Note: This blog was originally written in March of 2018 while working as a 7th/8th grade Social Studies Teacher
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Our spring parent teacher conferences this year were a reminder of the flaws in our current grading system:
*They cause students and parents to care more about the grade more than the learning
*Caring about the grade rather than the learning leads to “bare minimum” syndrome, especially in high school. Kids start to care more about checking off requirements than thinking / problem solving / communicating / learning...and start to hate school in the process
*Because we place so much emphasis on grades, we inadvertently discourage kids from taking risks. Kids become afraid to fail. Why take a risk on Chemistry senior year when you could take a pud class to boost the GPA for scholarships and college entrance applications?
*They allow students to move on without mastering content. A 78% gets you through your math class even though you’re walking into next year’s math not knowing 22% of the content that it is presumably based upon.
Schools recognize a lot of these flaws and have addressed them by allowing retakes, which is the right path to take. It encourages more risk taking and a growth mindset that allows kids to learn from mistakes and fill in gaps in their understanding. Retakes don’t fully alleviate all the problems of grades, but they’re a step in the right direction. That said, there’s a flaw with retakes that bothered me during parent teacher conferences: They don’t mesh well with letter grades.
Retakes and letter grades don’t mesh well because letter grades don’t reflect the retakes. In Powerschool, if a student gets a C on a daily assignment, then re-does the assignment and earns back up to the A, a parent looks at that and only sees the A (if they’re not a parent who constantly checks powerschool). This is a problem for kids that are consistently redoing work to earn back up to an A. Take two examples:
*Student A - This student has a 95% percent in my class, with straight A’s on daily assignments, but has redone 8 of the daily assignments
*Student B - This student has a 95% in my class, with straight A’s on daily assignments, and has never redone an assignment
From all outward appearances on Powerschool, these students are doing the exact same academically...but are they? Yes, those students know the same material, which is what the grade is supposed to reflect….but we're using one dimensional way of looking at a 3-dimensional concept. Student A and B are two very different learners. My discussions with Student A’s parents at parent teacher conferences needs to focus on why they are doing so many retakes, what it is about social studies or those assignments that are tripping them up or causing them extra work to understand things. My discussion with Student B’s parents needs to focus on how we can make things more challenging, because clearly class is a little too easy. Instead, Student A’s parents come in with the mentality that their student is Student B. They sit down and nonchalantly say things like “looks like things are going well!”....and they’re not wrong! Their student has an awesome work ethic, a growth mindset, and cares about their grade (but perhaps not their learning...but that’s a flaw for another day). But that parent is wrong if they’re saying it thinking that my class comes easy to their child. This happened a couple of times at parent teacher conferences, and it came as a surprise to these parents when I told them how often their kids were redoing work.
Grades need to reflect retakes to avoid this problem and better meet the needs of students. Students shouldn’t be punished for the retakes grade wise, but they need to be logged so that we can see the full picture of a student’s performance in class. We could even attach standards/learning objectives to assignments and see which standards the students struggled with the most throughout the semester. We could even enter the means through which the content is being learned by giving the assignments categories like: 1. How was the info presented by the teacher (Oral presentation, individual reading, group reading, watched a video, etc?) and 2. How did the student demonstrate the learning objective (short answer writing, multiple choice quiz, creative project, speech, etc).
Patterns in learning would emerge if we used this system over a long period of time. If a student is consistently earning low scores / re-doing assignments that demonstrate learning through writing, we know to address writing. If a student consistently struggles in classes where information is presented orally, we know we need to focus on that student’s listening and focus skills or differentiate and offer to present information through readings. You’d get a data-based, individualized education program (IEP) for every student. You’d also have a multi-dimensional understanding of student and his / her learning instead of just: “Jimmy has an A, he’s doing great, see you again next semester!”
This technology doesn't’ exist, at least to my knowledge. In the 4 years since I’ve started teaching, and even dating back to my high school days, the powerschool grade-book has not changed much. Until it does, I think I am going to give my kids access to their student profiles on Class Dojo. I already use it to log behavior, so it seems like an easy addition. Any time a student wants to redo an assignment or test, they have to make note of what assignment it was, one what date, and what their first score was on Class Dojo. When parent teacher conferences roll around, I am going to pass out grade sheets and have kids reflect on their Class Dojo account. Part of that reflection will be on their behavior, but another part will be highlighting on their report card and of the assignments that they have redone. I don’t like that it will create more work to redo an assignment, but I do like that it will give students and parents a more holistic understanding of their child’s learning. What do you think?
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