Are you using any of these outdated grading practices?

1. Using 0-100 Point Scale - We’ve all used this scale, right? It has been around forever, it is what we had in school, and it is what parents can easily understand. Is that enough of a reason to continue to use it? Look at the 100 point scale as a pie chart.

What do you notice? Most of the pie is rooted in failure. Right from the start, using this grade scale makes some kids feel like learning is an impossible task or mountain to climb.

Perhaps a kinder or more helpful grade scale has equal grade distributions like a 1-4 scale or a 100 point scale, where the bottom number is 50% instead of 0%. Just to give struggling students more of a positive mindset that learning is possible for anyone at anytime.

2. Curving Grades - Is this still a thing? I only ever experienced this type of grading in college, and I thought it was messed up then. Grading on a curve is designed to turn learning into a competition where students don’t learn or help each other because they are out for themselves. It is like the Hunger Games of grading. No one wins.

3. Factoring Homework into the Overall Grade - I am guilty of this one, too. If we don’t grade it, they won’t do it, right? If the basis of homework is practice, why would students take risks when it might affect their overall grade? The answer is, they won’t. Encourage students to do homework not for a grade, but because they know that practice is important and that homework will help them on the graded assignments. You’d be surprised how many students actually do the homework.

4. Grading Participation - Many teachers often do this, some like to call it an employability grade, but I have never been a fan of grading particpation. Perhaps that is because I am a quiet person, and I don’t need or like to bring attention to myself especially in large crowds. I prefer to share my thinking and learning in small groups. Participation grading is a slippery slope. Students lose points for displaying certain personality behaviors or for making errors like arriving to class late, not turning in work on time, etc. When it comes down to it, participation is a lot like homework grading. It is focusing on performance, not learning.

I’m still working on not using these grading practices. I currently use the 100 point standard grading scale and before the pandemic, I graded homework completion. Teaching is a work in progress. Once you know more, you do better. I constantly strive to get better as a teacher. Grading effectively has always been tricky for me. For more information, check out this article from ASCD’s Educational Leadership September 2020 issue on grading.