Assessments, Grades, Ungrading, Grading Contracts, and Condescension from Judgey McJudgersons

Over a decade ago I attended a conference that was centered around assessment, data, and Dufour's approach.
My big takeaway was to reorient less around grades, let formative assessments in more, and be more specific and reflective about data informed assessment.
I went back to my school, started doing more formative assessments, and redesigned my tests/assessments at the end of units/marking periods. These new assessments were designed by four levels:

• Level 1 basic knowledge, matching and identifying terms
• Level 2 comprehension on what we covered
• Level 3 theme, webs, paragraphs, provide evidence
• Level 4 a written response

Each test after followed the same format. I sat down after I graded and tracked data in a spreadsheet. It allowed me to see both individually and as a class what I needed to reteach, gaps, what they struggled with. I'd then ask if they struggled because the test/prompt was bad or if it was actual knowledge.

Because each test follows the same format I can then see if there's improvement from marking period to marking period.
There are issues with this, my current school has a chronic attendance problem, so students absent on test day are question marks as most do not make up the tests. Also, even though I let them retake for a higher grade, none have taken advantage of this.

I have my students track their scores on a chart so they can see areas to improve- literary elements, providing evidence, taking a stance, etc.
I've had schools insist on data walls where this data was in the classroom shaming students, and I have pushed back.

I am more interested in the students reflecting on how they did, make goals to improve, then work towards that.
The assessments get graded by 4 points. Each level is a point, with partial credit awarded, .25 up.
The rough correlation is a 4 is an A, a 3 a B, a 2 a C, a 1 a D. Part of that Dufour conference included not giving zeroes, which I don't, a failing grade for missing work is a 50, failing grade for work turned in but not acceptable is a 55. Both are still failing grades, but let a student see that things are recoverable. If they're out, hospitalized, have family drama, or just have an off marking period, they can still pass.

I have sat in meetings for students where they had a 10 or 16 in a class mid-semester. There was no mathematical way that student would pass. And the teacher wondered why they didn't try.
I do not understand teachers who don't seem to understand their students are people, and seem to equate punishment with rigor.

I allow students to turn in missing work up until the week before the end of the marking period. This is a practical choice so I can get grades in.
After that, we have rolling grades, so they can still turn it in OR if they don't remember the original work, can turn in a Make Up Missing Work Assignment. For full credit. Because if it's important for them to learn it, it's important for them to learn it.
Students can rewrite any assignment and resubmit. Retake any test. Higher grade replaces previous.
Because I want my students to get it.

Over the years I've tweaked and changed my grading. For a while now I have notebooks/classwork 25%, writing assignments 25%, projects 25%, tests 25%. Some kids aren't good at a type of assessment, and I don't believe in punishing them for that. Each marking period we have 1 writing assignment and project we spend weeks on. A test at the end of the marking period. I use interactive notebooks/daybooks, which record what we do each day. I grade them weekly, students choose their best page from the previous week, and tell me what grade they think they should get and why.

Years ago I dumped cumulative final semester exams, students submitted their writing portfolios instead. For years these have not quite done what I want although I stuck with it because it was better than alternatives. I WANTED it to be an end of year curation of their best work AND demonstrate their grasp of certain genres, ideas.
Things that always tripped me up:

• I'd choose the genres based on school's curriculum, end of year tests, to ensure I was teaching what they needed (don't at me about teaching to the test, I KNOW, but there's what we want, and reality). But I constantly adapt my lessons to my students, so we'd get to the end of the semester and I'd realize I hadn't taught something they were supposed to include.
• I always scheduled time at the end of each marking period for students to fix/revise their writing and then upload it to the writing portfolio. The idea being that by the time the portfolio was due, it was done, and they just had to reflect. That time always got eaten by other things, and so never worked.
• Too many students did it at the last minute. No reflection, no process, just dumping stuff.
• Because I do this in Google Docs, there were often issues with permissions, which is a whole other thing.

This past semester, since I started using learning targets last year, which I loved, I made a part of their final "I can" statements where they provided proof, demonstrated they could do the statement. I LOVED the results, it really showed me what they knew. It also ended up counting as their total final because Internet went down exam week and they couldn't work on their writing portfolios.

