Is a grade a commodity, or a marker; an entitlement, or a message? Or maybe it's a way of saying "I love you" to students, or "I understand you're having a rough time". What is the purpose of a grade?
Don Dumas, a U.S. history teacher at Bonita Vista High School, has decided he will not fail students during the pandemic...
Despite his intentions, the number of D and F grades in Sweetwater schools has ballooned, representing 28 percent of its high school grades and 32 percent of its middle school grades on recent progress reports.
By comparison, last year D’s and F’s were 20 percent of high school grades and 19 percent of middle school grades, according to district data.
Sweetwater is not alone.
Schools nationwide and across San Diego County are seeing a surge in poor grades fueled by the pandemic. The trend is in line with school officials’ and national experts’ predictions that school closures, along with obstacles to online education, will cause massive learning loss this year...
Experts say that bad grades are largely a result of the many challenges students face because of the pandemic and school closures, such as unreliable internet, a lack of adult support, a lack of a quiet home environment to do school work, anxiety, depression, hunger or homelessness — all factors outside a student’s or teacher’s control...
“Our teachers are being encouraged to balance accountability and rigor with grace and understanding,” said district spokeswoman Christine Paik. “Many are allowing corrections, retakes, and resubmissions.”
A grade should be a message: it tells you how much a student has demonstrated achievement towards the course standards. I've already modified the curriculum to account for less instructional time and lack of being in person. At that point it's up to the students to demonstrate achievement towards these lower standards.
Grades are based on a simple formula: a weighted mix of how students scored in different categories (tests, quizzes, projects, etc) divided by the total number of points offered in each category. I create the denominators, it's up to the students to create the numerators. Corrections, retakes, and resubmissions treat grades as a commodity to be maximized rather than as a signal of student achievement. If students face problems such as "lack of a quiet home environment to do school work, anxiety, depression, hunger or homelessness", what does giving them an unearned grade in math or history truly do for them?
If certain so-called educators aren't serious about actual learning, they should at least be honest about that.
I'm reminded of this post from last Monday.
Update, 12/6/20: And right on cue I see this on Instagram:
Clearly, students who haven't earned passing grades shouldn't receive passing grades. Not only does the grade no longer convey meaningful information, but students get promoted to the next course where they have the prerequisite course, but not the prerequisite knowledge. Which either sets them up to fail the next course, or for the situation to propagate: let them slide through Algebra I, then they struggle in Algebra II. If you slide them through Algebra II, they run into trouble in pre-calc and physics.
ReplyDeleteThe current situation is unusual: if a student struggles because their home environment does not lend itself to online learning, what is the proper response? Giving out unearned grades can't be the correct answer. Failing students has two consequences, though: first, they need to retake the class, which sets them back a semester for graduation. In some cases (small schools, perhaps worse at the small college level) it can be a year. Many small colleges only offer classes once a year, so if you have to retake Calculus I or General Chemistry I, you have to wait until next year for it. Second, students take a GPA hit, which hurts their ability to get into their first-choice college or (at the college level) graduate program or professional school. The first of these consequences is probably unavoidable: passing students because of perceived "hardship" is ultimately self-defeating. The second should, perhaps, cause us to consider a special case of a failing grade. For instance, we could choose to exclude all failing grades for semesters of remote learning from the GPA.
The GPA effect is probably more significant for pre-health-professional students. The sheer numbers of students applying means that GPAs are used to eliminate candidates. So a failing grade in general chemistry is almost a "kiss of death" for your med school application. Of course, an undeserved "C"- which will likely lead to "C" grades in later courses (gen chem II->organic->biochem), would also kill your chances of admission. It seems to me that a "no GPA" failure would again be the best option.
At the college level, we also see a financial burden. Even if we decide to exclude the failing grade from their GPA, the lost year translates to another year of tuition. It's not clear to me what the best way to mitigate that loss is. It doesn't seem right to just say "Well, that's too bad. Good luck!" But on whom should the burden fall? The college? The student? The state (what about private institutions)? I don't see an easy answer.
I appreciate your well-thought-out response.
ReplyDeleteTo me, it comes back to the idea behind my opening sentence: what is the purpose of a grade?
A failing grade isn't a punishment. It's a recognition that the student didn't learn a lot. Extra college costs? Can't get into med school? Or, in the case of the students at my school, won't get into Stanford? If you want me to give a passing grade to avoid those situations, you're asking *me* to help *you* skirt admission requirements--totally not my job. If those schools want to ignore GPAs (and why not, they already have gotten rid of the SAT), that's *their* decision. It's not right to make it *my* decision.
I determine the denominator, the student determines the numerator.
My goal is that the grade is an authentic measure of a student's learning, rather than simply point totaling and assignment completion. Proficiency and/or mastery of standards, content, & skills is the key. However, there are many inefficiencies in how we are measuring - for example the discrepancy between 5-letter grade system merged with a 100-point numerical/percentage system. And how often do teachers blur between teaching students the standards/content/skills and the cloudy ambiguous idea of teaching responsibility to complete a set number of tasks on daily deadlines.
ReplyDeleteNot only is there a discrepancy between the 5-letter grade system and the 100-point / percentage system, but also there is another problem. The 5-letter grade system is really two systems in one: pass / fail, with fail anything less than 60% (or 70% back when I was in HS), and then the other four letter grades mapped into the remaining 40 (or 30) points.
ReplyDelete.
And then we map the already-once-mapped letter grades into a four-point scale, or a five-point scale for some systems.
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And each mapping is an opportunity for a different school or school system to do it differently.
Mike, regarding your last sentence: I agree with you to some extent, which is why homework doesn't count a lot in my classes. In fact, most students aren't even required to turn in homework.
ReplyDeleteThere is one point, though, that you don't bring up. Whatever the grading system is, you announce it in advance. Just like in football, you don't change the rules in the middle of the game. You announce the expectation in advance, MAKE IT REASONABLE, and then let the chips fall where they fall. If we wanted a grade to be *only* what they've learned by the end of the semester, then the final exam grade should be the final grade. I used to offer that option in August, never had a student take me up on it.
Late to this, but wanted to comment on this:
ReplyDelete"A failing grade isn't a punishment"
In high school, that's simply untrue. It's a punishment. The student doesn't receive credit, even if he or she came to school every day and worked. The student has to take the course again, and--if grades are done accurately--may work and work and still fail again, until a teacher takes pity and gives the student a passing grade. And every time they take a class again, they are unable to take the next course in the sequence, which they will take in summer school, where they will get a passing grade because what the hell is the point of summeer school if not to give kids passing grades?
An F is a punishment. It denies credit. It would be nice if high schools distinguished between credit and passing level knowledge, but they don't, and even if they did it wouldn't matter if the high school requirements include courses that the student can't pass.
Teachers have to lie. If they grade on demonstrated ability and hold a consistent standard, then in many schools 80-90% of all students would get Fs in every academic subject. Whether they tried or not. If teachers grade on effort then they are lying about the demonstrated ability--and then, once you grade based on effort then all you have to do is get the kids who don't try to try and shazam. effort.
It's all a joke. And we try to find a balance between giving kids passing grades for doing nothing and failing kids who can't possibly learn the material to standard. It's not like the kids chose to take the class. They are forced to by idiots who think everyone can learn advanced material--or non-idiots who realize they can force teachers to lie.