Types and purposes of grades

1. Purposes and Types
of
Grades/Marks
CHAPTER 12: GRADING AND REPORTING PRACTICES
Ms. Catherine Linobo
08 March 2014

2. Grades provide information. A grade
assigned to a
student serves multiple purposes depending
on who
views it.
By S.D. Powell — Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall

3. Types
Purposes
GRADING

4. MAIN POINT #1: Purposes of Grades/Marks
1. Enhancing students’ learning.
2. Reports to parents/guardians.
3. Administrative and guidance uses.

5. Purposes of grading and
reporting:
 To communicate the achievement status of
the students to their parents and other
stakeholders.
 To provide information that can be used by
the students for self-evaluation.
 To select, identify, or group students for
certain educational programs;

6. Purposes of grading and
reporting:
 To provide incentives for students to learn.
 To evaluate the effectiveness of instructional
programs and
 To provide evidence of the students’ lack of
effort or inappropriate responsibility.

7. MAIN POINT #2: Types of Grades/Marks
 Percentage System (75-100)
 Pass or Fail
 Vocational courses
 Higher level courses like Math and Physics
 Five Point Multiple Scale

8.  Dual System
 Combination of previous 3 types
 Letter grade or percentage system- academic
subjects.
 P-F for non-academic and vocational courses
 Checklist and Rating Scales
 Early elementary grades

9. Percentage grading
 Using a percentage
scale (percent of
100), usually based on
percent correct on
exams and/or percent
of points earned on
assignments
 Most common method
in use in high
schools and grading
colleges c.1890–1910.
 Used today as a
grading method or as a
way of arriving at
letter grades.

10. Letter grading and variations
 Using a series of letters
(often A, B, C, D, F) or
letters with plusses and
minuses as an ordered
category scale - can be
done in a norm-
referenced (standards-
based) manner
 Yale used a four-
category variations
system in 1813.
 In the 1920 letter
grading was seen as
the solution to the
problem of reliability of
percentage grading
(fewer or criterion-
referenced categories)
and was increasingly
adopted.

11.  SampleScales.pdf

12. Mastery grading
 Grading students as
“masters” or “passers”
when their attainment
reaches a prespecified
level, usually allowing
different amounts of
time for different
students to reach
mastery
 Originating in the
1920s (e.g., Morrison,
1926) as a grading
strategy, it became
associated with the
educational strategy of
mastery learning
(Bloom, Hastings, &
Madaus, 1971).

13. Pass/Fail
 Using a scale with two
levels (pass and fail),
sometimes in
connection with
mastery grading
 In 1851, the University
of Michigan
experimented with
pass/fail grading for
classes.

14. Standards (or Absolute-
Standards) grading
 Originally,
comparing student
performance to a
preestablished standard
(level) of performance;
currently, standards
grading sometimes
means grading with
reference to a list of state
or district content
standards according to
preestablished
performance levels
 Grading according to
standards of
performance has been
championed since the
grading 1930s as more
educationally sound
than norm-referenced
grading.

15. Narrative grading
 Writing comments
about students’
achievement, either in
addition to or instead of
using numbers or
letters
 Using a
normal instructional
practice (describing
students’ work) in an
assessment context.

16. Lesson Review
1. What are the purposes for grading
students?
2. What are the types of grading?
3. What is the relevance of this lesson to the
educative process?

17. Lesson Plan
 Overview: This lesson provides basic
information on the purposes and types of
grading.
 Time: 20-25 minutes
 Educational Goal: The goal of this lesson is
for each student to (1) Comprehend the
purposes and types of grading. (2)
Appreciate the importance of appropriate
grading and reporting.

18.  Objective: The objective of this lesson is for
each student to: (1) comprehend the
purposes and types of grading. (2) respond
to the value of appropriate grading and
reporting. The student will:
Cognitive: Explain the purposes and types of
grading.
Affective: Appreciate the value of appropriate
grading.

19. Teaching Strategy:
 This lesson briefly introduces the students to
the purposes and types of grading or marks.
It is emphasized as the sub-topic of grading
and reporting practices. The lesson approach
is to discuss each purpose and type, allowing
the students to develop a good grasp of each
so that they could apply it in their future or
present teaching professions. The students
should be encouraged to pass their learning
to their colleagues and others.