READ & CONSIDER CAREFULLY
Campus Grading Policies --What weights should grades be given?
Here is the High School Example, PLEASE consider your own campus example AND your personal grading habits!
In High School the weights are even - 20% for SCANS/Labs, Daily/Homework, Projects, Quizzes, 6-Weeks Test. Let's consider some important consequences of these weights.
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Examples:
Six Weeks Average: 73.28 Without looking at this final average...do you think this child should have passed this six week? You will be surprised to see what the average looks like with weights given in examples below. |
How many 6-Weeks tests do we usually give each six weeks? Usually we give ONE so that we are guaranteed that the 6-Weeks Test (Bench mark--required by NCLB) has a major weight, yet NOT large enough to make a student "sink" or "swim".
How many daily grades do we normally record in a six weeks? Usually from 10 to 20. The 20% weight is applied to the TOTAL AVERAGE of the dailies. This means that the entire group of daily grades makes up only 20% of the total Six Weeks Grade which is reasonable. Daily homework and in-class grades should not be more than this based on the fact that they are over smaller portions of the TEKS objectives. Regardless of your philosophy of the importance of daily homework, grades should reflect the accountability of the TEKS and be weighted accordingly.
WHAT happens if... I only give ONE QUIZ during a six weeks????? That quiz has as much weight as the Six-Weeks Test, a FULL 20%. What happens if I give only TWO Quizes? Each has 10% weight for the entire Six Weeks. Unless those quizzes are significant in content, that should NOT be the case.
WHAT happens if I take only ONE SCANS/Lab grade? Not very appropriate!
You COULD argue that a PROJECT grade is as important as the 6-Weeks test if it were highly involved, etc. EXCEPT that ALL PROJECTs should have at LEAST 10 monitoring grades collected during the project. (Outline, Search String, Hypothesis, References, Procedure grades, Edit/Growth plan grade, Draft, Final draft, Presentation, Defense, etc.)
NOTEBOOK GRADES SHOULD NEVER be taken ONLY ONCE a Six Weeks. If you can't monitor notebooks and give weekly grades, then don't bother to take a Six Weeks grade. Remember, for MOST projects (including Notebooks) the teacher should be able to take management, monitoring, and progress grades along the way so that PARENTS/STUDENTS are NOT surprised by the teacher giving a single 20% failing grade at the end of an assessment period.
PLEASE pay attention to how your final WEIGHTS are effecting STUDENT PROGRESS! You are accountable for how those weights fall, how many questions you put on a test, how many quizzes or dailies you assign. All these averages are HIGHLY MANIPULATED BY YOU the Teacher! We are only asking that you be aware of what you are assessing, how much weight you are giving to your assessments, and that you can justify both in context with student expectations and achievement.
Here are some examples taken from campuses recently. A teacher had the following in the grade book.
EXAMPLE 1:
Tests ,Quiz, 6wks test 50%
homework/scans 25%
Daily 25%
| Example 1 |
SAME GRADES as above |
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| 50% Averaged with 6-weeks | Averaged with Daily | Averaged with Homework | Averaged with Tests | Averaged with Tests | |
| Weights | QUIZZES | SCANS | DAILY | PROJECTS | 6-Weeks Test |
| 60 | 90 | 98 | 75 | 72 | |
| 70 | 70 | ||||
| 80 | 30 | ||||
| 0 | |||||
| 99 | |||||
| AVE | 71.4 | 64.5 | |||
| Weights | 71.4*.5 | 64.5*.5 | |||
| Results | 35.7 | 32.25 | |||
| 6 Weeks Grade | 67.95 | IS THIS APPROPRIATE? | |||
EXAMPLE 2:
Daily 40%
Tests, 6wks test 50%
SCANS 10%
| Example 2 |
SAME GRADES as above |
||||
| 50% Averaged with 6-weeks | 10% | 40% | Averaged with Tests | Averaged with Tests | |
| Weights | QUIZZES | SCANS | DAILY | PROJECTS | 6-Weeks Test |
| 60 | 90 | 98 | 75 | 72 | |
| 70 | 70 | ||||
| 80 | 30 | ||||
| 0 | |||||
| 99 | |||||
| AVE | 71.4 | 90 | 59.4 | ||
| Weights | 71.4*.5 | 90*.1 | 59.4*.4 | ||
| Results | 35.7 | 9 | 23.76 | ||
| 6 Weeks Grade | 68.46 | IS THIS APPROPRIATE? | |||
What would you ask the teachers who used any of these examples? What would you need to KNOW about these grading procedures? There are some serious issues with these weights. Can YOU find them?
Please take a moment to THINK about some grade averaging issues. Once upon a time…..the grades where hidden away in our drawers and all our “sins” were private. But now that parents can look into grade books (which is a GOOD THANG)…they are pretty thorough about seeing some issues. At this point I have to agree with what has been brought to my attention.
(1) Not everyone on the same campus or under the same guidelines are using those guidelines. Grading Policies are in place and they MUST be adhered to….Each campus should consider this policy.
(2) Say I declare in my grade book that Quizzes and Tests are 40% and the Six Weeks Benchmark is 10%. Then say that I only give 1 quiz or even 2 quizzes ---à how much does EACH quiz COUNT? If you guessed 20% to 40%, YOU would be right. Now explain how a quiz should count more than a benchmark test?
(3) Say I declare in my grade book that daily grades are 40% and six weeks (BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT–what I have learned) is 10%, then how is my GRADE Average for the six weeks reflective of how I will do on the TAKS (FINAL BENCHMARK)? Not very reflective at all.
(4) Say I understand that my entire district and campus are working from benchmark tests for data-driven decisions, but they don’t reflect 90% of my grade average, how am I communicating to the parent how well the child is doing?
We have set best practices in the high school by using the following guidelines because if (for example) I ONLY (for some weird reason) give 1 daily or 1 project or 1 lab/SCANS or 1 quiz which hopefully is not likely, I would NOT make them more than the benchmark test. AND if I do lots of dailies or projects or quizzes, they will correctly reflect FORMATIVE growth, not jeopardize the entire grade. One benchmark test will not be detrimental either, if the student has learned ANYTHING during the six weeks.
