Academic Standards

(Background pic is a clock I received as an award while I was an undergraduate at Bloomsburg University. This was the 2009 C.R. Reardin Memorial Award for outstanding student of mathematics.)

In this section, I will describe the grading system I have been using, broadly referred to as specifications grading. This grading style also goes by the names mastery-based grading or standards based grading. There may be technical differences in the literature, but they all display the same underlying concepts. Here is a document differentiating the different terms with resources. Rather than rely on partial credit and an overall weighted average to assign grades, I only give credit for problems that are completely correct (while minimizing the effect of partial credit). Otherwise, students may attempt another version of that problem at a later time to try and earn a higher grade. For each problem type, only the student's maximum score on all attempts is recorded in determining grades (though I keep data on all attempts). Final grades are determined by counting the total number of problems completed correctly by the end of the semester, together with certain homework criteria. A key feature of specifications grading is ample opportunities to demonstrate mastery of each learning outcome throughout the course. Keeping track of the highest score in this fashion rewards growth, promotes deeper understanding of the material, and is aligned with the idea of a growth mindset.

Not accepting incomplete or incorrect assignments

One way that I communicate my expectations of high standards to students is by only accepting work that is complete. If a student tries to hand in an assignment that is incomplete, I ask the student to resubmit another draft when they have completed the entire assignment or to set up a meeting with me to go over it. These assignments are mastery based as well in the sense that the entire assignment can be resubmitted to receive a higher score. Each student can keep re-submitting drafts until their submission meets the performance criteria.

I have been invested in including more writing assignments and thoughtful reflections in my classes. I started assigning “writing prompts” as homework and was shocked at how much practice students needed to describe a mathematical concept in words. It is my hope that incorporating writing assignments will help my students express their knowledge on a technical level as is needed to read and perform research.

I now describe my grading in more detail. The following information is also provided in my syllabi.

If you get a problem wrong, you can try it again for a grade replacement 

In my class, students have multiple opportunities to demonstrate full understanding of every topic. I have no expectations that my students will reattempt problems outside of class time. However, if a student does not do well on an assessment, I may contact him/her to set up an appointment to go over those problems. Office hour reassessments are given at my discretion and are not guaranteed opportunities.

Every problem attempted can earn up to 3 points. For any problem which earns less than 3 points, another version of that problem may be attempted at a later time for a grade replacement using the highest score. Replacing grades in this fashion rewards effort, growth, and deeper understanding of the material.

Once a problem has been mastered (and receives 3 points), the student may repeat the process for an additional 3 points (hence 6 points maximum per topic). This is regardless of the number of attempts needed to master the problem. The maximum for any single topic is 6 points, meaning up to 2 correct problems completed on the same topic. Being able to relearn a topic when needed in the future is a valuable skill, and correctly completing a second problem at a later time is in place in order to give this skill practice.

For each of my classes, “Knowledge points” refer to your progress on quizzes and exams. “Homework points” can be obtained by doing any combination of the following:

•       Every turn-in homework assignment can earn up to 5 homework points. 

•       Every mini-project can earn up to 10 homework points, and there will be up to 3 mini-projects throughout the semester.

•       The online homework is the total percent completed out of a maximum of 50 points. 

For example, if you complete 20% of all the online homework, then you have earned (0.2)(50) = 10 homework points.

Knowledge points and homework points do not average, but rather are kept separate. 

For an example of these "grade bundles", the following outlines the criteria to achieve each letter grade in Elementary Statistics.

• To earn a A, earn at least 140 knowledge points from individual problems, and 82 homework points from homework and mini-projects

• To earn a B, earn at least 115 knowledge points from individual problems, and 62 homework points from homework and mini-projects

• To earn a C, earn at least 75 knowledge points from individual problems, and 45 homework points from homework and mini-projects

• To earn a D, earn at least 39 knowledge points from individual problems, and 30 homework points from homework and mini-projects

• Otherwise the grade is "Not a D Yet"

Within all of my student comments across all the courses that I have taught, I counted 91 comments that specifically mention my grading. Of those 91 comments, about 2/3 of them reference a preference for my grading system, or state how my grading system enabled more learning, or an overall positive sentiment about the grading. I began implementing changes after fall 2018 that ended up having a large positive effect on my students' experiences which is shown by the lack of very negative comments in more recent evaluations. Below is a breakdown of positive versus negative comments for each semester that I have taught up to spring 2022. 

