RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE
Best Practices in Grading
Grading is one of the most enduring features of schooling. No matter what other reforms occur in a school, grading
remains as one of the cornerstones of educational practice. But recently this long-standing tradition has come under
scrutiny with some alarming results. Many traditional grading practices actually depress achievement, and may, in fact,
even lead to school failure and dropping out! Indeed, in his engaging video presentation on toxic grading practices (see
References) Doug Reeves says that two of the most common practices – averaging and giving zeros for missing work –
are “an academic death sentence.”
Best Practices
Fortunately, there is a lot of guidance for school leaders and faculty on how to structure meaningful, helpful grading
systems that actually promote student achievement. From the resources provided at the end of this brief, schools can
construct a list of best practices for their own setting. These include:
Start the Conversation. Grading purposes, standards and practices should be a matter of discussion among the
faculty with the goal of achieving agreement on major issues and approaches. Once agreement is reached,
faculty can share best practices.
Determine the Audience. Figure out who the audience for grading really is. What must be communicated to that
audience? What’s the best way (perhaps other than grades) to do so?
Establish Standards-Based Rubrics. Encourage faculty collaboration to develop department, grade or even school-
wide rubrics for assessing student performance on key standards, such as writing, reading and speaking. If eve-
ryone uses the same rubric to assess essential standards, learn-
ing is reinforced across disciplines and achievement increases.
Eliminate Toxic Grading Practices. Get rid of practices that impede
achievement – such as the use of the zero, averaging, and oth-
ers that discourage students and suppress effort.
Allow Re-dos and Updating of Assessments. Distinguish between
feedback and grading, and allow students to submit their best
work for assessment. Also, permit “grade forgiveness” (as prac-
ticed in many colleges) where students can re-do assignments and replace a poor grade with an improved one.
Don’t Penalize Practice. Rather than grading everything a student does, base grade assessments on final products,
not all of the practice steps leading to the product. And be sure that the assessments are linked to common
standards.
Focus on Demonstration of Learning, Not Task Completion. If a student can demonstrate that she can balance
chemistry formulas, how many times must she do it for a passing grade? Too often, “rigor” simply means more
work, not more challenging or demanding work.
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This brief prepared by Howard Johnston, University of South Florida, December, 2011
RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE
Resources
Effective Grading Practices by Doug Reeves
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This outstanding article from Educational Leadership (ASCD) offers a succinct analysis of conventional grading practices and outlines
steps for moving to more accurate, standards-based grading.
Toxic Grading Practices by Doug Reeves
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This short video is an engaging professional development kick off for a faculty discussion about grades – especially the “toxic” prac-
tices in schools, like the “academic death sentence”: the zero.
Effective Grading Practices
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The November 2011 issue of Educational Leadership (volume 69, number 3) is devoted to grading practices and is available online.
See especially the articles by Wormlei, Vatterrott, Guskey, Fisher, Kohn, and Marzano.
Seven Practices for Effective Learning by Jay McTighe and Ken O’Connor.
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Outstanding discussion of assessment/feedback practices that are linked to improved student performance.
Effective Assessment
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From the teaching effectiveness program at the University of Oregon, this resource showcases good assessment practices for work-
ing in a standards-based environment.
Adding Rigor
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A great article by Ron Williamson and Barbara Blackburn on how school leaders can add rigor to the school’s curriculum by enlisting
teachers and other stakeholders in discussions about challenging experiences.
Assessment and Rubric Information
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Very deep resource on all things educational from Kathy Schrock and Discovery Education. This section lists dozens of resources, but
be sure to explore the entire site. It’s chock full of outstanding resources and materials.
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