Back-to-back posts because I was playing a board game this weekend and forgot to post that night! I have a really hard time being critical of this book, considering in many ways it helped launch my classroom assessment and grading research. Granted, the more I learn, the more asterisks I attach to ideas in Grading for Equity, which is tough for me to admit. I simultaneously recommend that all educators read this to understand basic concepts, like standards, while I also acknowledge that it’s still a grade-focused, and possibly grade-heavy approach. That is, standards-based grading (SBG) is a lot closer to traditional grading than many might think, and has the potential to result in even more grades, just in new packaging (e.g., “Needs Improvement,” and “Proficient”). Therefore, here are my thoughts after my first rereading of this book since really diving deep into classroom assessment and grading literature.
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100-Point Scale: Zero Evaluation
The 100-point scale is unbalanced. This is a fact. It allots 60 points to failure and just 10 points between each other letter grade.
But there’s another problem with the scale. When teachers use it, they rarely make a true evaluation of student work, instead getting distracted by mathy math. Consider a common teacher practice of taking off points…
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