Evaluating grading policies across campus
Introduction:
Newbury Park High School is home to a diverse collection of students, classes, and teachers. With various courses available, each requires a different method of assessing a student’s learning of the subject. Teachers and policies also differ from classroom to classroom, and all have their own norms. There are many different grading systems at NPHS, each having their own advantages and challenges. Depending on subject, content and learning standards, teachers and students at Newbury Park High School have different ideas about which grading systems work best.
Curved Grading:
History teacher, Scott Ellis, grades assessments by blending a traditional points based rubric scoring for essay questions and curving multiple choice scores. Curving scores is the process of adjusting scores based on the class’s overall performance. “[Grading] multiple choice [tests] is [curved] based on data, and then usually the curve is trying to get tiers of ‘A,’ ‘B,’ ‘C,’ ‘D,’ categories,” Ellis said.
Ellis implemented this system of curving grading after he began teaching AP European History, a class he notes to have a difficult nature. “I really wanted to make sure that my students were not only prepared, but also felt like they weren’t getting hammered or penalized for really challenging assessments,” Ellis said.
While Ellis acknowledges that AP coursework is difficult, he does not want his students’ grades to suffer. “It’s really important to me, rather than just having an easy class and then a really hard national exam, I feel like there shouldn’t be a disconnect between the two…So the curve is meant to kind of provide some safety nets for that,” Ellis said.
Curved grading comes with the challenge of finding a balance between reflecting mastery of a standard and motivating students to learn, which is something that Ellis recognizes. “I suppose that’s the drawback too… I want to make sure that students still feel they can do the course… but a challenge would probably be where to set the boundaries for lower marks and make sure that students are earning the grade that is [reflective] of their studies and their prep,” Ellis said.
Carly Adams, Assistant Principal of Instruction, oversees all educational departments, teaching staff, testing and curriculum at NPHS. Her position requires that she monitors student learning, which is often explicitly defined by grades. Adams believes in finding a balance between uniformity and complete variance in grading policies. “The more consistent people are in their practices, the less room for comparison…I think there is some room for differentiation within systems, but I think having common practices and policies within the grading is what is the key,” Adams said. With that, she also has insight into weighing the benefits and drawbacks of curved grading. Adams notes that although curved grading benefits the students, it is more often a reflection of a learning gap. “Usually teachers curve because students did not achieve the highest that they should have achieved. So there’s a significant learning that’s missing,” Adams said.
Curved testing has its benefits and drawbacks in the classroom. Sadie Lee, junior, has taken numerous classes that use this method to grade assessments. “It’s a really great experience, because when you don’t do as well on a test, then your grade still has a chance to go up because the curve makes it like a new score,” said Lee.
However, she recognizes that this can create grade inflation. “If people didn’t really get a good grade, then because of the curve, it gets boosted,” said Lee. “It’s not a true, accurate description of what they’re actually supposed to be getting.” Too much reliance on the cushion of curved grading can undermine a student’s determination to master the material.
Adams acknowledges the benefits of implementing a curve on scores can have on students, while also affirming her stance that this practice shouldn’t be regularly implemented. “I want kids to feel success and feel like they’re doing okay, but I also think it’s a good opportunity for re teaching and for kids to have an opportunity to see what they need to learn,” said Adams.
Mastery Grading:
Mastery grading focuses on a student’s ability to meet course standards and mastery of topics through assessments, as opposed to the traditional method of determining a grade through the accumulation of points from various assignments. This can be achieved through different point scales, such as the 4-point scale. The goal of mastery grading is to prioritize growth over grades in the classroom
Sean Flaherty, Spanish 1 and 2 teacher, has utilized mastery grading for over 30 years after participating in a pilot program for the system in Colombia. He believes that when using traditional grading, a student’s final grade often fails to represent their true understanding of the material, as the grade is a collage of extra credit, tests and homework that may be forged or copied. In contrast, mastery grading focuses on standard evaluations that more accurately reflect a student’s proficiency with learning standards.
By revisiting standards, mastery grading can benefit a students’ long term-understanding of a topic. As each student learns at a different pace, the final grade in the class is based on how a student can meet the standards at the end of the year, after they have had time to build up their proficiency. To implement this, Flaherty will raise a students’ semester 1 grade if they have achieved a better grade for semester 2. “They should be getting an opportunity to show their improvement and their final grade shouldn’t penalize them just because it took a little while for them to get to that level of proficiency,” Flaherty said.
Although traditional grading is a more popular technique of grading at Newbury Park, Flaherty has noticed the connection between the system and grade inflation. He believes that the inflation can be attributed to the fact that traditional grading does not measure proficiency. “Even though we have an impressive high percentage of people with A’s and B’s, I don’t think that those A and B students are really proficient at an excellent or a good level,” Flaherty said.
Flaherty argues that mastery grading’s influence in the classroom promotes educational equity. As traditional grading takes homework and extra credit into account, Flaherty believes that these factors can create a bias in grading, harming students who do not have access to healthy learning environments, or the money for costly extra credit projects. “Some of our students, they don’t have that luxury to go home and have a supportive family that’s going to take care of things while they’re doing their homework,” Flaherty said. To combat this, mastery grading only reflects proficiency, which he believes levels the playing field for all students.
In many cases, students are used to the routine of traditional grading, and have a harder time adjusting to the system of mastery grading. “They’ve been trained by teachers to grub for points and to figure out how to manage the teacher or how to game the system,” Flaherty said.
Gwen Howard, junior, has experienced mastery grading in her last three French classes with Christele Cazin, and feels that the system allows her to visualize her progress. “If I get a three on something, I know I only need to do X amount of things to get the four. I feel like I can see what I need to get done,” Howard said.
