Author Insights

By Jan K. Hoegh

For many years, traditional grading practices have been used in classrooms around the world. This seems to be because most teachers have not received adequate training in reliable and valid assessment methods, and as a result, they often implement grading practices that mirror the way teachers graded them. In my 30+ years of experience as an educator, I have observed grading practices that vary widely from teacher to teacher, based primarily on personal preference and, for the most part, without a research base. Adding to this variance is the fact that many schools lack a grading policy, or even guidance, for teachers. While it seems that this individualized approach to communicating academic achievement and growth would be challenged by parents of students of today, it has been accepted as a result of parents being graded through traditional methods as well. Fortunately, the degree of acceptance of traditional grading IS now being challenged in many educational environments. Because of its solid research base that suggests that standards-based teaching and assessment practices correlate to higher academic achievement, standards-based grading is becoming more and more prominent in schools of today.

Standards-based grading is grounded in three basic principles:

1. Grades should be meaningful. This means that the feedback provided to students through grades should give them information about their academic strengths and challenges on specific topics within the curriculum. Students must be given information about how to improve their current level of performance. When information is provided about specific topics or even standards, it informs a student about where more effort is needed.

2. Students should have multiple opportunities to show what they know about a specific topic. Standards-based grading environments incorporate reteaching and reassessing, a practice often ignored in traditional grading. This allows for grades to truly capture student growth over time instead of providing a “snapshot” of learning at a single moment. It also honors the intent of standards, which are statements of intended knowledge gain to occur by the end of a course or a academic year.

3. Academic performance and behaviors should be separated. Nonacademic behaviors, such as attendance, participation, and work ethic are important because ultimately a student will enter the world of college or career. However, when these behaviors are combined with academic information to form a single grade, inaccurate information may be provided to the learner and his or her parents.

In a society where almost everything evolves and improves, it makes sense that our grading practices progress as well. Based on supporting literature and an ever-growing body of research, stakeholders can have confidence that students will benefit from the shift from traditional grading to practices that provide more accurate information—standards-based grading.