Below I present about 20 actual comments from the 60 positive comments and about 10 actual comments from the 31 negative comments. The comments I chose refer to specific details about the student's experiences or opinions. I have intentionally left out other comments, be it positive or negative, that do not refer to specific details. An example of a positive comment that I did not include (though ironically is not included) is:

Student Evaluations and Comments 

The following line graph shows the overall mean scores across each semester for two questions:

Q1: The professor’s standards for evaluating my work were consistently applied.

Q2: The course significantly increased my knowledge of the subject.

The question is rated from 1 - 7, with 7 being strongly agree, 4 being neutral, and 1 being strongly disagree. 

My evaluations were lower during my first three semesters, but then steadily increased to ratings of 5.8 or above. I take these improved scores as a sign that my efforts in maintaining consistent communication about grades has had a positive impact on my students' experiences in my classroom.

Next, I want to describe how my students' feedback has helped me to improve my communication with my students. I will be using actual comments that I have received in telling my story of implementing specifications grading. 

When I began implementing specifications grading in Elementary Statistics, it did not go well. There were also some communication issues in my upper-level courses. It took me several semesters before I was able to alleviate these problems. The first comment I present is from the first semester I used specifications grading.

Initially, I allowed my students to initiate reassessments of the learning outcomes in my office hours. At times, this made my office hours very busy, and sometimes students came by while I was momentarily out of my office. It became apparent that the grading system would run more smoothly on my end if I restrict assessments to occur during class time. I also decided that I could not expect students in general to put in the extra effort outside of class to take extra problems. 

Because alternative grading is different and new to most students, it needs to be explained thoroughly and over time before some students fully understand it or even see the benefits of it for themselves, as the next comment describes. 

It is unfortunate that the data collected using specifications grading is too much for most learning management systems to handle. Canvas is the exception, however, which has a built-in mastery grade book. I have used this feature during the COVID semesters, but have ceased using it in favor of my own system. One issue is that the canvas grade book only tracks progress on the outcomes but not an overall grade (which is based on the specifications I set). It took me several semesters to get a system in place that consistently keeps students up to date; namely my Excel grade book for my students and the email blast using Mail Merge (see more in the "Communication" section).

I continue working to provide my students more and more resources to ensure better chances of success. The next comment shows how my students can indicate which resources they want.

I have learned the hard way just how much communication about my grading is actually required in order to have all of my students understand my grading and how to benefit from it. I typically have a handful of students each semester that struggles to understand my grading system. To help these students, I decided to explain only some of the aspects of my grading system at a single time, such as how to use my Excel grade book, how to adopt a growth mindset, how to handle getting problems wrong, or how students can skip outcomes which have already received maximum credit. I also started taking attendance on these days so that I can be sure to know which students received my message. I can then be sure to get that information to the students who missed class at a later time.

Below are some example comments from students that indicate a needed improvement in my implementation of my grading system.

These students point out a side effect to my grading system. Because a student's grade never decreases, a student can technically leave the course once they achieve enough homework points and knowledge points for a C. It follows that the passing grades should not occur until later in the semester, to prevent students from leaving the course with a C prematurely. Many of these students, however, are aiming for an A and will remain engaged with the course until the end of the semester. 

I have decided to change the presentation of an overall grade in the beginning as "not yet a D" rather than "F". I hope this change of language promotes the growth mindset of always improving. I can understand from the students' point of view that seeing your overall grade as anything less than a C for over half the semester is something they are not used to. To combat this, I have maintained consistent talks, reminders, and messages about the mindset to have and how to interpret their grades. The following semester I began implementing these talks, and the next comment refers to this change.

I have been using a Google Form to poll students on how they feel they understand my grading system. For any students that respond with anything less than "Yes, I understand", I reach out to those students over Discord and invite them to either chat in office hours and/or be sure to chat with them whenever I go over aspects about my grading in class. The following two comments indicate this struggle of an alternate mindset.

While this student expresses needing more attempts, I am confident the number of attempts I offer are sufficient for all students to achieve their desired grade. Sometimes students have many absences in Elementary Statistics which could explain why some students miss out on the opportunities presented.

Grade Distributions

I have never curved final grades at the end of a semester, and I rarely have any students complain about unfair grading. Below I present the grade distributions for each of the classes taught fall 2017 - spring 2022, both by frequency and percent. Notice the sharp decline in the number of students withdrawing from my classes after spring 2019. This is also when I began implementing specifications grading into all of my classes.

I end this section with some comments I have received in my evaluations that concern my use of specifications grading, and learning of the course material. These comments outline my efforts in improving my students' experiences.