Grading Less Frequently

I remember the day I was talking with one of my high schoolers in my office. I was the principal of an urban high school in Houston, Texas at the time. I was asking the kid how he was doing in one of his courses and he shared that he was going to do okay because the teacher was offering extra credit before final grades were submitted. Out of curiosity, I asked him what that extra credit entailed. He told me that if he brought a six-pack of toilet paper, then the teacher would award enough extra credit for the student to receive a “B”.

I called an emergency faculty meeting for the very next morning.

What I found out that next morning was that offering extra credit for toilet paper was not an isolated incident in our school. In fact, several teachers offered extra credit for classroom items beyond toilet paper – liquid hand soap, Kleenex, six-packs of water. I told the faculty that this reward system, not having anything to do with legitimate learning evaluation, would have to stop immediately. And it did – I think.

But now, many years later, I think I would allow teachers to offer extra credit for toilet paper, Kleenex, and water. You know why?

Because K-12 grading practices are so unreliable, so invalid, and so unpredictable we might as well let liquid hand soap be the determining factor between a kid earning a “C” or a “B”.

Let’s face it, the way we grade in traditional schools is a problem, and we should probably stop doing it as much as we do.

Recently, Edutopia posted an article titled “Why Teachers Should Grade Less Frequently.” Here are excerpts from the article:

“When Denise Pope was an English teacher, she’d spend hours jotting meticulous comments on student papers. More often than not, it was a fruitless endeavor.”

“’The first thing kids would do is go to the back of the paper, look at the grade, and never read my comments,’ says Pope, now a senior lecturer at Stanford University and cofounder of Challenge Success. A 2021 study confirms that the problem is common – when students see a grade before they see feedback, the researchers report, they are more likely to ignore teacher feedback entirely, leading to a drop of two-thirds of a letter grade on future assignments.”

“Advocates of A-F percentage grading rightly argue that grades provide students and their caregivers with a simple, bird’s-eye view of academic achievement and are also ‘one of the primary means of communication between institutions,’ according to a 2014 study – allowing schools to make quick judgements about a student’s learning readiness. Compared with standardized tests, in fact, high school grades are a stronger measure of a student’s ‘capacity to resist momentary temptations, regulate emotions, and sustain effort across days, months, and years in pursuit of important goals,’ crucial skills that predict college and career success, a 2019 study found.”

“Bu there are plenty of reasons to second-guess our collective investment in grades, as well, and to consider ways to deprioritize them. In the last decade, studies have cast doubt on many of the reputed benefits of grades, including how they affect student motivation and how accurately they reflect learning. For teachers as well, questions about grading obligations – and grading methodologies – have raised concerns about the sustainability and wisdom of common practices like collecting, checking, and providing feedback on every assignment.”

“One good way to look at grading according to a holistic review of the research is to consider the right balance between summative grades assigned by teachers and other productive activities, like low-stakes practice and peer-to-peer feedback.”

We pored over the research and found nine good reasons why – and in many cases, how – teachers can streamline their grading practices.”

“Less feedback is better feedback – The hours you commit to grading and commenting on every assignment and quiz are likely to be met with a shrug by your students. In a 2022 study, researchers confirmed that only 16 percent of college students accessed feedback on their online assignments, with steep declines as the semester came to a close.”

…

“Fewer grades mean less stress for everyone – Time spent grading is often uncompensated, which is a large driver of teacher stress, according to a 2023 RAND report. Unlike many other professions with clear boundaries between work and personal life, teachers often choose ‘to spend time outside their contracted hours engaging in activities that could help them educate students more effectively.”

…

“Student well-being, too, benefits from fewer grades. In a 2014 study researchers pointed out that ‘grades appear to play on students’ fears of punishment or shame, or their desires to out-compete peers, as opposed to stimulating interest and enjoyment in learning tasks,’ Meanwhile, a comprehensive 2021 student led by Denise Pope found that ‘grades, tests, and other assessments’ were leading sources of stress, beating workload, homework, lack of sleep, and college plans by large margins.”

…

“Grading obligations reduce teacher creativity and innovation – How can you create truly outstanding lessons, update old pedagogical materials, and look for ways to connect the week’s learning to the lives of students? Finding engaging ways to convey knowledge within a discipline is the bread and butter of good teaching and requires a lot of preparation.”

…

“Grades are inherently unstable indicators – In a recent study of over 33,000 middle and high school report cards, almost 60 percent of final course grades failed to align with corresponding scores on standardized exams. Grading accuracy was all over the map: About two-thirds of the course grades were inflated – while one-third were significantly lower, indicating that teachers had underestimated the students’ knowledge.”

…

“Grading conveys an artificial sense of completion – Grades can feel like a stamp of approval – or disapproval – and signal to students that the work of learning is complete. To get students thinking deeply about their progress, try delaying grades, at least until they’ve had a chance to review their work, process your feedback, and think about how they can improve.”

…

“Grading reduces opportunities for student practice – To develop great basketball players – or great writers – you need to strike the right balance between practice and feedback.”

“In a 2014 study, German researcher Martin Lotze found that professional writer exhibited more signs of highly efficient, automated processes in an area of the brain associated with artistic skill than amateur writers. Writing well, concluded John Seabrook for The New Yorker is ‘like playing the piano or dribbling a basketball.’ In the end, ‘practice is the only path to mastery….”

…

“Grades are less motivating than you might think – It’s possible that grades motivate high performers, but for average and struggling students, summative grades don’t seem to light a fire.”

“’Despite the conventional wisdom in education, grades don’t motivate students to do their best work, nor do they lead to better learning or performance,’ write motivation researcher Chris Hulleman and science teacher Ian Kelleher, provocatively, in a 2020 article for Edutopia.”

…

“Peer grading helps you – and students, too – The act of grading itself is a learning opportunity. Asking students to grade their own work, or even each other’s isn’t lazy – in fact, it can lead to meaningful improvements in learning.”

“In a sweeping 2022 meta-analysis, students who took the lead in grading classroom assignments exhibited ‘significantly better academic performance’ across all age groups. Students also developed stronger metacognitive skills, developing the ability to ‘make judgements about their own and others’ work, identify the gap between their current performance and the desired standard, and take actions to close the gap.’”

“More type of data is better – ‘A single assessment is just part of a larger ecosystem of information that can be used to determine student progress,’ writes instructional coach and English language arts teacher Tyler Rablin. For a more accurate picture, Rablin uses a variety of strategies – one-on-one conferences and feedback portfolios, for example – to thoughtfully gauge students’ progress and point them in the right direction.”

…

Two points to finish up – no where do you find “toilet paper, or Kleenex, or liquid soap” as part of the research base supporting less grading and more quality feedback. And second, I don’t know if traditional schools, on a large scale, can do much of what is laid out above.

Disappointing? Yes.

Troubling? Yes.

Reality?

Yes.

Til tomorrow. SVB