preparing to change to an evidence-based grading model requires preparing all who are connected to the change—teachers, students, and guardians and parents. All these stakeholders must understand the value of this change and how it can foster better discussions around teaching and learning.
This chapter walks our team through the preparation phase.
• How teachers begin to think differently about their own instructional practices
• How students begin to talk differently about their own learning
• How parents or guardians can better understand education in a way that nurtures lifelong learning, understanding grading as a process of learning growth rather than a strict statement of measured ability
At our school, we ask ourselves, “How do we build from the good work we are already doing and make it better? What should we consider next?” In a culture of continuous improvement, teachers and students are always looking to improve on their current practices and find new and improved ways to support learning. Evidence-based grading and the conversations that are required for successful implementation fit well within a culture of continuous improvement. It encourages learning as an ongoing discussion of growth and development. Surprisingly, this is an unfamiliar mindset to students and families, who are used to grades that denote success or failure. These generations of students have been comfortable with a system of grading based on accumulating points and averages that somehow reflect intelligence. Shifting away from this long-standing mindset challenges us because it changes the way we communicate about learning.
Although school leaders may work diligently to prepare for professional development, we often hear from those for whom professional learning has become a stand-alone event with little follow-through. We designed this chapter to examine and suggest ways to first prepare faculty for a change in grading practices and how to then implement the change effectively. For this book’s purpose, we focus our attention on actually implementing an evidence-based grading model as the team grapples with its own questions and challenges.
Following are three key points to remember during the preparation phase.
1. To develop shared commitments, the collaborative team must be willing to question and challenge its current grading practices and then agree on more effective strategies that implement an evidence-based approach.
2. For equity, the team must be able to develop consensus and inter-rater reliability around grading practices. Inter-rater reliability simply means the team is calibrated around how it actually assesses the evidence of student proficiency—what represents proficiency to one teacher should represent proficiency to all teachers on the team.
3. For clarity and communication, team members must fully understand why they are being asked to consider changing their traditional grading practices and be able to explain this change clearly to both students and their parents.
Preparing individuals for change in grading practices goes beyond strong communication strategies. In many schools, every teacher might have his or her own grading policy and procedures; there might be multiple grading scales; and students might be graded differently depending on their teachers, not the subjects. These inconsistencies lead to inequitable grading practices. Hurdling traditional practices that sustain inequities and inconsistencies is one challenge evidence-based grading works to overcome. This shift means that a team must build a shared understanding and a shared commitment to change where consistent evaluation is valued.
As you read about our team’s journey of moving to an evidence-based grading model, consider the ways the team prepares for change—learning, investigating, questioning, and fleshing out each member’s knowledge and understanding. Also, think about how the team considers implementing the change and makes the decisions to bring about this shift toward greater consistency and equity.
We created this team scenario with some of our best teachers in mind—some willing to change, some questioning change, and some holding back. Each teacher is a change agent. What does each change agent need? How do leaders support teachers’ efforts early in the change process? How does an organization create and sustain meaningful change? As you read our team’s story, ask yourself how the team answers the following challenges.
• Is every team member fully committed to the value of evidence-based grading, and is he or she clear on how to talk about its purpose and intention so students and parents clearly understand the change in grading practices?
• Is the team paying close attention to inter-rater reliability in its grading practices? Is each member implementing a shared and communicated agreement about what it means to meet or exceed the team’s stated learning targets?
• Is the team identifying ways in which a shift to evidence-based grading fosters better communication about teaching and learning practices?
Our Team’s Story
Toward the end of May, Mario and his team are considering their next action steps. The team has worked hard for the past year to implement best practices of proficiency-based assessment. Members see success in their approach to curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Moreover, they are getting students to discuss learning and learning targets more often, rather than fighting to earn points. Seeing this stride forward, they know their next step requires a different approach to grades and feedback. This year, Mario, Joni, Maya, Britney, and Kevin are positioned and determined to implement an evidence-based grading model as a natural extension of their proficiency-based assessment practices.
Mario, the team leader, has spent a lot of time grappling with evidence-based grading’s concepts, and he is eager to work with the team and lead discussions around its implementation. Maya is in her second year of teaching and feels more comfortable with the curriculum than she did at first. Britney is in her seventh year of teaching and is indifferent to adopting a new grading system. Based on past experiences, Joni and Kevin know that a change to evidence-based grading means breaking away from years of past practices. Joni also notes that the shift isn’t just going to be hard for teachers to fully understand—it is going to be difficult for students as well. Likewise, it will confuse parents who have only ever known a points-and-percentage-based grading system.
Luckily, a couple of the content-based curriculum teams in the school have already made the shift to evidence-based grading, so our team thinks it can gather some good advice from other faculty members about how they already implemented and communicated the change to evidence-based grading. By no means does anyone claim to be an expert on the topic, but the teams that implemented the new model really like the outcome: discussing learning with students instead of confronting them about points and percentages.
Mario is excited but anxious, as team members are going to implement evidence-based grading into their subject area in a few months. At the end of May, the team gathers in a classroom to discuss its approach to implementation. John, director of assessment, and Kaori, assistant superintendent of curriculum, lead the meeting. These two school leaders worked previously with a number of teams through the challenging shift. John and Kaori welcome the team and begin to discuss evidence-based grading. They are up-front about the need to shift away from past grading practices and recognize the effort it will take. The teams that have implemented evidence-based grading continue to encourage them to move forward with the change.
“As other teachers are saying,” notes John, “once you shift to evidence-based grading, you will never want to go back.”
John and Kaori help Mario’s team by introducing a clear protocol to follow during evidence-based grading implementation. The first step is to ensure the team has a clear understanding of the purpose of making this change.
Kaori begins the meeting with two questions:
