Below is what a report in my current online grade book looks like: (click for a larger image)
Besides the fact that my grade book has numbers in it instead of letters and has been electronicized, there's not really that much difference. And this disturbs me. (What gets me the most is that I have to use points to report what students know and can do. That irritates me.)
I had a student teacher ask me about my learning-based grading system last year. After filling her in on my little 5-point scale and my rationale for using it (so the scores give students and parents information of what they actually know and can do rather than how many invisible and empty points have been accumulated), she made this statement:
"Why would anyone want to do that? What we've been using with traditional grading has been working just fine for decades." This statement disturbed me as well.
Why are we still reporting student learning this way? Is it showing what students really know and can do? Or are we doing it because we can't break free of how we have always done things, because we are comfortable in the familiar routine of what was done to us when we were in school? Are we doing this because using points and letters is less of a hassle than giving quality written feedback?
Are we grading this way because it's easier for us to do instead of what's good for students and their learning?
