From: cfrnb@ux1.cts.eiu.edu (Bob Barger)
Subject: Re: GRADES
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 1992 20:59:26 GMT
Organization: Eastern Illinois University

In article <1992Oct7.183623.27858@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
kek2r@curry.edschool.Virginia.EDU (Kathryn Elaine Krimmer) writes: 

>I am a student in the five-year education program at the
>University of Virginia.  I am excited about my future in
>education, but I have some serious concerns.  I recognize that
>grades and exams are a necessary evil in our education system,
>but I worry that their negative effects are too numerous.  I
>want to be an educator to enlighten and encourage young minds,
>but I worry that in the process of grading and evaluating I
>will unknowingly be discouraging students.  
>My question is, how does an educator effectively grade and
>evaluate?  Is it possible to deemphasize the importance of
>grades and emphasize the joys of learning, within our current
>system?  
>I am a successful student, and I have always gotten high
>grades.  I often wonder if I missed out on a lot of the joy and
>excitement that should accompany learning because of my great
>concern about grades.  I want my students to achieve, but I
>wonder how accurately our examinations measure all the aspects
>of achievement.  
>I would greatly appreciate some input and advice.  THANKS!!

Having taught for 28 years, I sympathize with the humane concerns
which Ms. Krimmer has stated above. I have always found evaluation to
be difficult, and yet I believe that it is a necessary part of
teaching. I believe that it is necessary because a number of people
need to know how well the knowledge, understanding and/or skills to be
communicated in teaching have, in fact, been communicated. The people
concerned are the student, the teacher, and other interested parties.
The student obviously deserves to have a professional opinion on how
well they have done in acquiring the knowledge, understanding, and/or
skills in question. The teacher can profit from such evaluation in
order to gauge her/his own success in teaching the student. Other
interested parties might be, for instance, future employers of the
student who have an interest in knowing what success the student has
had in areas which the employer might judge necessary for performance
in the employer's business.

How evaluation is best done is a tough question! I think that,
basically, the means of evaluation (whether they be traditional tests
or other non-traditional types of measurement) should be valid and
reliable. By valid, I mean that they should truly test for the
knowledge, understanding and/or skills which were intended to be
communicated (and not just test for, say, the student's short-term
memory ability). By reliable, I mean that these means of evaluation
should produce results that are consistently dependable. If evaluation
is performed so that it is both valid and reliable, it will, by that
very fact, also be fair.  

The thoughts I have offered here may not be as specific, concerning
means of evaluation, as one would like. Hopefully, Ms. Krimmer will
have a chance to achieve a greater level of specificity in these
matters before she leaves Curry, and, of course, beyond that in the
field during what I hope will be many years of enjoyable teaching.  

All the best,
                Bob Barger
                Professor of Education
                Eastern Illinois University

Xref: sparky misc.education:3695 talk.politics.misc:51408 alt.individualism:5769