Brianna Blair

Annotated Bibliography

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2009). Developing the theory of formative assessment. Educational

Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 21(1), 5-31.

With many variations and perceptions of education, this author explains that there
is no single definition to formative assessment. The article works to describe a
unity among the variety of different practices of formative assessment.
Explanations are made about the implementation of formative assessment in the
classroom. I am most interested in the feedback nuances of the article, as it will
fit into my formative assessment piece of research. Formative interaction can be
analyzed and further explored here in this article. The three key processes from
William and Thompson (2007) are explored, where learners learn, know where to
go, and what needs to be done in order to get there.

Brookhart, S. M. (2004). Grading. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

This book is about grading, and how teachers can understand how to grade.
Functions of grades are explained, skills developed by grades are expanded upon,
and idea of combining grading methods are applied. Brookhart says that a perfect
world would be no grades, or they be at least different than they are now. She
emphasizes reliability about a teachers grading, where the grades are consistent
and most accurate. She also encourages validity, where the teacher needs deliver
the most understandable message to the student via grades. She says a teachers
grading practice are tied to practice of instruction and classroom management.

Ellis, L., Burke, D. M., Lomire, P., & Mccormack, D. R. (2003). Student Grades and

Average Ratings of Instructional Quality: The Need for Adjustment. The Journal of

Educational Research, 97(1), 35-40. doi:10.1080/00220670309596626

The authors explore the relationship between teaching/teacher quality and

effective instruction leading to better grades. In other words, these authors
learned that better teachers attracted better students, resulting in better grades.
They collected from a 165 science courses, and recorded the ratings that students
gave for that class. They hypothesize that students prefer the specific teachers
who have an easygoing grading personality. These authors work to emphasize the
need for an adjustment in grading methods. It is important to them that grade
inflation is avoided. This article is valuable to my research because I want to
explore the effects of lax grading styles.
Goubeaud, K., & Yan, W. (2004). Teacher educators' teaching methods, assessments, and

grading: A comparison of higher education faculty's instructional practices. The

Teacher Educator, 40(1), 1-16. doi:10.1080/08878730409555348

This author created a large scale study to explore the teaching methods,
assessments, and grading practices of teachers. In hopes to study quality of
teacher education, they recorded the significant differences found between groups
of higher education faculty and their assessment habits. The article provides
evidence that the teachers with constructivism flavor have a higher tendency to
utilize performance based assessment. Student evaluations were shown to be
more prevalent when assigning research papers and other like assignments. This
data will give me great benefits when discussing the likelihood of certain grading
methods.

Guskey, T. and R. Thomas. 2004. 0 Alternatives. Principal Leadership 5, no. 2: 4953.

There are many Gusky resources to choose from. I chose this one because he
points out that late or missing work should be reported as missing, rather than a
zero. He emphasizes the need to omit the use of zeroes in grading; the empty
number can actually be seen as a weapon to students. Students feel that they have
no chance in a high grade when they stare at the zero. Like he says, a single zero
has more influence on average than any other score in the group,. I really value
his views, and hope to utilize many of his ideas in my own classroom.

Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational

Research, 77(1), 81-112.

This is a very valuable article about feedback and the effects it has on students.
The article explains that so many articles speak volumes about feedback, but fails
to distinguish good feedback from bad. The impacts of different feedbacks are
demonstrated in the article. Hattie explains that praise is ineffective, whereas
instructive feedback reports the best success. She emphasizes the need to
decrease ambiguity of feedback, and provide in a succinct but informative way.
Teachers can clarify goals, and create a learning environment in which the
students are clear about them. The teachers should guide the students to where
they are going, how to go there, and what happens after all that.

Holmes, L. E., & Smith, L. J. (2003). Student Evaluations of Faculty Grading Methods.

Journal of Education for Business, 78(6), 318-323. doi:10.1080/08832320309598620

The authors at The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater explore the use of

 grading methods by evaluating student comments and complaints on grading
systems. They are concerned that students are more concerned with the grades
they earn rather than the knowledge base they develop. Also, the authors find that
grades reflect the biases of individual instructors (Page, 1994). They explore
grading methods and the attitudes toward them by surveying almost 3,000
students enrolled in a college. They were asked about essay grading quantitative
grading, showing that they were most frustrated with the instructors that provided
minimal to no feedback. The students also complained that they were not
provided with reasoning behind the grade the instructor gave them. This article
provides substantial data, from a large sample, about the providing of powerful
feedback.

Pellegrino, J. W. (2004). The evolution of educational assessment: Considering the past and

imagining the future. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service, Policy Evaluation

and Research Center, Policy Information Center.

This author gives me information on the changes of assessment and education that
have happened over time. He talks about the transitions between 1957 and
current day assessment. This discussion of the evolution of grading methods is
valuable to my research because I need an understanding of why we have adopted
our current methods. The chronology explains that we have gone from the
application of cognitive theory to the study of learning differences based upon
certain instructional methods. Our analysis of individual differences has
presented efforts to combine these two assessments to create a productive and
beneficial system of assessment.

Popham, W. J. (2008). Transformative assessment. Alexandria, VA: Association for

Supervision and Curriculum Development.

James Popham talks about formative assessment, the effectiveness, and how to
build the frameworks of formative assessment. In the first chapter, he discusses
that successes that come with formative assessment, however, He also talks about
the adjustments that should be made to current formative assessment styles in
another chapter. I admire the points he makes about how teachers should apply
formative assessment because he emphasizes the importance of facilitation and
suggestion rather than deciding for or directing the student. His final chapter
explores the meanings behind standardized testing, the educational preparation for
testing, and the insensitivity of tests because they focus on categorizations like
socioeconomic status, etc.

Reeves, D B. (2007). Ahead of the curve. The power of assessment to transform teaching
 and learning. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.

This book has multiple authors writing within each chapter. The book really
speaks to assessments and how they can change teaching and learning. Anne
Davies in chapter two of the book discusses the involvement of students via
classroom assessment. Ken OConnor in chapter 6 talks about grading and the
questions that come with committing to a certain method. There is that
awkwardness and OConnor lists some of those beliefs throughout. He has a
really valuable point in his chapter that I will probably apply directly to my own
teaching philosophy and that is, Instead of assigning a grade of zero, why not
simply note that the evidence is missing with a blank space in the grade book?
(OConnor pg 141). I can utilize OConnors work for the benefits of my own
teaching philosophy because we have some parallels within our views.

Schachte, W. F. (2009). Voices that emerge: Understanding formative assessment from the

students' eye view (Doctoral dissertation)

This author speaks about the aversion that one would have if methods from 50
years ago was applied to them today. The role of formative assessment is huge
when in regards to the improvement of student success. While teachers
instructional methods and student learning is improving, the quality of education
is centered around how the student truly learns. The author explains that student
perceptions of themselves is due to the unconscious ranking that students are
given by the school and faculty. The author suggests that the 50-year-old beliefs
impact the purpose of assessment and results in corrupt expectations of the
students. This dissertation is really beneficial to my research because these are
suggested adjustments that can be made to outdated assessment methods. This
author digs deep to help the reader understand the emotional battle that students
go through when they are educated in public schools.

Trepanier-Street, Mary L; McNair, Shannon; Donegan, Mary M. "The views of teachers on

assessment: A comparison of lower and upper elementary teachers." Journal of

Research in Childhood Education. Association for Childhood Education

International. 2001.

Mary Trepanier-Street, one of the authors to this article, did a study on

kindergarten, first, and second grade teachers regarding grading assessment. The
teachers were asked about their trust level when it comes to standardized test
grades. They were also asked about their beliefs toward parental involvement
when discussing grades. The authors of the study learned that the teachers
believed in a high parental involvement rate. The results also presented positive
feedback towards the standardized tests and other assessments. This is a valuable
 resource that will help support the topic of the teachers point of view and beliefs
in regards to assessment.

Walvoord, B., & Anderson, V.J. (1998). Effective grading: A tool for learning and assessment,

San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

These authors talk about how teachers spend just about every day, wrestling with
the problems faced in grading and the power it withholds. They explain a need
for faculty control over assessment plans and outcomes for their own classroom
by using grading processes. Their definition of grading is, the process by which
a teacher assesses student learning through classroom tests and assignments, the
context in which good teachers establish that process, and the dialogue that
surrounds grades and defines their meaning to various audiences (p.1). In order
to maintain effective assessments, teachers can manage the grading process in a
way that motivates student learning.

Yesbeck, D. M. (2011). Grading practices: Teachers' considerations of academic and non-

academic factors (Order No. 3487509). Available from ProQuest Central.

(913076079).

This is a dissertation about grading practices, and teacher considerations of those

nuances. The author speaks to formative assessment, grading, good practice in
grading and measurement, and student accountability. It is within this writing that
I developed a deeper understanding for the purpose of grades, and how teacher
practices can change the purpose. Teacher accountability is emphasized, and to
fulfill the role, Yesbeck emphasizes the need to report grades based on student
learning. With such variability across the grading spectrum, consistency is
necessary within a single classroom. Yesbeck finds that the prupose of grading is
to communicate with parents and students, provide students with feedback, and
note progress in learning, while always maintaining policy of grades.