grading practices, a grade sums up
effort and behavior reported separately.
achievement on standards—there are
I cannot emphasize strongly enough
often several grades per subject—with
question of what a grade means in the honest conversations
that getting sidetracked with details of
scaling (letters, percentages, or rubrics?
Zeros or not? No Ds or Fs?) or policies
(What should we do with late or missing work? How can we report behavior?
What will we do about academic honors
and awards?) before you tackle the
first place will lead to trouble. Logic, my
own experience, and the research and
practice of others (Cox & Olsen, 2009;
Guskey & Bailey, 2010; McMunn,
Schenck, & McColskey, 2003) all
Grading scales and reporting poli-
cies can be discussed productively
once you agree on the main purpose of
grades. For example, if a school decides
that academic grades should reflect
achievement only, then teachers need
to handle missed work in some other
way than assigning an F or a zero. Once
a school staff gets to this point, there
are plenty of resources they can use to
work out the details (see Brookhart,
2011; O’Connor, 2009). The important
thing is to examine beliefs and assumptions about the meaning and purpose
of grades first. Without a clear sense of
what grading reform is trying to accomplish, not much will happen.
about what students learn. To what
What many schools find as they try to
degree do you and your colleagues
grading reform discussions with
establish purpose for their grading sys-
believe that? If you do agree, what
whether to assign zeros for missed
tem is that they have to deal with teach-
are the advantages to you and to your
work. This discussion is an artifact of
ers’ beliefs and long-standing habits and
students? If you don’t agree, why not?
the percentage-based grading scale. It
experience, not only about grading but
That’s the discussion to have.
may feel like a big deal, but it’s a tech-
also about learning, effort, discipline,
nical detail. Change the grading scale
and classroom management. Teachers
Don’t Get Sidetracked
(for example, to letters), and you change who are skeptical about standards-based
Starting the conversation with any-
the problem.
grading need safe, honest conversations
thing but the main issue will result in
Other districts abolish certain grades, about their beliefs, coupled with col-
at best superficial, and at worst harm-
for example adopting a “no D” policy.
legial agreement to try some new things
ful, change. Many schools get caught
This results in a truncated, but still
and see how they inform those beliefs.
up in debates that amount to tinkering
conventional, grading scale. As Grant
with the reporting scale while main-
Wiggins (1998) observed, “Getting rid
How to Begin the Conversation
taining otherwise conventional grading of grades lower than B makes as little
The discussion points in the box titled
practices.
For example, some districts begin
sense as not reporting batting averages
under .300” (p. 252).
“Which Do You Believe?” on p. 14 can
be useful in opening a dialogue about