Mastery grading through a 4-point scale is most commonly found in language classrooms, but according to Flaherty, can be utilized in all classes. “You can adapt it to any subject area. It’s just a matter of identifying the essential standards and then what are the foundational contents and the skills, and then you try to integrate it all,” Flaherty said.
Gregory Coull, an English 9 Honors and 11 CP teacher, implements both formative and summative assessments in his classroom to compare his students’ learning to grade level standards. “[A formative assignment] is like your practice work, kind of like going to practice out on a sports team and then the summative is like the game,” Coull said. Coull has discovered that the grading system lowers anxiety levels for students during assessments and allows for more feedback, practice time and risk-taking when they are not under the pressure of a grade.
According to Coull, the system requires students to build trust with their teachers, leading them to value learning over grades. “When students focus on growth they usually achieve those higher grades that they’re after anyway,” Coull said.
From an administration standpoint, Adams appreciates how mastery grading forces a student to grow and build upon previous knowledge, and allows them to understand their end goal in a class. “It’s a true testament to them understanding the material, as opposed to just memorization for a test and then not being able to do it,” Adams said. No matter the system, Adams believes that a teacher’s grading should be equitable, allowing each student an equal opportunity to succeed.
Although it requires students to change their mindset, the teachers that implement mastery grading believe that it is the most efficient method of promoting learning in the classroom. “Learning is a change in behavior. It’s very stressful to go through those changes as a student. You’re being asked to change all the time and that’s hard. It’s hard work,” Flaherty said.
Holistic Grading:
Jill Magnante, an English teacher, utilizes a more unique form of grading in her IB Literature class: holistic grading. “The way that I would describe my grading system is one that encourages growth and learning over the actual grades,” Magnante said. Magnante aims to create a classroom where students’ main priority is not necessarily the letter on their report card. “I don’t use a lot of daily assignments that get graded, but rather, we’re really trying to build those skills over time in a way that feels less threatening to that final grade,” Magnante said.
Magnante’s class rules also reflect her stance on her grading policies. “I have instituted a policy that if a student feels like the end of their course grade doesn’t reflect their overall performance, that they can have a portfolio review where we can look at a more holistic examination,” Magnante said. By doing so, she hopes to further encourage student growth by considering it as a valid aspect of mastery of a skill. “What I hear from students in the long term is that they really are able to embrace learning for learning’s sake, and that they are able to kind of start to separate the idea of grading as a reflection of learning,” Magnante said.
For Makenna Cotton, junior in IB Literature, this is the first class she has taken that uses this grading method. “I feel like I’m learning so much more than I normally do in a typical English class,” said Cotton. Holistic grading allows students to focus more on the journey of learning and less on performance on specific examinations.
As discussion and reading based courses, English classes are the most common users for this type of grading. This method places a unique emphasis on growth as an important marker of effort and progress. “I would describe it as being super positive,” Cotton said. “Since she’s grading for not necessarily like I would like a point skill, but rather [on] how much you understand.”
Adams considers implementing holistic grading techniques to be a positive approach when blended with other grading styles. “I think a lot of times mastery grading, when done correctly, can look like a holistic approach,” Adams said. She notes that there needs to be a quantitative aspect to grading students with a qualitative evaluation. “With that holistic approach, you need to have data…having data that actually proves [learning] could be really effective,” Adams said. She emphasises the importance of having a set list of benchmarks that serve as the components of this grading scale to maximize its functionality.
Traditional Grading:
In addition to the unique grading styles used in some classrooms, many teachers at NPHS continue to use a traditional model. Traditional grading takes into account all assignments, classwork, quizzes and tests to make up a student’s final grade by awarding points based on a student’s performance on each component. Many teachers will also weigh different categories within their traditional grading system. This means that each category contributes a different amount, often as a percentage, to a student’s overall score.
Brianna Harris, Biology teacher, utilizes traditional grading through a system of category weights. This includes the completion of some assignments and evaluation of others. Labs, tests and quizzes each make up a certain percentage of a student’s final grade.
In the biology classroom, Harris has seen students benefit from the feedback she provides on evaluated assignments. “Students get credit for all the work that they do while still getting evaluated on some of the more difficult assignments, where they get extensive feedback that will help them study for the tests,” Harris said.
Harris believes that although her feedback is beneficial, her students still have to take the initiative and responsibility to implement her feedback in their studying to see its full effect. “Sometimes students just want to see the grade and don’t want to see what they did wrong and learn from their mistakes,” Harris said.
For Howard, traditional grading can seem confusing due to the variance that comes in weighting different criteria. “So many teachers will have different percentages where it’s like, ‘the final is only whatever percent of your grade, or your final is the majority of your grade,’” Howard said. Howard seeks clarity in traditional grading by providing more consistency in the methods’ elements of evaluation.
Saya Markowitz, junior, is in Harris’s IB Biology class and feels a personal affiliation with Harris’s policies because of its flexibility. “I would say, I like [traditional grading] a lot better than mastery,” said Markowitz. “Especially because [with mastery grading], she could only give you a three or four, which is like a ‘C’ or an ‘A.’” Traditional grading allows Harris to give students more diverse grades than can be given using a mastery policy’s four point scale.
When weighing the pros and cons of traditional grading against the growing system of mastery grading, Harris has found that the mastery grading 4-point scale can be difficult for students to grasp. She also notes that mastery grading’s emphasis on only evaluating assessments isn’t always beneficial for her students. “I’ve talked to a few students about classes where they do [homework] that they’re not graded on and they have expressed to me that that can be frustrating,” Harris said. Ultimately, Harris recognizes that one grading system can’t be a perfect fit for every single one of her students. “What works for one student doesn’t necessarily work for the other and that’s the hard part,” Harris said.
