Grading Issues – Positions, Rationales, Alternatives
Fair Isn’t Always Equal: Assessing and Grading in the Differentiated Classroom
Rick Wormeli
Issue Position Rationale
Grading effort Effort should not be graded • No reliable method for measuring how
hard someone is working
• Doesn’t do any good to give grades to
students based on trying hard
Grading Participation should not be • Teaching techniques such as class
participation graded discussions and active participation
are not demonstrations for mastery
themselves; they are routes to the
mastery
• Referencing students’ skill
development with these techniques
and experiences makes accurate
declaration for mastery difficult to
determine
Grading behavior Behavior should not be • A grade represents a clear and
graded accurate indicator of what a students
knows and is able to do (mastery),
therefore, if we incorporate behavior
into an academic grade, it can no
longer be used to accurately
document mastery, or guide
instructional decisions
Alternatives
• Affirm hard-working students publicly
by sharing stories of hard work
leading to success
• Help students keep calendars of
completion
• Emphasize formative checkpoints over
summative ones, focusing on what we
do on the road to mastery
• Students who excel & receive
recognition & more choices as a result
of hard work create positive pressure
for some not-so-motivated classmates
• Specific feedback on participation
should be communicated to students
and their parents, but it should remain
a separate column on the report card
• Specific feedback on behavior should
be communicated to students and
their parents, but it should remain a
separate column on the report card
Wormeli, page 2
Issue Position
Multiple attempts We should not limit students
at mastery to mastering skills at one
rate, but rather allow them
to achieve mastery at own
rate, by allowing multiple
attempts if needed.
Grading practice In differentiated classrooms,
(homework) we don’t grade homework.
If homework is graded, it
should count very little in an
overall academic grade-10%
or less
Grading formative Formative assessments are
assessments not usually graded, since
they are used to inform
instruction
Rationale Alternatives
• Students are not all ready to learn • Allow work and assessments to be
when we teach something or at the redone
same rate as classmates • Allow them to reflect on their mistakes
• Students’ individual development and & revise their thinking and/or
differing learning paces must be performances
respected when give a grade to
declare a level of mastery
• Variances in development should not
be viewed as negative and should not
be punished with lower grades
• Can’t expect everyone to learn at the
same rate, with the same tools, & to
the same extent
• Counting homework any more than • The most important response to a
10% dilutes the accuracy and student’s homework assignment is
usefulness of a final grade feedback, not grades
• Homework is practice, not a • We must give feedback on homework
demonstration of mastery and letter and we need to give this feedback
grades are saved for declarations of without using grades
mastery. Letter grades are given
post-learning; homework is assessed
while learning
• If we grade students’ practice, the
final grade is not accurate
• Formative assessments should be a • If you want to include these in your
partnership between student and grade book, use assessment codes like
teacher f and s next to assessments to
• The purpose is to inform instruction indicate whether the assessment was
and provide feedback to students formative or summative. Use only
• Provides a strong foundation for summative grades for final grade
differentiation determination
• Provides clear info to students about
what they need to accomplish, where
they are now, and how to get further
Wormeli, page 3
Issue Position Rationale Alternatives
Offering multiple Assessment must be varied • A student may know the material on • Can offer multiple assessments over
forms of and done over time in order one day, but to assess mastery we time most of the time
summative for it to be valid need to ensure students retain what • Allow students to negotiate how they
assessments they know can demonstrate mastery
• No one is “on” all the time, we need to • Don’t allow a “fluke” grade to
allow students every opportunity to influence an overall grade represented
show their best, as that is what is fair by a more consistent performance
and accurate pattern
• Children can’t be held to adult-level
standards
Extra credit and Avoid using these – only use • If students fail to show mastery of the • Ok to use them to compel students to
bonus points with caution –make sure benchmarks in assignments and on push themselves, but make sure these
they are not artificially assessments, they shouldn’t be able couldn’t be included in regular
inflating the grades. to regain the scores/points through curriculum.
extra credit or bonus sections • If a student can come up with an
• Extra credit/bonus grade doesn’t alternative assignment that entails
really represent what the student everything we required with our
knows and is able to do original assignments, it can be
• If bonus questions/extra credit considered
assignments demonstrate required
mastery of regular assignments &
assessments, they should be part of
the regular curriculum options
• Students should be challenged by
regular curriculum, not just by
occasional extra credit options
Group grades Avoid using group grades • Group grades do not provide • Use cooperative grouping as a
information about the individual teaching strategy, not as a method for
students in a group students to show mastery of a topic
• They don’t show individual student’s
achievement or growth, so they can’t
show progress, give feedback, or
guide instructional decisions
• They create unhealthy peer pressure
between classmates
• No student should receive a lower
grade for another student’s lack of
achievement
Wormeli, page 4
Issue Position
Grading on a curve Avoid grading on a curve
Accepting late Late work should be
work accepted
Grading late work Late work should be graded.
