When a “60” Isn’t a “60”, But a “1”
Decatur Metro | March 11, 2010Back in August 2009, the City Schools of Decatur adopted a new grading policy (see Action Item C), which would increase the use of International Baccalaureate assessment for learning in Decatur’s school district.
The new methodology contains many components, including a new, vast evaluation method, which assesses a student’s performance on a wide variety of tasks (compositions, essays, research, presentations, etc.), teacher assessments (observation, selected response, collected response, etc) – and the use IB rubrics, anecdotal records, models and checklists to evaluate student achievement, among others.
However, one piece of this vast puzzle of acronyms and educational buzzwords has received a majority of the attention in the halls of Decatur High School.
Among the key changes adopted with this new grading policy is what might best be described as a shortening of the grading system. Instead of having an 100-point scale at their disposal, teachers are now asked to grade on a 7-point scale. Adapting that to the old 100-point scale, student grade possibilities go from 0-100 to 60-100.
And while this grading scale has been in place at Renfroe Middle School for the past 3 1/2 years and is being used at many other schools across Georgia and nationwide, it was newly adopted at Decatur High School this past fall. The change sparked concern among some DHS students, including the editorial board of Decatur High’s news-magazine Carpe Diem.
In an editorial entitled “New policies don’t make the grade“, Jessica Norton writes…
Here’s the issue — creating a cut-off for failing grades removes any incentive for greater mastery. Even if we’re still going to fail a test, knowing that we could earn a 15 gives us more incentive to study – we can improve that score to a 50 or 60 by achieving a greater degree of mastery. By forbidding zeros, the administration has effectively removed our fear of failure.
But has the 0-100 scale ever made sense? In a research paper provided to Decatur Metro by CSD entitled “The Case Against Zero“, Douglas Reeves, the founder of The Center for Performance Assessment, explains the basic problem with the 0 to 100 scale…
“…the common use of the zero today is based not on a four-point scale, but on a one hundred point scale. This defies logic and mathematical accuracy. On a 100-point scale, the interval between numerical and letter grades is typically 10 points, with the break points at 90, 80, 70, and so on. But when the grade of zero is applied to a 100-point scale, the interval between the D and F is not 10 points but 60 points….To insist on the use of a zero on a 100-point scale is to assert that work that is not turned in deserves a penalty that is many times more severe than that assessed for work that is done wretchedly and is worth a D.”
And it’s not like something similar to a 7 point scale is all that unheard of outside of IB philosophy. Consider college GPAs: 0.0 – 4.0. Counting each half-point as a point results in a 9-point scale. With a GPA there is no 60 point range of failure, just a 0.0.
But all of these mathematical arguments don’t mean the students’ concerns are without merit.
If there is a problem, it seems to be with using the new 7-point grading scale in conjunction with the old 60-100 range. Doing so may give students – and perhaps their parents – the perception that a 60 is not a 0, but an old D-. Still a terrible grade, but not quite as terrible. This gets back to Carpe Diem’s concern that students have lost the “fear of failure” with the new scale.
Such a problem might have quickly been remedied by completely revamping the student grading system and using a completely new 7-point scale.
Unfortunately, CSD says it is limited in what it can do with its current grading software. According to Nahmias and Snider, “we would love to adopt the IB 1 to 7 grading scale rather than try to adapt best practices in grading to an antiquated 0 to 100 scale, but the technology is not at our disposal right now.” Assistant Superintendent Thomas van Soleon reports that CSD has “asked for a “feature change” for our student info system, Infinite Campus”, but “[we] don’t have a lot of pull.”
And so, until the day when CSD can upgrade their software and students begin receiving “6s” on a paper instead of a “85s”, students and their parents must remain keenly aware that a “60” is no longer their father’s “60”.
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Uh… Renfroe still gives 0s… my kid has a couple of them.
Hmm…I’ll try to get clarification on the statement I received on that particular point. Thanks.
For me, the problem tends to go beyond the grading scale. I am astonished at how many grades just get “dropped” because they are so low. Many times my DHS student automatically gets a retake on a test before the ink has even dried on her grade. I think this eliminates the motivation to study at all–why study when you get to essentially take a “pre-test” everytime? For already under-motivated students, this does nothing to help. Although DHS seems to be a great place and I wouldn’t want my kids anywhere else, I have been unimpressed thus far with their teachers and grading policy.
Hmmm. You’re not impressed with the teachers and the grading. So what DOES make DHS a great place for you? The kids can’t sit in the new gym or theater all day. Cafeteria can’t be THAT good. Marquee is pretty worn. Hmm. Central location is good. It’s across from the interesting ice cream shop. I know!….it’s not 5th Avenue or Westchester!
If the system doesn’t allow for single digit grades,which is what I’m assuming the problem with our software is, why not use a 0-70 grading scale. The zero still exists, thereby eliminating the students concerns, and it fits within the 7 point scale administrators like. In essence, 70 would be a perfect score and zero would probably be used for students who didn’t participate in a required assignment.
