My school made the decision NOT to publish grades for 9th graders in the first marking period.* This decision garnered substantial support from the faculty and an official academic committee. We don't publish reviews of a theater performance during rehearsals; only intellectually vacuous sports media personalities desperate for ratings assign wins and losses to athletic teams before games begin. In that vein, I'm thoroughly on board with delaying our assigning of grades until we have enough data for that grade to be meaningful.
*That doesn't mean we don't evaluate assignments, that doesn't mean we don't give graded tests... just that we do not publish or even assign an overall letter grade until after the first trimester exam.
During the summer, a representative group of faculty met to discuss how to implement this change, and also how to communicate about students in the absence of grades. In preparation for that meeting, the 9th grade conceptual physics teachers met to discuss our approach to communication.
Below is a version of a letter I sent to the working group explaining how the physics teachers intend to approach this gradeless marking period.
Conceptual Physics: Communication plan without published grades at first
Philosophy: We started from Nolan LaVoie's “contract grading” experiment, which he presented to our faculty and to the International Boys School Coalition. Nolan articulated the attributes which typically lead to success in history course; next, he described the various levels to which his students display those attributes. While we don’t think it best to adopt contract grading whole-hog in physics, we do want to use attributes as the basis for our communication system.
The ultimate goal we have for our physics students is for them to be able to demonstrate an understanding of how the natural world works, and to communicate that understanding. How do we know the level at which our students demonstrate and communicate their understanding of physics? Through performance on assessments, including weekly quizzes, monthly tests… and most importantly, in the year-end conceptual physics tournament. Therefore, those assessments are the primary items on which the grade is based.
How do we prepare our students to demonstrate and communicate their understanding of physics? We practice, just like a musical ensemble practices. We practice as a group, we practice alone; we practice basic skills, we practice advanced skills; we practice the well-known pieces, we practice creative improvisation. Individual members of the ensemble will have different skill levels. Not everyone is ready to be a featured performer. Yet, everyone in the group can improve their performance ability through authentic engagement in all forms of the ensemble’s practice.
So, let’s articulate what forms of “practice” we undertake in physics, and how we expect our students to engage in that practice. Let’s communicate how well each student meets those expectations - not just at the beginning when grades aren’t published, but throughout the year. After all, good practice habits lead to strong performance whether or not a Juliard professor is evaluating musicians from the audience.
Student attributes that lead to success in physics:
In-class practice
1. Participating in experimental and problem solving activities
2. Performing on daily knowledge checks, and working with classmates to evaluate and improve their work
Out-of-class practice
3. Using the fact/equation/calculation problem solving process on every assignment
4. Engaging with homework assignments initially, without using or seeking assistance from students or teachers.
5. Redoing assignments correctly, with assistance, when required or necessary
We have always evaluated these attributes by grading lab work, daily knowledge checks, problem sets, and test corrections. We’ve always made performance on these attributes half of the student’s grade. But since we’re no longer publishing grades at year’s beginning, we have the additional opportunity to communicate specifically how a student is progressing on these attributes. For each, how well is he meeting the standard? Enthusiastically, appropriately, such that he needs improvement, or not at all?
We intend to send a note to our students’ advisors every three weeks or so, at least at year’s beginning. In that note, we will indicate how the student is performing with respect to each of these five attributes. For example, the first sentence of the note would say one of the following:
• He participates enthusiastically in experimental and problem solving activities, completing a large number of in-class exercises to a high standard.
• He participates appropriately in experimental and problem solving activities, completing a sufficient number of in-class exercises to a reasonable standard.
• His participation in experimental and problem solving activities needs improvement. He has not completed a sufficient number of in-class exercises to a reasonable standard.
• He does not participate appropriately in experimental and problem solving activities
The other sentences would similarly address the other attributes we’re observing. We’d also include one sentence as to how the student is performing on weekly multiple choice quizzes, and on monthly tests. Again, we’d assign no grade, just a narrative indicating the level of the student’s performance (something like “outstanding”, “high level”, “acceptable level”, or “needs improvement”).
Our hope is that these comments targeted directly to success-building attributes can communicate clearly what the student is doing, and how the student is making progress on all fronts. A single grade can’t communicate like that. Even though we’ve written some extraordinarily detailed comments over the years, we feel that unless a student is in danger of failing, students, parents, and even advisors tend to look at the grade and ignore the rest.
Assigning grades too often causes our words, the very articulation of our love for our students, to be killed or swept aside. We’re thrilled to be removing the grade for the first trimester.
