Assessment Activity on Grading

Jim Claude Joven BSE Math 3A

1. Types of Marking Systems

 Percentage Grading – From 0 to 100 Percent

 Letter grading and variations – From A Grade to F Grade

 Norm-referenced grading – Comparing students to each other usually

letter grades

 Mastery grading – Grading students as “masters” or “passers” when their

attainment reaches a prespecified level

 Pass/Fail – Using the Common Scale as Pass/Fail

 Standards grading (or Absolute-Standards grading) – Comparing student

performance to a pre-established standard (level) of performance

 Narrative grading -Writing Comments about students

2. GPA, or Grade Point Average, is a numerical way of measuring how well a

student is doing in school. The GPA scale goes from 0 to 4.0, with 4.0 being the

highest possible score. Each letter grade corresponds to a certain

GPA: A = 4.0, A- = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, B = 3.0, and so on.

This type of grading system uses letter grades to evaluate student progress. An

excellent grade is between 90 and 100, which corresponds to an "A", 80-89 is a

"B", 70-79 is a "C", 60-69 is a "D" and anything below 60 is an "F". However, there

are also several variations of these college letter grades. For example, some

schools use a plus/minus system, so an "A" could be between 90-93, and 94-100

would be an "A+".

You should also ensure that everyone in the school follows this type of marking

system as it will result to uniformity and standardization.

3. Assigning grades is an integral and everyday part of social work education.

However, social work educators, especially those teaching the academically-

based as opposed to practice-based courses, must decide whether to use norm-

referenced or criterion-referenced measurements to grade exams and other

assignments. The terms Norm-Referenced and Criterion-Referenced refer to

score interpretations. Most tests can actually be interpreted in both ways, though

they are usually designed and validated for only one of the other. Suppose you

received a score of 90% on a Math exam in school.  This could be interpreted in

both ways.  If the cutscore was 80%, you clearly passed; that is the criterion-

referenced interpretation.  If the average score was 75%, then you performed at

the top of the class; this is the norm-referenced interpretation.  Same test, both

interpretations are possible.  And in this case, valid interpretations.

4. It seems to me, marking comes in different forms and serves different functions.

It looks different in each case, and requires different strategies and resources to

work. So you first need to consider the purpose of your marking before choosing

the type of marking. Now you need to make marking become manageable and

something that you can compute not something that you can comment on –it

should be manageable and measurable at all costs.