Chapter 8

GRADING One of the more frustrating aspects of teaching is that of grading and
reporting student progress since there are so many factors to
consider, and so many decisions to be made. This Chapter attempts
and to simplify this task and to minimize some of the complexities by
describing the various types of grading and reporting systems and

REPORTING
providing guidelines for -their effective use. The main aim of
grading and reporting system is to provide results in brief,
understandable form for varied users which lead to several big
questions: What should I count—just achievement, or effort, too? How do I interpret a student's
score? Do I compare it to other students' scores (norm referenced), a standard of what they can do
(criterion-referenced), or some estimate of what they are able to do (learning potential, or self-
referenced)? What should my distribution of grades be, and how do I determine it? How do I
display student progress or strengths and weaknesses to students and their parents?

Of course, answers •to these questions may be obtained from: 1) your school which may have
some policies or guidelines, applying what you learn in this Chapter; 2) consulting your teaching
colleagues; and then applying your good judgment or; 3) learning from firsthand experience.
Measurement and assessment of learning are the first two steps in educational evaluation. Grading
and reporting are the two terminal stages in the process. Measurements are simply numerical aids
which guide our decisions in the educative process. It is, therefore, very important that we also pay
attention to the process
of giving grades and reporting these to students, parents and other stakeholders in the system.

1. Functions of Grading and Reporting Systems

2. Types of Grading and Reporting Systems
3. Development of Grading and Reporting System
4. Assigning Letter Grades and Computing Grades
5. Norm or Criterion-Reference Grading
6. Distribution of Grades and Guidelines for Effective Grading
7. Conducting for Effective Grading

1. Functions of Grading and Reporting Systems

Grading and reporting systems have some very important functions in the educative
process. Some of these important functions are enumerated below:
a) Enhancing students' learning through: clarifying instructional objectives for them, showing
students' strengths and weaknesses, providing information on personal-social development,
enhancing students' motivation (e.g., short-term goals) and indicating where teaching might be
modified. These can be achieved through day-to-day tests and feedback and integrated periodic
tests.
b) Reports to parents/guardians Grading and reporting systems also inform parents and
guardians of students on the progress of their wards. Likewise, grades and reports communicate
objectives to parents, so they can help promote learning and likewise, communicate how well
objectives were met, so parents can better plan.
c) Administrative and guidance uses. The administrative and guidance purpose of grading and
reporting consist' in: (1) helping to decide promotion, graduation, honors, athletic eligibility; (2)
reporting achievement to other schools or to employers; and (3) providing input for realistic
educational, vocational, and personal counseling.
These three main purposes of grading and reporting by no means exhaust all possible uses of the
activity. The main point, however, is that grades and report cards should promote avd enhance
learning rather than frustrate and discourage students. In many schools, report cards are given to
students and then parents are asked to sign these report cards. It may be a good practice to call for
parent-teacher conferences at this time in order that the report cards will effectively function as
motivation for further learning.

2. Types of Grading and Reporting Systems

In practice, we find a number of ways in which grades are made and reported. Normally,
the type of grading used depends on the extent to which more descriptive and informative
summaries are required by school authorities or by the stakeholders in general. Thus, the major
types of grading and marking found in practice include:

a. Traditional letter-grade system. In the traditional letter grade system, students'

performances are summarized by means of letters. Thus, A stands for excellent, C stands for
average, D stands for needing improvement and an F as a failure. The traditional letter grade
system is easy to understand but it is of limited value when used as the sole report because they
end up being a combination of achievement, effort, work habits, behavior. As such, they are
difficult to interpret and they do not indicate patterns of strengths and weaknesses.

b. Pass-fail. The pass or fail system utilizes a dichotomous grade system. Either a student has
complied and reached certain Standards, in which case he passes or he failed to do so and gets
a failing mark. This is popular in some courses in college (but not very much practiced in basic
education). In fact, the pass-fail system should be kept to a minimum because it does not provide
much information since students tend to work to the minimum (just to pass), and in mastery
learning courses, no grades. are reflected until “mastery" threshold is reached.

c. Checklists of objectives. In this system, the objectives of the course are enumerated. After
each objective, the students' level of achievement is indicated: Outstanding, Very Good, Good,
Fair or Poor. This is a very detailed reporting system and tends to be more informative for the
parents and pupils at the same time. It is, however, also very time consuming to prepare. There is
also the potential problem of keeping the list manageable and understandable.

d. Letters to parents/guardians. Letters to parents and guardians are useful supplement to

grades. However, they have limited value as sole report because they are very time consuming to
prepare, -the accounts of weaknesses are often misinterpreted by parents and guardians, and they
are characterized neither as systematic nor cumulative.
e. Portfolios. As already explained, a portfolio is a set of purposefully selected works, with
commentary by student and teacher. Portfolios are useful for showing students' strengths and
weaknesses, illustrating range of students' work, showing progress over time or stages of a project,
teaching students about objectives/standards they are to meet.

f. Parent-teacher conferences. Parent-teacher conferences are mainly used in elementary

schools. This requires that parents 'Of pupils come for a conference with the teacher to discuss the
pupils' progress. Portfolios, when available, are useful basis for discussion. Such conferences are
useful for a two-way flow of information and getting more information and cooperation from the
parents. They are, however, of limited value as a report because most parents do not come for
such conferences.

