What Are Grades Really For? What Research Says About 4 Common Answers
When Laura Link works with districts to review their grading policies, she starts by asking a simple question: What are grades for?
Are grades meant to motivate students? To help teachers determine who needs more support? To inform parents of their children’s progress?
Link, an associate professor of education at the University of North Dakota, studies how K-12 schools formulate grades and how those decisions affect student learning. She also consults with school systems about their practices, starting with surveys and focus groups with families, caregivers, teachers, students, and administrators.
Those findings often expose misalignments in expectations about what grades and homework are supposed to accomplish.
Those differing priorities—and the tensions between them—cut to the heart of the grading debate. Grades can’t be all things to all people, assessment experts say. Districts must weigh tradeoffs and communicate clearly when revising grading policies.
Read more at Education Week.
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