I like the idea of using a broader range of assessment tools for grading on one level, but am concerned as well that the students will have culture shock when they get to college and they get graded on their performance on tests and assignments only. College professors don’t typically take into account, “observation, selected response, collected response, etc” when assigning grades. Does this help to prepare students for higher education, or just allow teachers to communicate better with parents regarding their child’s performance? Which I’m all for, by the way.
Since I returned to college, GSU, 2 years ago, every class I have taken includes “Participation” in grading–it amounts to about five percent of your final grade and is subjectively up to the professor. Part of it is to warn students about missing too many classes, but it is also to ensure students are paying attention in class and not on facebook or blogging.
When I was in high school (the mid to late 90s), many teachers would give a homework grade. You either turned something in or you didn’t. Check or no check. Including another grade based on accuracy of answers depended on the teacher.
I don’t think there was a participation grade. In college (early 21st century), though, there was one. Since I’ve never been a good test-taker, especially on multiple choice), I appreciated that I was able to maintain a good grade because I asked questions during lecture and made comments.
Can’t make everyone happy….so make nobody happy or as many people happy as possible.
I’ve always wished that students could pick between a multiple-choice test, an essay test, a presentation, or a term paper for the end of term grade.
To insist on the use of a zero on a 100-point scale is to assert that work that is not turned in deserves a penalty that is many times more severe than that assessed for work that is done wretchedly and is worth a D.”
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So what? If you don’t bother to make the effort to even complete the assignment, why shouldn’t you be penalized to a greater degree than someone who did make the effort, even if the work if of poor quality? I guess the author is also assuming that wretched work if worth a D, but that seems to be a stretch even in an era of grade inflation.
From a mathematical perspective, it seems kind of arbitrary though, don’t you think? Why does an incomplete assignment register 6 times worse than a D? Why not make it 10 times worse? Or 3 times? There’s no real rhyme or reason for jumping to six.
In terms of penalty, Reeves has another line of argument about penalizing the student vs. making them do it over. He argues that just failing the student and not requiring them to submit a paper is letting them off the hook. If they don’t care about their grade, they just don’t want to do the work, and there’s no motivation to do so.
That’s the other part of CSD’s new grading policy that the Carpe Diem students took issue with…making students resubmit incomplete or poor assignments. Reeves argues you can do more to motivate students to submit assignments by letting them know if they don’t hand it in they’ll still be on the hook to submit it.
It’s an interesting debate.
Zeroes! (Zeroes!)
Zeroes mean so much
Zeroes! (Zeroes!)
Zeroes mean so much
In numbers big (one million) to small (one millionth)
And the number that means nothing at all (the number zero)
-They Might Be Giants
This is a good change. Schools are trying to eliminate the fear factor. That is what a zero means. We need to motivate students to want to learn, to think, to make good choices, not just to produce (a grade) like in a factory. To my students a zero in a homework, a classwork or an activity means they need to complete it. A test or quiz is not going to be what dictates their final grade. It is all the other assessments during class. Our society puts too much pressure on the student and give to much importance to grades. In order to improve the grading system we need to make changes until we get the perfect one.
All of this convoluted reworking of a grading system that seemed to work perfectly fine and defined exactly how a student was doing academically is nothing more than “smoke and mirrors” for a disturbing trend in turning our public schools into deceminators of politically correct news–all of the students are doing great–now give us the federal dollars!
Tragically, as we’re doing this, other countries are ratcheting up their academic standards, realizing how important this is. Lowering standards to make everyone feel good about themselves will leave us all feeling very disillusioned and sad about how we have let our children down.
Not sure where the anachronistic term “politically correct” fits in here…future mechanics become mechanics, future physicists become physicists.
Federal dollars is where the funds for education have to come from—no body local wants to pay too much for their schools.
We are not doing our kids any favors with such a scale. Frequently, freshmen in my college classes ask for “extra credit” at the end of the semester, i.e. unfair advantage over all of the other students who did not ask for this special favor. These coddled former high school students have not learned to accept responsibility or reality, and too many fall into depression.
We serve our children/students better if we admit that no one excels at everything all of the time. Teach them to strive but to also be resilient when encountering disappointment. Academic success is just one type of success.
Apparently, the new policy at the high school is to give them an incomplete for missed work. This is an improvement.
The assessment and grading policy is the same for both the middle and the high school. At both schools, teachers use an INC to indicate when major assessments are missing. There is no “extra credit. ” The goal is for students to complete the original assignment to a pre-approved standard of mastery. RMS recently added a new step by providing an administrative Academic Recovery after school from 3:30 to 4:30 where students are required to come (after their parents have been notified about missing work) to complete assignments. The message to students is clear: Non-completion of work is not an option. You will not be allowed to accept a zero. Your only option is to do the work to standard or ultimately fail the course.