3. Development of Grading and Reporting System

Grading and reporting systems are guided by the functions to be served by such in the
educative process. The system will most probably be a compromise because of the hosts of factors
to be considered in the preparation of such. The important thing to note, however, is that we should
always keep achievement reports separate from effort expended.
Ideally, grading and reporting systems should be developed cooperatively (parents,
students, school personnel) in order to ensure development of a more adequate system, and a
system that is understandable to all. They should thus be:
• based on clear statement of learning objectives. The grading and reporting system
needs to be based on the same set of learning objectives that the parents, teachers and
students agreed at the beginning.
• consistent with school standards. The system must support the school standards rather
than oppose the school standards already set.
• based on adequate assessment. The grading and reporting system should be easily
verifiable through adequate system of testing, measurement and assessment methods.
• based on the right level of detail. The system must be detailed enough to be diagnostic
but compact enough to be practical: not too time consuming to prepare and use,
understandable to users and easily summarized for school records purposes. provide for
parent-teacher conferences as needed.

4. Assigning Letter Grades and Computing Grades

Grades assigned to students must include only achievement. It is very important to avoid
the temptation to include effort for less able students because it is difficult to assess effort or
potential and it is difficult to distinguish ability from achievement. Furthermore, if achievement
and effort are combined in some way, grades would mean different things for different individuals.

Grades reflected on report cards are numbers or numerical quantities arrived at after several
data on the students' performance are combined. The following guidelines may be considered in
combining such data:
• Properly weight each component to create a composite. The weights used are normally
agreed upon by the school officials e.g. how many percent goes for quizzes, unit tests,
periodic tests etc. The more scientific approach is to use a principal components analysis
which is hardly practiced in schools because of the difficulty involved.
 • Put all components on same scale to weight properly:
a. equates ranges of scores
b. or, convert all to T-scores or other standard scores

5. Norm or Criterion-Reference Grading

Grades may reflect relative performance, i.e. score compared •to other students (where you
rank). This is more commonly called a norm-referenced grading system. In such a system:
a. grade (like a class rank) depends on what group you are in, not just your, own
performance;
b. typical grades may be shifted up or down, depending on group's ability;
c. widely used because much classroom testing is norm referenced.

Grades may also reflect absolute performance i.e. score compared to specified performance
standards (what you can do) This is more commonly called a criterion-referenced grading. In such
a system:
a) grade does NOT depend on what group you are in, but only on your own performance
compared to a set of performance standards.
b) grading is a complex task, because grades must:
i. clearly defines the domain;
ii. clearly define and justify the performance standards;
iii. be based on criterion-referenced assessment.
c) conditions are hard to meet except in complete mastery learning settings.

Finally, grades may also reflect learning ability or improvement performance, i.e. score
compared to learning "potential" or past performance. In such a system:
a. grades are inconsistent with a standards-based system because now, each child is his/her
own standard;
b. reliably estimating learning ability (separate from achievement) is very difficult;
c. one cannot reliably measure change with classroom measures;
d. therefore, should only be used as a supplement.

6. Distribution of Grades and Guidelines for Effective Grading

How should grades be distributed? The norm-referenced and criterion referenced
distribution of grades have been in practice for several years now. The norm-referenced or relative
(have ranked the students) distribution is a big issue because of the following considerations:
a. normal curve is defensible only when we have a large, unselected group;
b. when "grading on the curve," school staff should set fair ranges of grades for different
groups and courses;
c. when "grading on the curve," any pass-fail decision should be based on an absolute
standard (i.e., failed the minimum essentials);
d. standards and ranges should be understood and followed by all teachers.
 On the other hand, the criterion-referenced or absolute (have assessed absolute levels Of
knowledge) grading system is not an issue because:
a. it seldom uses letter grades alone;
b. it often includes checklists of what have been mastered;
c. the distribution of grades is not predetermined.
Guidelines for Effective Grading
The following guidelines for effective grading and reporting are recommended for use in
Philippine schools:
a) Describe grading procedures to students at beginning of instruction.
b) Clarify that course grade will be based on achievement only.
c) Explain how other factors (effort, work habits, etc.) will be reported.
d) Relate grading procedures to intended learning outcomes.
e) Obtain valid evidence (tests, etc.) for assigning grades.
f) Prevent cheating.
g) Return and review all test results as soon as possible.
h) Properly weight the various types of achievements included in the grade.
i) Do not lower an achievement grade for tardiness, weak effort, or misbehavior.
j) Be fair. Avoid bias. When in doubt, review the evidence. If still in doubt, give the higher
grade.

7. Conducting for Effective Grading

Parent-teacher conferences become productive when they are carefully planned and the
teacher is skilled in handling such conferences. Skills in conducting parent-teacher conferences
can be developed. Here are some hints on conducting good conferences:
Guidelines for a good conference
a. Make plans.
• Review your goals.
• Organize the information to present.
• Make list of points to cover and questions to ask.
• If portfolios are brought, select and review carefully.
b. Start positive and maintain a positive focus.
• Present student's strong points first.
• Be helpful and have example of work to show strengths and needs.
• Compare early vs. later work to show improvement.
c. Encourage parents to participate and share information.
• Be willing to listen.
• Be willing to answer questions.
d. Plan actions cooperatively.
• What steps can you take?
• Summarize at the end.
e. End with positive comment.
• Should not be a vague generality.
• Should be true.
f. Use good human relations skills.