Making Grades: How High School Science Teachers Determine Report Card Grades.

A significant aspect of recent reform efforts is a strong move to change assessment techniques. When the focus of the reform is on changing teachers' practices of assessment and evaluation of students, the issue of how they incorporate the mechanisms of assigning grades into their teaching becomes important. The purpose of this study was to provide an in-depth look at the ways that teachers use the information that they have about their students from tests, quizzes, projects, book and lab reports, essay scores, and class discussion to arrive at a summative evaluation of the student's achievement in class. Data was collected using surveys and interviews. Findings suggest that a significant fraction of teachers use point systems for calculating report card grades where students collect points for their performance on tests and quizzes and for the completion of tasks such as lab reports and homework and then exchange these points for a grade at the end of the marking period. Other significant outcomes include the following: it appears that there has been little or no effect of recent reform efforts on the assessment prrctices of high school science teachers and there is some indication that science teachers appear to be enthusiastic about the use of computer software to aid in keeping their grading records and for calculating report card grades. Contains 14 references. (JRH) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. *********************************************************************** Making Grades: How High School Science Teachers Determine Report Card Grades by Allan Feldman Aaron Kropf Marsha Alibrandi PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE ANI DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL H S BEEN GRANTED BY TO Ir AI IONAI Ill ';OI INCA ' OliMA1ION Cf in F H F MCI U S DEPARTMENT Of EDUCATION Office ot Ed.-10.0,4i Rossamh and Dnisrmernent E OUCATIONAL RESOURCES IP rORMATION CENTE R (ERICI K._ , in.s do, .menI nee been eproducee ei re, et,eo Itryrn ihe person .)t tyger.labor. or.gnilin . 1 n m,no, Lhincjes neve been enicky to . rntro.e ,00,0iliuctton qughty Pnts of we* of optn.onystted. r Ih.srliv a . rnnI <IC. ^,,I ,,ecesSeetiv ,n,yes. ,". ,,a, oil R. po111.1*. vol., y BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 Making grades: How high school science teachers determine report card grades Allan Feldman, Aaron Kropf, and Marsha Alibrandi University of Massachusetts at Amherst Introduction How do science teachers assign grades to their students? While this question might at first seem trivial, its answer is salient for those who are engaged in the reform of pre-college education. These reforms are focused on changing curriculum, pedagogy, and the ways that student learning is assessed (Helgeson, 1992). Thds effort can be seen nationally in the attempts to define what it means to know science and invent new ways to assess that knowledge (National Research Council, 1996), and in the new standards and assessments developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1995). In Massachusetts, a systemic initiative for the reform of mathematics and science educ Ition funded by the National Science Foundation has been underway since 1991, and the state legislature recently passed major legislation to reform elementary and secondary education throughout the Commonwealth. A significant aspect of the reform effort is a strong move to change assessment techniques (e.g., National Research Council, 1996; AAAS, 1993). Even given this, the saliency of the question of how teachers assign grades is not at first apparentbecause effects on practice are a secondary effect of assessment for policy making purposes. That is, while efforts such as the development of national standards may look towards the use of portfolios and performance assessments (California Assessment Program, 1990), these new evaluation tools are being considered to get a more valid indication of student learning rather than to have a direct effect on classroom teaching. But when the focus of the reform is on changing teachers practices of assessmen'. and evaluation of students, how they incorporate the mechanisms of assigning grades into their teaching can be of utmost importance. A paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, NY, NY, April 8-12, 1996.