Conceptual Physics: Communication plan without published grades at first
Philosophy: We started from Nolan LaVoie's “contract grading” experiment, which he presented to our faculty and to the International Boys School Coalition. Nolan articulated the attributes which typically lead to success in history course; next, he described the various levels to which his students display those attributes. While we don’t think it best to adopt contract grading whole-hog in physics, we do want to use attributes as the basis for our communication system.
The ultimate goal we have for our physics students is for them to be able to demonstrate an understanding of how the natural world works, and to communicate that understanding. How do we know the level at which our students demonstrate and communicate their understanding of physics? Through performance on assessments, including weekly quizzes, monthly tests… and most importantly, in the year-end conceptual physics tournament. Therefore, those assessments are the primary items on which the grade is based.
How do we prepare our students to demonstrate and communicate their understanding of physics? We practice, just like a musical ensemble practices. We practice as a group, we practice alone; we practice basic skills, we practice advanced skills; we practice the well-known pieces, we practice creative improvisation. Individual members of the ensemble will have different skill levels. Not everyone is ready to be a featured performer. Yet, everyone in the group can improve their performance ability through authentic engagement in all forms of the ensemble’s practice.
So, let’s articulate what forms of “practice” we undertake in physics, and how we expect our students to engage in that practice. Let’s communicate how well each student meets those expectations - not just at the beginning when grades aren’t published, but throughout the year. After all, good practice habits lead to strong performance whether or not a Juliard professor is evaluating musicians from the audience.
Student attributes that lead to success in physics:
In-class practice
1. Participating in experimental and problem solving activities
2. Performing on daily knowledge checks, and working with classmates to evaluate and improve their work
Out-of-class practice
3. Using the fact/equation/calculation problem solving process on every assignment
4. Engaging with homework assignments initially, without using or seeking assistance from students or teachers.
5. Redoing assignments correctly, with assistance, when required or necessary
We have always evaluated these attributes by grading lab work, daily knowledge checks, problem sets, and test corrections. We’ve always made performance on these attributes half of the student’s grade. But since we’re no longer publishing grades at year’s beginning, we have the additional opportunity to communicate specifically how a student is progressing on these attributes. For each, how well is he meeting the standard? Enthusiastically, appropriately, such that he needs improvement, or not at all?
We intend to send a note to our students’ advisors every three weeks or so, at least at year’s beginning. In that note, we will indicate how the student is performing with respect to each of these five attributes. For example, the first sentence of the note would say one of the following:
• He participates enthusiastically in experimental and problem solving activities, completing a large number of in-class exercises to a high standard.
• He participates appropriately in experimental and problem solving activities, completing a sufficient number of in-class exercises to a reasonable standard.
• His participation in experimental and problem solving activities needs improvement. He has not completed a sufficient number of in-class exercises to a reasonable standard.
• He does not participate appropriately in experimental and problem solving activities
The other sentences would similarly address the other attributes we’re observing. We’d also include one sentence as to how the student is performing on weekly multiple choice quizzes, and on monthly tests. Again, we’d assign no grade, just a narrative indicating the level of the student’s performance (something like “outstanding”, “high level”, “acceptable level”, or “needs improvement”).
Our hope is that these comments targeted directly to success-building attributes can communicate clearly what the student is doing, and how the student is making progress on all fronts. A single grade can’t communicate like that. Even though we’ve written some extraordinarily detailed comments over the years, we feel that unless a student is in danger of failing, students, parents, and even advisors tend to look at the grade and ignore the rest.
Assigning grades too often causes our words, the very articulation of our love for our students, to be killed or swept aside. We’re thrilled to be removing the grade for the first trimester.
.
Thank you so much for including the discussion that went into the decision. It really informed my understanding of why you support it. My biggest question regarding your in class and out of class skills is that many schools are going to home reduction policies. Have you considered rebalancing the skill, like redoing assignments, to in class skills and allow some class space for that activity?
ReplyDeleteHi, Ms. Valletta... if I taught at a day school, I would significantly change my approach. But here at boarding school, students have two hours of sorta-supervised quiet time each night. They need - and even *want* - interesting work in which to engage on their own. And we have lots of structured time for students to seek out teachers for consultation, hence the “redoing assignments” piece.
ReplyDeleteMy approach is effective, but it is certainly a product of my ecosystem. You are correct that I’d tweak these attributes to reflect my actual expectations for students’ out-of-class work in a different situation.