So I'm going to keep the I can statements for spring. But I'm redesigning the writing portfolios, making them more like what I did for my first year composition courses because I think it will do what I want.

Students will:

• In a single document (so hopefully no permission errors) write me a letter about where they thought they started as writers, big challenges, big success, and how they ended. I will ask for specific evidence about things that helped, for example, when we sketched our ideas in our Daybooks it really helped me see X.
• After the letter, they will choose one assignment that needed revision and revise it. Before the assignment they will write an explanation of why they chose the revise it, what the revisions were, what they fixed, then include the revised assignment.
• Next, they will take one assignment and change the tone, audience, purpose, or genre. They will also write an explanation for what they changed and why, what the effect was.
• Finally, they will pick one assignment, from my class or another, that they think is their best work, and write an explanation of WHY it is their best work.

I think these revisions will get the students to think and reflect on their progress, growth, and the assignments are one, more manageable, and more reflective, better assessments of their skills. I can more easily budget the time at the end of the semester to do this.

I think a lot of times as teachers, we think that because we said something in August, or because it was on the syllabus, it's set in stone, locking us in. I do think that we have a moral obligation to not move the goal post on students. BUT I think too that if something is not working, if there's a better way, if as educators we can admit something isn't working, we owe it to our students and ourselves to do better.

I put my week by week scope and sequence as well as my daily lessons online (through Google Classroom) for students and parents to reference. But I also tell students and parents in my opening spiel that these are "live" docs. Always up to date, but subject to change if I need to to better serve my students. I've never gotten a complaint about me changing things I think because we reference the docs all the time, the changes are never used as a gotcha, and I talk a lot with the kids about hey, X didn't work like I wanted, I've sorry, I want to try something different.

So, over winter break, a lot of conversations on Twitter were focused on grading less, going gradeless, and different teachers and professors sharing approaches. Although for years I've moved away from lots of work, more formative assessments, more long term work, there are still parent and school expectations. Again, I think if you're clear and communicate you have more leeway but for example, my current school has tried for years to mandate teachers give 1 assignment a week and put it in the online gradebook so parents can see it.

There's a lot wrong with this. First, you can't mandate professional choices, or take away our professional choices (which is why the union fought it). Second, this mandate was in response to parents saying they didn't know how their children were doing. Well, that's a whole different thing. That's teachers not updating grades in a timely manner (I had students complain that one teacher didn't put in grades until the day they were due, so they went all marking period not knowing what their grade was). This is teachers not calling or emailing home touching base and informing parents. It's teachers not communicating with their students on what their grade is based on. In short, it's teachers not doing their job.

Changing marking periods from 9 to 6 weeks does not fix this problem.

Mandating an arbitrary 1 grade a week per student does not fix this problem.

This problem SHOULD HAVE been fixed by admin addressing one by one the teachers doing this. Offering support, feedback, resources, then following up with consequences if they didn't.

Teaching, grading, lesson planning, communicating with families. That's the job description of a teacher. I continue to be baffled by teachers who hate/won't do most of the parts of the job.

Anyway, all these conversations over break got me thinking. I had a lot of students last semester out for weeks of hospitalization, homeless, weeks of depression, issues. Good kids, that just struggled. So, I revisited my Elbow, and drafted grading contracts. I hope this helps my 9th graders see how absences impact grades (not for legit stuff I mentioned above, I'm talking about kids who don't come). I'm hoping it helps my kids who feel lost, giving them clearer targets. For my AP kids, who I was disappointed to see last semester either didn't do the work or didn't do the assignments that built up to big assignments and just threw stuff together, that they will see the levels, the building blocks they should be striving for.

I redid my calendar so rather than the last day of the marking period being our test, I've backtracked it so the last day is them reflecting on grades, and us conferencing on their progress.

I'm hoping too that the contract gives them comfort, maybe gets them to not stress, as a lot said in their end of semester surveys that anxiety and depression were big challenges that semester. I hope freeing them from the stress will enable them to focus on the fun, the discussions, the learning.

But we'll see. It's all an experiment. One of the gifts of eighteen years of teaching is that I'm fine with giving up this control, seeing what happens, and being okay if it's messy.

