Equitable grading begins with answering some hard questions about your core beliefs in education. I know that you want to make the switch NOW because that is what your students need. I understand, but before you jump in too fast, I want you to answer a few questions. The answers to these questions will help you determine your next steps and will help focus you on the most important changes to make. If you can build a team to do this work at your site, it will make the job easier and provide you with support.
1785 - Yale starts using a four adjective grading scale. Optimi, Second Optimi, Inferiores, Perjores(Durm, 1993)
1813 - Yale moves to a 4-point grade scale 2 was passing. This was the pre-cursor to the GPA scale. (Durm, 1993)
1837 - Math teachers at Harvard start using a 100 point system to rank students. (Durm, 1993)
1883 - Harvard starts using the A-F system. (Durm, 1993)
1897 - Holyoke College establishes what is considered the modern grading system. A-F and the GPA scale. (Durm, 1993)
1940s - The A-F grading system emerged as “the dominant grading scheme, along with two other systems that would eventually be fused together with it: the 4.0 scale and the 100 percent system” (Schneider & Hutt, 2014).
My mother was born in 1939 and died in 2019. The grading system dramatically changed in one person's lifetime. I wonder what we could do to the grading system in your lifetime?
Why do you want to make the switch to equitable grading? What is your motivation?
Realistically, how much time do you have to commit to this?
If you don't have much time, here are some quick changes you can make.
If you have more time and energy, then continue on! Don't feel like you need to do it all at the same time. Try something, reflect, then try another.
What is the purpose of education?
In an ideal world, what would be the tangible outcomes of making the switch to equitable grading? Paint the picture and be bold!
How soon do you want it implemented?
Where are your staff/parents/students at with this idea? (Don’t know, most are on board, some are on board, resistant to change)
Are you willing/able to make structural changes in order to reach your goal (purchase additional software, report cards, LMS, SIS)?
What do your current grades tell you about your students? (What is in your grade)? (Attendance, Tardiness, Achievement, Compliance, Test-taking ability, Growth, Knowledge, Effort, Behavior)
Is it important to rank students against each other?
How important is memorization in today’s digital age?
What keeps you motivated at work? How is that different from students?
Which do you agree with, which do you disagree with and why?
Does your current grading system meet these tenants? In what specific ways does your grading system meet or fall short of these tenants?
Tenets of Equitable Grading
Grades should reflect achievement of intended learning outcomes - whether the school is using a conventional, subject-based report card or a report card that represents these intended learning outcomes as standards.
The primary audiences for the message conveyed in grades are students and their parents; grading policies should aim to give them useful, timely, actionable information. Teachers, administrators, and other educators are secondary audiences.
Grades should reflect a particular students' individual achievement. Group and cooperative skills are important, but they should be reflected elsewhere, not in an individual's academic grade.
Grading policies should be set up to support student motivation to learn. A student should never reach a place where there is no point in doing any more work because failure is inevitable.
Source: Starting the conversation about grading by Susan Brookhart
The Three Pillars of Equitable Grading
Equitable grades are:
Mathematically accurate, validly reflecting a student’s academic performance.
Bias-resistant, preventing biased subjectivity from infecting our grades.
Motivate students to strive for academic success, persevere, accept struggles and setbacks, and to gain critical lifelong skills.