Giving and Reporting Learners' Grades

• One of the more frustrating aspects of teaching since there are so many factors to consider and so many decisions to be made
• The main aim is to provide results in brief, understandable form for varied users

Questions usually asked:

• What should I count- just achievement or effort, too?
• How do I interpret a student’s score?
• Do I compare it to other student’s score, a standard of what they can do, or some estimate of what they can do?
• What should my distribution of grades be, and how do I determine it?
• How do I display students progress or strengths and weaknesses, to students and their parents?

Functions of Grading and Reporting Systems

Enhancing students’ learning 

• clarifying instructional objectives for them showing students’ strengths and weaknesses
• providing information on personal-social development
• enhancing students’ motivation 
• indicating where teaching might be modified

Reports to parents/ guardians

• Inform parents and guardians of students on the progress of their wards
• Communicate how well objectives were met so parents can better plan

Administrative and guidance uses

Help to decide 

• promotion
• graduation,
• honors
• athletic eligibility
• reporting achievement to other schools or to employers
• providing input for realistic educational, vocational and personal counseling

Grades and report cards should promote and enhance learning rather than frustrate and discourage students

Parent-teacher conferences are encouraged to effectively function as motivation for further learning

Types of Grading and Reporting Systems

Traditional letter-grade system

• Students’ performance are summarized by means of letters
• Is easy to understand
• It is of limited value when used as the sole report because they end up being a combination of achievement, effort, work habits and behavior
• Do not indicate patterns of strengths and weaknesses

Pass-Fail

• Utilizes a dichotomous grade system
• Either a student has complied and reached certain standards, which case he passed, or he failed to do so, and gets a failing mark
• It does not provide much information
• Students tend to work to the minimum (just to pass) and no grades are reflected until the mastery threshold is reached

Checklist of Objectives

• Objectives of the course are enumerated and students’ level of achievement is indicated: Outstanding, Very Good, Good, Fair or Poor
• A very detailed reporting system and tends to more informative for the parents and pupils 
• Very time consuming to prepare
• A potential problem is keeping the list manageable and understandable

 Letters to Parents/Guardians

• Are useful supplement  to grades
• Very time-consuming to prepare, the accounts of weaknesses are often misinterpreted by parents and guardians, and they are not characterized as systematic nor cumulative

 Portfolios

• A set of purposefully selected work, with commentary by student and teacher
• Are useful for showing student’s strength and weaknesses, illustrating range of students’ work, showing progress over time or stages of a project, teaching students about objectives/standards they are to meet

  Parent-Teacher Conferences

• Requires parents of pupils come for a conference with the teacher to discuss the pupil’s progress
• Are useful for a two-way flow of information and getting more information and cooperation from the parents