Educational Psychology (PSY406) VU

Lesson 45
CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT AND GRADING III

While assessing students a teacher has two types of standards to follow and emulate. He can choose
anyone of the criterion to assess and grade students. The first one of those two is what is called norm
referenced grading.

Norm Referenced Grading

Norm referenced grading refers to the fact when a teacher assesses his students in relation to one
another. A student compares and contrasts anyone students score in an exam with the score of another
student. If a student studies very hard and almost everyone else does too, the student may receive a
disappointing grade, perhaps a C or D. However one big disadvantage of this type of grading or scoring
that it damages relationships between students. Some students may become resentful to other students
with whom their score or grade is being compared and contrasted.

Grading on the Curve

Some teachers may also use what is termed as grading on the curve. This is a variation of norm
referenced grading that compares a student’s score on a test with the average group or class score. It
fixes the average score and then compares a given student’s score against that average score.

Percentage Grading System

Teacher can assign grades based on how much knowledge each student has mastered, what percentage of
the total knowledge he or she understand. To do this, the teacher might score tests and other class work
with percentage scores (based on how much is correct, 50%, 85% etc.) and then average these scores to
reach a course score. These scores can them be converted into letter grades according to predetermined
cutoffs. Any number of students can earn any grade. This procedure is very common. You may have
experienced it yourself as a student.

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