lee Ann Jung. Grading and Reporting in a Standards-Based Environment: Implications for Students with Special Needs Theory into Practice (2009): 53-62 EBSCOhost. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. Heflebower, Tammy. Robert J. Marzano. Grades That Show What Students Know Education Leadership (2011): 34-39 EBSCOhost. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. Kohn, Alfie. The Case Against Grades. Education Digest (2001): 8-16 EBSCOhost. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. Mathews, Jay. A to F Scale Gets Poor Marks but Is Likely to Stay The Washington Post 18 Oct. 2005. Web. 14 Nov. 2012. More About Our Curriculum :Narrative Evaluation admissions.evergreen.edu. The Evergreen State College.Web. 15, Nov 2012.