1. This presentation was developed for the
exclusive use of students enrolled in:
Educational Testing & Grading,
Professor Gregory E. Stone.
© 2004 Gregory E. Stone. All rights reserved. This presentation may not be
reproduced in any form, in part or as a whole, without the express written permission
of the author.

2. Grading 101
How you grade and report to your
students is as important as how you
assess them.

3. Over Simplistic
91 ­ 100 = A What does
81 ­ 90 = B
earning an
71 ­ 80 = C
61 ­ 70 = D “A” really
Under 61 = F mean?

4. Student Learning
Assessment
Objectives
Content
A, B, C . . . &
Difficulty

5. Suppose a teacher gave 3 different
exams covering the same content to
three different students
Easy Moderate Difficult
Exam Exam Exam

6. Suppose each student scored 50%
Easy Moderate Difficult
Exam Exam Exam
50% 50% 50%

7. Easy Moderate Difficult
Exam Exam Exam
50% 50% 50%
How can this be reasonable?

8. Grading without reference
to content and difficulty is
necessarily arbitrary and
capricious.

9. While most schools mandate
a specific grade reporting
format, teachers have
flexibility in their own
classrooms.

10. Let’s begin by discussing
what grades aren’t.
> Life encompassing
> Pejorative
> Inclusive of all
characteristics

11. Instead, we must think of
grades as unidimensional
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Like a ruler

12. Rulers can measure length.
Rulers can measure width.
We can use those measurements
to assess area.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
How can we use this ruler to
measure color?
Or combine color and area?

13. Grades are rulers of a sort,
designed to represent mastery of
a given subject, area or behavior
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
B+
English Report Card

14. B+
English Report Card
Basic Grading Rule:
If the grade is for an academic
subject, the grade must reflect
only academic performance!

15. B+
English Report Card
Many of us want to include other
pieces in our grades, like:
Johnny tries really hard
Sally is very well behaved

16. English Report Card When grades mix
behavior, academics &
B+ effort, we can’t really
understand any of the
 English proficiency three charateristics!
 Class behavior
How can we make
 Student effort decisions on this basis?

17. Elementary schools Elementary School
generally report grades Report Card
effectively ­ in a Language Arts S
manner allowing for Effort E
maximum Behavior S+
understanding of Jimmy tries very hard
student performance on but needs to pay more
attention in class.
all desired levels. Ms. Allison

18. Secondary schools do High School
not often allow for this Report Card
detail ­ and many English A
teachers include this Math B
“other” information B+
!
Science
within the academic
grade.
N G
R O
W
Confused grading is a leading cause of
discounting teacher grades!

19. When schools limit expression
of grades ­ teachers must
become more creative!
­ letters, notes & phone
calls home
­ approach administrators
to create better, more
inclusive reports

20. English Sally needs help with subject-verb
agreement. Try practice with
Learning Objective 1 ____________________
exercise 12 in the english text.
Learning Objective 2 ____________________
Wow! Sally is so advanced - she
should be encouraged to read
Learning Objective 3 ____________________
more difficult texts.
.
.
Learning Objective X ____________________
Example

21. In your classroom:
Practice good grading
Don’t ignore content & difficulty
Don’t be rigid and arbitrary
Don’t give a student a grade without
helping them USE the grade to
improve their mastery.

22. Difficulty can be
Addressed with simple weighting
Sally Jenny
Easy Item A
1. __  
B  
Easy Item 2. __
B
Moderate Item 3. __  
C
Moderate Item 4. __
A  
Difficult Item 5. __
D  
Difficult Item 6. __  
______ _______
UNWEIGHTED 66% 66%

23. Difficulty can be
Addressed with simple weighting
Sally Jenny
10% Easy Item A
1. __  
B  
10% Easy Item 2. __
B
17.5% Moderate Item 3. __  
C
17.5% Moderate Item 4. __
A  
22.5% Difficult Item 5. __
D  
22.5% Difficult Item 6. __  
______ _______
WEIGHTED 55% 80%

24. Importance can also be
Addressed with simple weighting
Sally Jenny
Low Importance Item
A
1. __  
B  
Low Importance Item 2. __
B
Average Importance Item 3. __  
C
Average Importance Item 4. __
A  
High Importance Item 5. __
D  
High Importance Item 6. __  
______ _______
WEIGHTED 55% 80%

25. Robert Ebel developed a model for
setting standards using a 3x3 grid
DIFFICULTY
Easy Moderate Difficult
IMPORTANCE
Low 3 pts 4 pts 5 pts
Mod 4 pts 5 pts 6 pts
High 5 pts 6 pts 7 pts

26. By including content & difficulty
in your grading process you are
creating
CRITERION­REFERENCED
grades.
Criterion-referenced grades are the
only grades that are fair and equitable
to all students.

27. Criterion­Referencing:
Based upon mastery or performance on a
selected set of content (i.e. how well did
Johnny do in English?)
Normative­Referencing:
Based upon the distribution of scores and
the “normal distribution” (i.e. how well
did Johnny do compared to Jimmy?)

28. Criterion­Referencing: Simple Math
We suppose that academic
subjects run along a continuum -
from easier to more difficult, from ÷
unimportant to very important.
Criterion referencing helps us x
understand what specific content
the student has mastered.
For example ----------------
-
+

29. Criterion­Referencing: Simple Math
We suppose that academic Not Mastered
subjects run along a continuum -
from easier to more difficult, from ÷
unimportant to very important.
Criterion referencing helps us x
understand what specific content
the student has mastered.
For example
- Mastered
+

30. Norm­Referencing:
Grading without reference to
content - instead scores are
determined based on the group of
students who take the exam.
THE NORMAL DISTRIBUTION

31. THE NORMAL DISTRIBUTION
The student score is 0.5
standard deviations above
Mean
68% the mean.
96%
99%
-3 -2 -1 +1 +2 +3
Standard Deviation Units

32. Norm­Referencing:
We’ll learn more about the Normal distribution when we
discuss Standardized Test scores.
Such statistical schemes are seldom used in the classroom
… but there is one very popular form of norming used in
classrooms all over.
Can you name it?

33. Norm­Referencing:
“If the highest score on the exam is 95%, then I’ll make that the
top score (100%) by adding 5 to everyone’s score”
We generally hate the person who gets the top score for
“throwing off the curve!”
Curving is UNFAIR, UNREASONABLE
and UNACCEPTABLE!

34. The special concerns with
Special Education
I.E.P.’s often require teachers
to offer Special Education
students special tests and
special grading schemes.
What’s wrong with this plan?

35. The special concerns with
Special Education
Via integration (mainstreaming) special education
students and “regular” education students are in
the same classroom but are measured to different
standards.
Report Card Report Card
English A English A
Special Ed Student Non-Special Ed Student

36. Report Card Report Card
English A English A
Special Ed Student Non-Special Ed Student
Subjects
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Subject-Verb Agreement
Simple sentences
Paragraphs

37. Report Card Report Card
English A English A
Special Ed Student Non-Special Ed Student
Subjects Subjects
Verbs
Adjectives Adjectives
Adverbs
Subject-Verb Agreement
Simple sentences Simple sentences
Paragraphs

38. Non­standard grades =
Useless grades
How could a college or
anyone else make use or
sense of grades that mean
something different even
within the same classroom?

39. 3 Major Problems leading to the
devaluation of teacher grades:
Inclusion of non-academic information in
academic grades
Unfair normative (curving) practices
Non-standard grading within the same
classroom