Learning Equitable Grading and Confronting Privileges (online reflection #1)

Ever since I was a little girl, I knew that some kids finished work faster than others. Since I’ve been in college, I knew about the push to have inclusive classrooms and the existence of “CWC”s. Yet it took until this year and this much time in a classroom filled with diverse learners and students that I began to question how we graded so much variety in the same room. I wondered who the grading should have been geared toward: if helping those with an IEP or second language would water down the standards for some of the faster achieving students, or if keeping the standards strict would inhibit students having a harder time from ever succeeding?

I started looking online, and as it turns out it was a question many teachers were still grappling with. How much does effort and participation affect students’ grades—and how much should it? According to an article on Faculty Focus about student effort, a majority of college students believe that over a quarter of their grade should be based on effort or participation, while the article rightly argues that it’s near impossible to gauge and objectively grade effort. While I agree that it is frustrating to work hard and not feel rightly compensated by grade, much of the adult world cares about results, regardless of the amount of effort it took to get to that place.

I began thinking on this subject when my students were giving presentations on a reading they had done in groups. Several of the students had read the myth but others had trouble reading aloud and so mostly listened and followed along. Then once the presentations began, my MT told everyone they were required to speak. The student in our class with autism does not currently work well in groups and struggles to speak in front of the class, so he completed his project by himself and explained it to the teacher. I wondered if he would receive full credit or if he would be punished by his disability in the midst of a class of people who do not struggle with some of his particular challenges.

My MT has been teaching for several years and is an extremely well-read and well-researched educator. I have been so impressed with her dedication to not only help each student individually but to be best practice and data driven in her curriculum and instruction. In my emails with her about this subject, she said that she believes “grades should be completely objective and quantitative so that they never become a weapon nor reward.” She emphasizes quantitative data and tracking measurable goals for the students to be able to be compared not only against their past selves, but against the rubrics she makes for each assignment and objective. One of her ways of making differentiation work is through broad or interpretative rubrics. For example, if the rubric says to demonstrate in-depth knowledge of the short story, many students will write up all of their answers, while some may write half and deliver the rest orally to her or one of the other teachers in the room.

Sometimes this can lead to subjectivity, but she strives to look for measurable change and things she has seen that can be tracked and recorded when it comes to individual goals.  Many times these goals can come from an IEP, and thus must be strictly adhered to. This link  gives many helpful tips and examples on how to co-teach with a special education teacher, as well as how to carry out modifications in grading and testing for students with differing needs. The takeaway from my research and discussions have been that emotion should be taken out of the equation as much as possible, but that reasonable expectations and empathy are still needed.

I am glad that I have been confronted with this question about grading and equity now, because I know I will have to deal with it the rest of my professional career. It was too easy for me to ignore the grading policies and not worry about it as a student because I was privileged enough not deal with learning struggles in certain parts of school. Learning how to help and accommodate students with such wide ranging abilities has been such a good experience for me, and I look forward to continually becoming more sensitive and data-collecting in the future. So what do you think? Should the effort and abilities of the students be taken into account, and to what degree? What challenges does individualizing create in the grading sector?

Enjoying the journey,
Mrs. Watkins