Secondary Standards-Based Grading and Reporting Handbook
First off, I appreciate how simplistic this article is. I personally feel that you do not need to be an educator to understand what the article is saying. This data could be read and analyzed by anyone that doesn't even have prior knowledge of the education system. Of course not everyone will understand everything being described in this article but it does a good job of making the information digestible to any reader. As educators in training we are going to be able to read between the lines more than a person without educational knowledge but I feel that this article has value for anyone that decides to take the time to read it.
The most surprising thing that I found in this article was a one sentence fact that the article in fact put the writing in bold font and underlined it to drive home the point it was trying to make. The article states that high quality formative assessment and feedback has positively impacted standardized test scores ranging between .4 and .7. The text then states that this change is larger than most educational interventions, I was surprised to see the "largest" change be so low at first until I thought about the topic further and changed my perspective. Really any type of positive impact we can make on a student's learning is a large impact. That "small" impact that we sometimes feel that we make as educators has the potential to change a student's life for the better.
I also enjoyed the principles section of the article as it simplistically and systematically went down a checklist, that I feel is appropriate, when considering the day-to-day grading practices of a classroom teacher. Principles 3 and 4 really stuck with me and I do not think I will ever forget them. The third: grading should be based on established criteria, not on arbitrary norms. I can think back to my own educational career where this has happened to me on both sides of this principle. The fourth principle states that not everything should be included in the grading system which is a principle that I agree with personally. Not everything we teach our students should carry the "weight" of a point value as some things we are teaching are a process. Students cannot be expected to produce an assignment meant for a final grade every time we teach them something new. This just does not seem fair and does not align with my teaching philosophy.
The most surprising thing that I found in this article was a one sentence fact that the article in fact put the writing in bold font and underlined it to drive home the point it was trying to make. The article states that high quality formative assessment and feedback has positively impacted standardized test scores ranging between .4 and .7. The text then states that this change is larger than most educational interventions, I was surprised to see the "largest" change be so low at first until I thought about the topic further and changed my perspective. Really any type of positive impact we can make on a student's learning is a large impact. That "small" impact that we sometimes feel that we make as educators has the potential to change a student's life for the better.
I also enjoyed the principles section of the article as it simplistically and systematically went down a checklist, that I feel is appropriate, when considering the day-to-day grading practices of a classroom teacher. Principles 3 and 4 really stuck with me and I do not think I will ever forget them. The third: grading should be based on established criteria, not on arbitrary norms. I can think back to my own educational career where this has happened to me on both sides of this principle. The fourth principle states that not everything should be included in the grading system which is a principle that I agree with personally. Not everything we teach our students should carry the "weight" of a point value as some things we are teaching are a process. Students cannot be expected to produce an assignment meant for a final grade every time we teach them something new. This just does not seem fair and does not align with my teaching philosophy.
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