Fearless Grading

Douglas Reeves

Description

When grades are accurate and fair, students and teachers will see immediate improvements in academic performance, student behavior, and attendance. But when schools cling to toxic grading practices that are demonstrably inaccurate and unfair, then failures persist, leading inevitably to dropouts with a lifetime of terrible consequences for students and their communities. The choice is clear, and this book will guide educators and school leaders on the path to effective and equitable grading practices.
When grades are accurate and fair, students and teachers will see immediate improvements in academic performance, student behavior, and attendance.
But when schools cling to toxic grading practices that are demonstrably inaccurate and unfair, then failures persist.
Douglas Reeves, the author of more than forty books and 100 articles on leadership and education, believes the choice is clear – and in this book, he argues for grading systems and feedback that have an immediate and positive impact on the performance of students, teachers, and leaders.
Get answers to questions such as:
What are grading policies about beyond student performance?
How can grading policies help teachers collaborate to improve student outcomes?
Why do grading policies among teachers vary so much?
The author observes that in the context of grading, you will routinely see classes in which student backgrounds are the same, but one class has a 50% failure rate and another class in the same grade and same subject has a 10% failure rate. Almost always, the difference is not in the performance of the students but in the grading policies of the teachers.
Join the author and explore how to improve achievement, discipline, and culture through Fearless Grading.

Sujets

• School leadership
• Resilience
• Professional development
• Education
• Poetry
• Résilience (physique)
• Leadership

Informations

• Publié par: Archway Publishing
• Date de parution: 11 mai 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665742436
• Langue: English

Extrait

FEARLESS GRADING
HOW TO IMPROVE ACHIEVEMENT, DISCIPLINE, AND CULTURE THROUGH ACCURATE AND FAIR GRADING
DOUGLAS REEVES


Copyright © 2023 Douglas Reeves
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This book is a work of nonfiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.
 
 
Archway Publishing
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.archwaypublishing.com
844-669-3957
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6657-4245-0 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-4244-3 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-4243-6 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023907043
 
 
 
Archway Publishing rev. date: 10/23/2023
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction: How Fearless Grading And Feedback Drive Student Performance
 
Chapter 1:Lead With Values
Chapter 2:The Evidence For Grading Reform
Chapter 3:Essentials Of Effective Grading Practices
Chapter 4:How Grading Reform Helps Teachers
Chapter 5:Avoid Unnecessary Fights
Chapter 6:Inside-Out Change
Chapter 7:Dealing With Resistance
Chapter 8:How Grading Reform Helps High-Achieving Students
Chapter 9:Gaining Parent And Community Support
Chapter 10:Fixing Electronic Grading Systems
Chapter 11:The Risks Of Change And The Risks Of Failing To Change
Chapter 12:Effective Practice
Chapter 13:The Role Of School And District Leaders
 
Appendices
About the Author
References

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
For my amazing colleagues at Creative Leadership Solutions
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The scholarship in grading reform is led by a true giant in our field, Professor Tom Guskey of the University of Kentucky. His ability to combine rigorous research, insightful analysis, and gentle humor into what can be an emotional discussion of grading policy is a model for us all. I also wish to acknowledge the contributions to the research and writing in grading made by Susan Brookhart, Joe Feldman, Bob Marzano, Ken O’Connor, and Rick Wormeli. Careful readers of these authors will note places where we agree and where we differ. My goal in these pages is to take a complex topic often fraught with emotionally charged rhetoric and find common ground so that schools can cross the bridge from theory to practice. I have also attempted to render the subject of grading reform more simple, more practical, and easier to adopt from the individual classroom to district-wide policies. This would not be the first time I have paved the road to hell with good intentions, and I recognize that some readers will take issue with the arguments and evidence in these pages. I am grateful for all careful readers, including those who disagree with me. I hope that they will direct their ire at me and not my friends, whom I have acknowledged.
My primary debts are to the readers who have been kind enough to read my work and offer helpful feedback, challenge, and support. For this volume, I especially appreciate the review of the manuscript by The Marsh Writers Collaborative ( www.MarshWriters.org ) and the thoughtful suggestions from Dr. Stafford Cohen, Jessika Sage-Shields, and Lisa Ng. My colleagues at Creative Leadership Solutions are a constant source of evidence, field experience, challenging ideas, and personal encouragement. They include Allyson Apsey, Michelle Cleveland, Washington Collado, Lori Cook, Alan Crawford, Karisa DeSantis, Howard Fields, Kate Anderson Foley, Emily Freeland, Rachael George, Pam Gildersleeve-Hernandez, Amanda Gomez, Jessica Gomez, Cedrick Gray, Neil Gupta, Nicole Johnson, Jessyca Lucero-Flores, Kim Marshall, Jonelle Massey, Ann McCarty Perez, Peter Ondish, Christine Smith, Melissa Stephanski, Bill Sternberg, Majalise Tolan, Dru Tomlin, Greg VanHorn, Pam VanHorn, Jo Verver-Peters, and Michael Wasta.
The chapters on teacher observation and evaluation were profoundly influenced by the work of Kim Marshall, whose pioneering work as a leader and author has influenced a generation of teachers and school administrators. Kim’s work proves that teacher evaluation need not be a toxic and adversarial process but can provide explicit and differentiated coaching for improved teacher effectiveness.
The chapters on leadership evaluation were informed by scholars and leaders far afield from education. In particular, I am indebted to my brother, Major General (ret.) Steve Reeves, and the following senior educational leaders who have profoundly influenced my work on assessing educational leaders. They include Ana Applegate, Lisa Elliott, the late Dick Elmore, Edwin Gomez, Chip Kimball, Thom Lockaby, Dale Marsden, John Simpson, Aaron Spence, Scott Thomas, and Harold Vollkommer.
Regarding any good ideas you may find in these pages, I happily share credit with those listed above. For the inevitable errors and failures in clarity, I alone bear responsibility.
Douglas Reeves
Boston, Massachusetts
INTRODUCTION: HOW FEARLESS GRADING AND FEEDBACK DRIVE STUDENT PERFORMANCE
 
