GRADING TESTS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Grading can be a powerful way of communicating to students what information they have learned and how the teacher evaluates their work. Grades can serve as motivators
for learning and rewards for academic accomplishments. Barbara Walvoord and Virginia Johnson Anderson remind us in Effective Grading, A Tool for Learning and Assessment (1998) that grading is an integral part of the teaching process. This process of interdependent steps includes:
Defining Student Learning Goals (outlined in the syllabus and consistent with program goals)
Planning Student Learning Activities (texts, learning activities, lectures, labs, assignments, etc)
Measuring Student Learning (testing to see if they have accomplished the course goals)
Reflecting on Test Results (to determine changes needed in activities for teaching and learning).

In order to make assignments and tests worth grading, Walvoord and Anderson suggest beginning with consideration of what you want students to learn. Then select or construct assignments that both teach and test what is most important. Next, construct a course outline that demonstrates the sequence of major tests and assignments. Check to see that tests and assignments fit the learning goals and are realistic. Finally, give students explicit instructions for their assignments and tests.

A part of the instructions for assignments and tests should be Criteria and Standards for Grading that you have predetermined. This includes both form and substance of student performance. For objective tests and assignments, these instructions can be fairly straight forward and explicit. For essays and narrative assignments, it is all the more important to be clear about your expectations. Walvoord and Anderson (p. 69) outline the following steps for constructing a Primary Trait Analysis Scale for your assignments and tests:
Exhibit 5.3 Steps for Constructing a PTA Scale
If possible, work from examples of past student performances, grading checklists, descriptions of criteria, comments on assignments or tests-anything that has helped you in the past to articulate criteria for students’ performances.
1. Choose a test or assignment that tests what you want to evaluate. Make clear your objectives for the assignment.
2. Identify the “traits” that will count in the evaluation. These are nouns or noun phrases, such as “thesis,” “eye contact with audience,” or “control of variables.”
3. For each trait construct a two-to five-point scale. These are descriptive statements. For example, “A ‘5’ thesis is limited enough to treat within the scope of the essay and is clear to the reader; it enters the dialogue of the discipline as reflected in the student’s sources, and it does so at a level that shows synthesis and original thought; it neither exactly repeats any of the student’s sources nor states the obvious.”
4. Try out the scale with a samples of student work or review with colleagues and revise.

The following is (Exhibit 5.3) Anderson’s PTA Score for Title of Scientific Report:
Trait: Title
Level 5: Is appropriate in tone and structure to a science journal.
Contains all necessary descriptors for placement in a scientific database.
Contains necessary brand names.
Identifies functions of experimentation.
Allows reader to anticipate design.
Level 4 Is appropriate in tone and structure to a science journal
Contains most descriptors.
May lack brand names.
Identifies function of experimentation.
Suggests design.
Level 3 Identifies function and brand name but does not allow reader to anticipate design.
Level 2 Identifies function or brand name, but not both.
Level 1 Is patterned after another discipline or missing.

Your model for calculating grades is important in communicating to the student what you think is important and where you want them to focus. Models described by Walvoord and Anderson (p.93) are:
Weighted Letter Grades
Ex: Tests average letter grade counts 40 percent of your course grade.
Field project letter grade counts 20 percent of your course grade.
Final exam letter grade counts 20 percent of course grade.
Class participation grade counts 10 percent of course grade.
Accumulated Points:
Ex: Tests 0-40 points
Field Project 0-30 points
Final Exam 0-20 points
Class participation 0-10 points
Course grade determined
by accumulated points 92-100 points=A
85-91 points=B
76-84 points=C
69-75 points=D
69 points or below=F
Definitional System:
Ex: Course Grade Graded Work Pass-fail work
A A average Pass 90 percent or more
B B average Pass 83 percent or more
C C average Pass 75 percent or more
D D average Pass 65 percent or more

Walvoord and Anderson have further ideas about Communicating with Students About their Grades (Ch. 7), Making Grading More Time-Efficient (Ch. 8) and Using the Grading Process to Improve Teaching (Ch. 9), You may borrow this valuable guide from the Christian A. Johnson Institute for Effective Teaching.

Walvoord, Barbara and Anderson, Virginia Johnson (1998) Effective Grading, A Tool for Learning and Assessment. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass