Many school systems have already stopped assigning zeros to students for missed assignments. Instead they have instead that the assignment be completed in a timely manner. This year my school started this policy and initiated Study Hall where students that have not completed their class or homework had to stay after-school to complete their assignments. The Positive Behavior Intervention Support committee or PBIS also started hosting quarterly celebrations to reward students that had met the following criteria:
- No more than 3 absences.
- No office referrals.
- No academic referrals (study hall).
The celebrations included activities like basketball, volleyball, video games, movies and popcorn, soccer, Ipod touches, and board games. The activities were adjusted each nine weeks based on surveys from the students and what they wanted to have at the celebrations. By the second quarter 80% of the students that were held back from the celebration were held back for not completing their homework. It was the PBIS team that took additional steps during the third quarter to catch students up on their work.
The week after interim reports went home the PBIS committee planned a mid-quarter celebration in which students with missing assignments spent the time in study hall completing their work. Due to the efforts taken by the PBIS committee over 500 assignments were completed and made up in one afternoon. However, teachers still punished the students by taking away points for the assignments being turned in late.
I believe that grading should resemble the format that Guilford County uses for K-2 in which each standard is listed on the report card and a grade of I-IV is given based on the level of mastery that the child has reached. This provides a clear view on what the child needs to focus on, versus uncertainty on whether they have mastered the skills being evaluated or failed to turn in an assignment.
This method of grading using I-IV has been suggested on several occasions, most recently by Ellen R. Delisio and Robert J. Marzano. If we are to change the method of grading then we must also set clear expectations so that the student understands what they must demonstrate in order to show mastery. The easiest method is to use rubrics, Marzano has an example on how a rubric may look like using the Common Core standards and grading using I-IV.
It is time for the lines of communication to open between parents, teachers and administrators concerning behavior, attendance and attitude that is separated from the grade that shows up on the interim reports or report cards at the end of each quarter. If accountability is to be reached then our grading procedures need to be clear and represent what we are truly evaluating.
Resources:
Common Core State Standards Initiative. Digital image. Common Core State Standards Initiative. Web. June-July 12. <www.corestandards.org>.
PBIS Logo. Digital image. Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports. Web. June-July 12. <www.PBIS.org>
So, are you implying a system of grading much like the Middle Years Program of the IB program? Rubrics for assignments that deal with different criteria? For example, Criteria A might be Knowledge, Criteria B: Presentation, and C: Effort (I can't remember the actual name we used on this one, but effort gets the point across). Within each criteria there is a rubric, so for C, a 0 is that the assignment was never turned in, 5 is on time, 4 is a day late, 3 a week late, 2 a month late, etc...
ReplyDeleteThe difficulty we had with something like this (while it is good in idea), is that there were kids who could present things well, and turn it in on time, but still did not master any content. However, because they had done well in 2 out of 3 criteria, they could still pass a class. You could potentially get through a course without knowing a whole lot of anything, but still having a decent/good grade.
Also, EVERY rubric in this system (MYP) has to be tailored for every specific assignment. There is not a general rubric that will always work. For one assignment/test, you might not assess Presentation, but Knowledge and Method (ie, compare/contrast, chart, diagram)... It makes the process time consuming (very much-so at first), but again, an interesting way to look at grading.
I don't know that students should always be punished for a "lack of participation/effort" in their grades, but there is something to be said for a child learning that if they don't do their work, it has consequences, and sometimes those consequences are more than missing out on a game of basketball. When they enter the work-force later, an incomplete task can mean their next paycheck. (The flip-side is that there are students who don't care about the points, but much more-so about the games, and I understand that.) However, an employer won't always let you do your work "in a timely manner" and not have some ramifications.
I'm interested to see how this system continues to develop, and what the long term effect of it is.
Agreed, this is way of grading has its benefits although at first it would be time consuming to develop the rubrics. The difficult task that Marzano and Delisio talk about is how we handle assignments not turned in or late. I am a firm believer that a student needs to understand responsibility and what happens when they do not meet deadlines and turn in dates. I have adopted this method to a degree, however still give participation grades because band is a performance based class and without participation they would not be meeting the standards for my class.
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