When grading late work it is
important to consider
whether the student’s late
submission of assignments
is chronic or occasional,
which may affect how you
grade it
Rationale
• Grading on a curve is extremely
distorting as a reference of mastery
• These grades do not show the
student’s demonstration of knowledge
and skill scored against a set of
established criteria
• All we can conclude from such grading
is that some students do less well
than others
• There is nothing in this grade that
helps provide feedback to specific
students nor decide where to go next
in the lesson
• Think about how we want to be
treated as adults-there are times in
which we’ve had something due for a
committee, an administrator, or a
graduate course, but we were too
overwhelmed, tired, neglectful, or
immature in our planning to finish the
task in time. As long as we don’t
make such delays habitual, it’s usually
not a problem, and we’re still held in
high regard
• Keeping up students’ hope that hard
work even after the deadline will
deliver a positive response in the
grade works
• Very few students learn from
experiences in which there is no hope
for positive academic recognition for
mastery obtained
Alternatives
• Use criterion-referenced grades to
document progress, provide feedback,
and guide instructional decisions.
These grades are based on the
student’s demonstration of knowledge
and skill scored against a set of
established criteria
• Accept late work
• If a student is chronically late with
assignments, we have to investigate.
There is something wrong.
• If the student’s late submission is
occasional, then it is easy to be
merciful: Let the student turn it in
late for full credit. The student has
earned our goodwill and flexibility with
weeks or months of on-time
performance, so we can extend the
courtesy.
• If the student’s late submission is
chronic, it’s time to teach the student
about the power of being on time.
Record two grades: one that
represents the level of mastery
regarding the material, and one that
reflects the late penalties. When it
Wormeli, page 5
Issue Position
(Grading late
work)
Zeros for missing Do not use zeros for missing
work work as it skews a grade to
a point where accuracy is
distorted
Allowing revisions In a successfully
and retakes differentiated class, we
often allow students to redo
work and assessments for
full credit , using certain
stipulations and protocols
that make it less demanding
on teachers and more
helpful to students
Rationale
• Using zeros creates inaccurate
grades
• Creating different levels of failure
doesn’t help anyone & it lessens
the usefulness of the grade
• Using a score of 60 instead of a 0,
adjusts the grade so it is
mathematically justified – a 0 has
devastating mathematical
consequences on grade averages
• Giving a 0 distorts the final grade
so that it is not a true indicator of
mastery
• With a 100 point scale, a zero is
the equivalent of giving a student a
K, not an F
• A score of 50 is enough to
adequately show lack of work
• If we’re basing our decision to redo
or retake on the “real” world
outside of school, we need to allow
students to redo work
Alternatives
comes time to document progress and
inform instructional decisions, use the
accurate rendering of mastery.
• Take a few points off for every day an
assignment is late, but not a whole
grade. A whole grade lower is punitive, a
few points off is instructive. The student
will still learn, and the grade stays close
to being an accurate rendering of
mastery.
• Adjust scores of 0 to a score of 50 or 60
or whatever indicates a grade of F in your
class
• If students claim they didn’t even do an
assignment, but still got 60 points, point
out that that’s right – they didn’t do the
assignment and they still got an F!
• Use stipulations and protocols that make
it less demanding on teachers and more
helpful to students to redo or retake
• Allow redos work at teacher discretion
• If a student asks to redo work more than
twice a grading period, may be another
problem that needs to be addressed
• Asks parents to sign original task and
request redo so you know they are aware
of what’s going on
• Reserve the right to change the format
for redone work and assessments
Wormeli, page 6
Issue Position
(Allowing revisions
and retakes)
Averaging grades The average score does not
provide as much information
as the median and mode
scores. If we grade
according to students’
growth, the most recent
scores should be given more
weight than the earlier
scores.
Rationale
• The average of a set of scores, is less
informative than the median or mode
• If a set of scores are at highly
differing levels, the median is a better
representation of a student’s level of
achievement than the average
• The mode of a set of scores provides a
picture of the general trend of a
student’s proficiency level
Alternatives
• Ask students to create a calendar of
completion that will yield better
results, and if you can, sit down with
them to do this
• When it comes to what grade to put in
the gradebook, choose the higher
grade-do not average together as this
is not an accurate rendering of
mastery
• For teacher sanity, do not allow any
work to be redone during the last
week of the grading period
• Ask students to staple or attach the
original task or assessment to the
redone version
• Consider use of the median or mode of
a set of scores instead of the average
or mean