BUT, these conversations and thoughts also overlapped with other ones I want to mention. First, social media lost their minds over Marie Kondo's statement about throwing out books. The Judgey McJudgersons were out in full force. Suddenly you were a troglodyte if you threw out/gave away/pared down books. You hated literature. You were uneducated.

Ugh.

Look, I grew up in a house where we broke bookcases because of the weight of what we stuffed in them. Where books were 3, 4, 5 deep on the shelf. Where I grew up thinking that you read library books by picking the first book on a shelf and then just worked your way down. I have a PhD in literature, I'm a high school English teacher. I love books. I love their smell. I love cracking them. I love marking them.

But people need to get the hell over themselves.

Because all of the above is true. And I've still given away a truckload (actually, several truckloads) of books in my quest to pare down and live more simply the last few years. This was a result of stressful grad school, not feeling like I had a lot of control, and wanting, needing to have control over SOMETHING even if it was just how a room looked. It was about in my 40s, letting go of expectations other people and society had of me, and not letting that make me feel bad (I hate skirts and heels- so why did my closet include both, which I never wore? Their sole purpose was to taunt me, and make me feel bad). Part of it was, the older I get, the more I find myself reverting back to the life we had growing up, the life of a hippie mom, with simpler joys. 

As I pared down books, I asked two questions- was it beloved, and would I read it again? My underwater archaeology books stayed, because they're beloved. The books I teach, and the subject books from grad school stayed because I'll use them. Lots of fantasy series, mysteries went to the classroom, because I won't read them again, but my students will.

Yes, there are elitist issues with minimalist lifestyle. There is the implication that if you give it away and miss it, you have the ability to buy a replacement. I get it. But I grew up poor, and growing up with less was part of our poverty but was also part of Mom's hippie-dippy lifestyle. 

This quote was a guiding principle growing up. As I get older, I try to get back to this. Spend less. Do more with less. Rediscover simpler joys, NPR on Sunday mornings. Vinyl in the afternoon. The joy of wandering the library. Walks in the park.

A nice effect of all the paring down the last couple of years is discovering and rediscovering things I love. A way of refinding and refining myself as a way of healing from the trauma of grad school. Another is a chance to save money, and give to charities and organizations whose work I think is more important now than ever. Living and acting more ethically.

Look, I still have a ridiculous t-shirt collection. HUNDREDS. Knick-knacks. But I also argue about how many plates I NEED. In The Accountant, he has one plate, one fork, one knife, one spoon. GOALS. But seriously, I spent months debating whether I needed a toaster. When my godmother gave me one for Christmas, it ended up at Goodwill because it turns out, I didn't need one.

I don't think these are bad things. The truth is, there are lots of reasons why people may get rid of things, by choice or necessity. The changes I've made the last few years work for me. They make my life better. Both the ones I've made personally and the ones I've made in my classroom. And I have real issues with the Judgey McJudgerson's that seem to think their lives are so rarified that they can sit in judgement of the rest of us.

This happens a lot in education. More and more people have pointed out that the loudest voices in education, telling us what to do, judging what we DO do while not listening or caring about context, the names trending, tend to be men, entrepreneurs, who have traded classrooms for lecture circuits, and who seem to book proclamations on what the rest of us our doing wrong with a confidence and authority only white patriarchy gives you.

This weekend alone men said if we're happy to celebrate the end of school on Friday we're apparently monsters who hate teaching.

Another said we're choosing to give grades, harm students, and not focus on students' learning.

Woo boy.

Look, there is active hard done in schools. Teachers who are racist, biased, misogynist, who choose to continue to teach the white, mostly male, canon, and disregard, erase all the other voices. Who support and build onto institutional and structural racism. Teachers who don't teach their students not to use ableist language, be anti-racist, or teach about consent. Who don't consider poverty or class or real life when designing assignments, curriculum, or interacting with students or families. These people do harm.

Me glad to have a weekend to recharge is not doing harm.

Me reflecting on how to work best within a system that expects grades is not doing harm.

In general, the Judgey McJudgersons, ESPECIALLY the ones presenting themselves as champions of whoever while the rest of us clearly don't care can sit the hell down and shut up.