Grades Gotta Go! (part 1)

All right, here we go!

Not much has changed about grading over the decades since this observation was made by Paul Dressel

At the beginning of the year, I wrote a post listing some of the fundamental shifts in public education that could make dramatic improvements for children. One of them was:

• From Giving grades (that generally offer no information on how to improve) to Providing feedback (that feeds forward to further learning)

In the next series of posts that come out on Mondays (my day for focusing on Education reform), I will unpack this idea of transitioning from Grades to Feedback.

Concepts we will address include:

• Purpose of Grades
• Problem with the 100-point Scale
• Student Choice and Assessments
• Connection Between Grades and Learning Targets
• Problems with Grading 'Practice'
• Benefits of Specific, Actionable Feedback

Here are some experts and educational reformers that have influenced me when it comes to this topic:  (not an exhaustive list)

• Ken O'Connor
• Rick Wormeli
• Robert Marzano
• Thomas Guskey
• David Langford
• Susan Brookhart
• Grant Wiggins
• Jennifer Stewart and Leander ISD Facilitators

There are few topics in education that are more controversial and more volatile than this one. I invite you to read with an open mind and I welcome your comments of support and challenge, of agreement and disagreement. We may have more questions than answers when we are done (as if we will ever be done with this discussion!), but it is worth discussing as we pursue to make the world of school a much greater place for all children.

To introduce this topic, I will leave you today with this video:

Here is an interesting blog post on this topic.