An Investigation of Teachers Encouraged to Reform Grading Practices in Secondary Schools

Abstract

Despite the ubiquity and complexity of grading, there is limited contemporary research on grading students in schools. There is, however, an outpouring of publications and consultants promoting new approaches. Many eliminate effort and behavior scores, remove the zero, adopt a four-point system, advocate rubrics, or promote their own software packages. To study changes in grading, we collected data in two New York high schools undergoing a year-long professional development program on rethinking grading. We not only used existing literature on grading to frame our study but also relied on institutional theory and teacher identity as frameworks. We found that productive teacher change occurred, but it was partial, tentative, contingent on school-wide support, and not without frustration on the part of teachers.

Rural High School Principals and the Challenge of Standards-Based Grading

“…It is imperative that educational leaders have a strong literacy of assessment and grading methods if they are to advocate for such practices (Heflebower et al, 2014). A deep understanding of these new practices will be especially helpful in supporting high school teachers who report their personal high school student experience using traditional grading as a point of philosophical dissonance (Olsen & Buchanan, 2019). In short, our data suggest that these high school principals have a good understanding of the knowledge regarding the big ideas in an SBG system.…”

Development and Validation of the Survey of Unorthodox Grading Beliefs for Teachers and Teacher Candidates

“…Even when teachers assign grades within a formal framework mandated by their school, district, or region, there is evidence that teachers create grades with multiple constructs in mind. Beliefs that influence teachers' actual practices in awarding grades may be hard to change, despite grading reform efforts (Olson & Buchanan, 2019). For example, teachers in Canada continued to espouse grading based on improvement, even after implementation of a standardized system for reporting grades (Tierney et al, 2011).…”

Losing As and Fs: What works for schools implementing standards-based grading?

“…Generally speaking, teachers do not agree upon the criteria grades should be based upon. Consequently, administrators can support teachers implementing SBG by clearly creating clarity around the purpose of grades (Brookhart, 2011;Olsen & Buchanan, 2019). The diversity of thought regarding factors influencing grades may vary based upon teacher personal experiences as a learner, success using grades to motivate students, and philosophical beliefs of education.…”

“…In the near future, schools will need to develop the capacity of teachers in their system to understand and implement standards-based grading practices rather than relying on educator preparation programs to do so. Teachers report a lack of prior professional learning in the area of grading and assessment (Hill, 2018;Olsen & Buchanan, 2019), a theme Battistone, Buckmiller and Peters (2019) confirmed in pre-service teachers as well. In response to this notion of unpreparedness, teachers at one middle school reported positive feedback when the principal planned differentiated professional learning for teachers as their level of SBG expertise developed over time (Urich, 2012).…”