"It's Just Not Fair!" Making Sense of Secondary Students' Resistance to a Standards-Based Grading

Variations of the question, "How are you doing in school? " are among those most frequently posed by adults to students (Reeves, 2004). Grades represent the primary source of that information; indeed, Olson (1995) called grades "one of the most sacred traditions in American education" (p. 24). There is so much trust in the messages conveyed by grades that they have gone without challenge and are resistant to change (Marzano, 2000). Yet reporting only a single mark for each subject may be insufficient to answer meaningful questions about student progress (Guskey, 2001). Bailey and McTighe (1996) noted that when clear responses to these questions are not available, grading's other purposes cannot be effectively carried out.Marzano (2000) has pointed out that the current grading system in America is over a century old and lacks a body of supporting research. He also noted problems such as the arbitrary weighting of assessments and merging of diverse knowledge and skills into single assessment scores. Reeves (2004) noted that grading systems may change drastically from one classroom to another, because grades serve multiple purposes and are unique to each course or teacher.Students are entitled to accurate and timely feedback on their strengths and deficiencies and about actions that can be taken to achieve learning goals. Hattie (2008), in a review of studies on learning, reported that providing students with specific information about their standing in terms of particular objectives significantly increased achievement. Unfortunately, students' awareness of their standing is often made difficult by inaccurate and inconsistent messages about what a particular letter grade means.Concerns over the number of graduates unprepared for the rigors of university and careers, as well as the gap between American students and those in other countries, have led 46 states in the U.S. to adopt the Common Core State Standards (Council of Chief State School Officers, 2015), a set of learning targets designed to drive quality instruction (Spencer, 2012). Thus, it is critical that teachers link grading and reporting to standards (Munoz & Guskey, 2015). Comprehensive standards-based grading systems (SBG), which report what students know and can do relative to standards, purport to facilitate clearer, more targeted feedback compared to traditional letter grades. This is accomplished by such practices as reporting academic achievement separate from behaviors, tying assessment and grading exclusively to standards, prioritizing the most recent evidence of learning, and allowing for editing and resubmission of work (Swan, Guskey, & Jung, 2014). SBG principles also favor median versus mean scores, proficiency-based rubrics versus percentages, and a balance of quality formative and summative assessments (McTighe & O'Connor, 2005; Munoz & Guskey, 2015; O'Connor, 2010; Reeves, 2004). O'Connor (2010) identified strategies that are increasingly being used:* Incorporating more formative work that is not included in final grades. * Updating grades frequently. Since learning is a continuous process, the quality of learning should take precedence over when it occurs. * Thoroughly discussing assessment and grading with students, since a primary objective of education is to have students become selfevaluating.Although a body of scholarship explores issues pertaining to standardsbased grading, there is a dearth of research addressing student perspectives. The purpose of this study, then, was to gain a more thorough understanding of the attitudes, understanding, and experiences of students impacted for the first time by an SBG initiative at their high school. At the beginning and end of an academic year, students shared their perspectives on issues such as the pace of SBG implementation and change, fairness of grading processes, motivation, preparation for college, inconsistencies between courses, the role of homework, and communication with teachers. …