Standards‐Based Scoring and Traditional Grading Practices

Abstract

The forward and preface to this 224-page paperback warn the reader that the will not put you at ease (p. ix) as the focus is upon the intractable (p. xiii) of grading and reporting student achievement. Editors Trumbull and Farr observe that and district staffs as well as parents are beginning to wake up to the contradictions between standards-based scoring and traditional grading (p. xix). The editors suggest that it is time to revisit the idea that grading practices are and always will be a problem in theory and practice. Through Trumbull and Farr's reflection on current grading practices, and the collected essays of ten other educators (Bisesi, Busick, Carr, Casanova, Farr, Greene, Haydel, Langdon, Stiggins, and Waters), readers are presented with a number of practical recommendations for improving the alignment of standards-based education with the practice of grading and reporting student achievement. The audiences for this collection of essays include school district staff responsible for evaluation and testing, school principals and teachers who work to align grading and reporting with the principles of standards-based education, and the faculties who teach measurement courses. NCME members are also challenged to read and review this book as the essays promise to narrow the gap between school-based educators and the so-called assessment experts (p.18)! The book is particularly germane to NCME members as it responds to the Standards for Teacher Competence in Educational Assessment of Students developed as the result of collaborations between the American Federation of Teachers, National Council on Measurement in Education, and the National Education Association (1990). Five of the book's nine essays provide logical answers to questions about the meaning of grades. In addition, rationales are developed for articulating the need for grades, and for describing the type of grading methods commonly used, the methods for converting rubric scores to grades, and the assignment of grades in a standards-based school setting. The first essay presents an excellent review of the history of grading practices and the related technical issues of grading. Four subsequent essays focus on the theory, purpose, and techniques used for reporting grades. Among the highlights of these five essays are the writers' apparent agreement that grades should report achievement alone and that norm-referenced classroom assessment is inappropriate. Two of the book's nine essays are reserved for discussions of the issues of bias and equity in reporting grades. Although each of these essays offers suggestions for