Grading is only one form of feedback. It is therefore essential to put grading policy in the context of feedback. The purpose of feedback is not merely to render an evaluation; it also should provide information that will improve student performance. We know what effective feedback looks like. Watch a student—whose parents and teachers swear that the child is incapable of focus and concentration—play a video game for hours on end. With every hand movement the student receives feedback and immediately responds to that feedback in order to improve performance. Watch a great music teacher who provides feedback to students with every breath, and the casual observer without musical training can hear students improve in a matter of minutes. Watch a great athletic coach who might think of fifty ways to improve the performance of a student but withholds that torrent of advice in order to give clear and specific feedback, and see the students improve their performance within the space of a single practice session. In sum, it is not that we do not know what good feedback is, but rather that we fail to transfer these observations into effective grading policies and classroom practices.
WHAT IS FEARLESS FEEDBACK?
Ask your colleagues about the best and most constructive feedback they have ever received—as a student, teacher, leader, or on a job outside of education. The answers to this question are consistent. “We want feedback that is fair. The same performance should get the same feedback,” they say. “We want feedback that is accurate—no ambiguities—just give it to us straight,” they add. “We want feedback that is specific—let us know how to get better,” they conclude. “And we want feedback that is timely. Let me know the feedback in time for me to use it to improve.” Fearless feedback, therefore, is fair, accurate, specific, and timely. In this book we will use the acronym FAST to remind readers of the imperatives for fair, accurate, specific, and timely feedback. If that is what adults expect when they are receiving feedback, then we have a moral obligation to apply the same criteria to the feedback and grading we provide to students.
Unfortunately, the feedback that we give to students and teachers is often inconsistent, inaccurate, ambiguous, and late. For school leaders, the situation is even worse, with many leaders failing to receive any sort of systematic feedback until the end of the year or, in the case of senior leaders, the end of their contract. As baseball great Mickey Mantle once said to a UPI reporter in 1978, “If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.” To put a fine point on it, when we give feedback that is delivered long after it’s too late for the student, teacher, or leader to act on that feedback, we are performing the educational equivalent of an autopsy. It may be an interesting and complex procedure, but the patient on whom the autopsy is performed is unlikely to improve.
This book argues for grading systems and feedback that have an immediate and positive impact on the performance of students, teachers, and leaders. Grading policies are not merely about student performance but about what teachers and leaders do. If there are high failure rates on report cards, that is not just a student issue. That is a clarion call for a reflection on teaching practices and leadership decisions. When great teachers work in collaborative teams, they routinely ask one another, “How is it that ninety percent of your students succeeded in our last test on fractions and decimals? What are you doing that can help the rest of us?” There is no embarrassment about asking for help nor is there any sin of pride in sharing effective practices. It’s just what great professionals do. In the context of grading, I routinely see classes in which student backgrounds are the same, but one class has a 50% failure rate and another class in the same grade and same subject has a 10% failure rate. Effective teacher teams and educational