Educ 7/Assessment in Learning 2/Lecture Notes 1

Overview
The past chapters of this book discussed the different methods
and tools that measure student achievement in the context of the different
learning targets. In this chapter, the assigning of grades to student and how it
should be done in relation to the intended learning outcomes have been
achieved and that grading policies of schools must also be taken into
consideration in developing a grading system.

Section Intended Learning Outcomes

At the end of this section, you should be able to demonstrate skills in in preparing and interpreting grades. Also, you
should be able to assess the effectiveness of parent-teacher conference as a venue for reporting learners' performance.

Chapter Intended Learning Outcome

At the end of this chapter, you are expected to demonstrate skills in interpreting test results and reporting of grades.

Introduction
Assessment of learning during instruction and after instruction may be achieved in a number of ways. One of the challenges
in grading is that of summarizing the variety of collected information from different types of assessment and come up with a
standardized numerical grade or descriptive letter rating or brief report.
The guiding premises in developing grading and reporting system are provided below:
1. The primary goal of grading and reporting is communication.
2. Grading and reporting are integral parts of the instructional process.
3. Good reporting is based on good evidence
4. Changes in grading and reporting are best accomplished through the development of a comprehensive reporting system.
In developing and implementing the grading and reporting systems, these premises must be taken into consideration to have a
meaningful output and help in the attainment of the student learning objectives, to which the assessment objectives cascaded.

1. K to 12 Grading of Learning Outcomes

The K to 12 curriculum have specific assessment requirements and design catering to the delivery modes of learning,
i.e ., the formal education and alternative learning system.

The K to 12 assessment is learner-centered and carefully considers its learning environment system. The 21st century
skills such as research, analytical/critical, practical and creative are part of the indicators included in the K to 12 assessments.
Both cognitive and non-cognitive skills which includes values, motivation, attitude, behavior traits, and interpersonal relations
are part of the assessment.

Formative assessment (assessment FOR learning) is given importance to ensure learning. Learners are encouraged to
take part in the process of self-assessment (assessment AS learning). Summative forms of assessment (assessment OF learning)
are also part of the curriculum assessment under the K to 12.

The K to 12 curriculum prescribes that the assessment process should utilize the wide variety of traditional and authentic
assessment tools and techniques for a valid, reliable, and realistic assessment of learning. Traditional and authentic assessments
complement each other though they are not mutually exclusive. Furthermore, it gives greater importance on assessing
understanding and skills development rather than on mere accumulation of content.

In K to 12 curriculum, assessment will be standards-based to ensure that there is standardization in teaching and
learning. Department of Education (DepEd) issued an order (DepEd Order No. 31, s. 2012) stating that assessment will be done
in four levels and will be weighted accordingly.

These levels are the following:

 Knowledge refers to the essential content of the curriculum, the facts and information that the student acquires.

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 Process refers to cognitive acts that the student does on facts and information to come up with meanings and
understandings.
 Understanding refers to lasting big ideas, principles, and generalizations that are fundamental to the discipline which
may be assessed using the facets of understanding.
 Product/Performance refers to real-life application of understanding as shown by the student's performance of
authentic tasks.

The assigned weight per level of assessment are shown in the following table:
Level of Assessment Percentage Weight
Knowledge 15%
Process of skills 25%
Understanding 30%
Products/Performance 30%
Total 100%
Source: DepEd Order 31, s. 2012
At the end of the quarter, the student's performance will be described based on the prescribed level of proficiency which
has equivalent numerical values. Proficiency level is computed from the sum of all the performances of students in various
levels of assessment. Each level is described as follows:

 Beginning. The student at this level struggles with his/her understanding of prerequisite and fundamental knowledge
skills that have not been acquired or developed adequately.
 Developing. The student at this level possesses the minimum knowledge and skills and core understanding but needs
help throughout the performance of authentic tasks.
 Approaching Proficiency. The student at this level has developed the fundamental knowledge and skills and core
understandings, and with little guidance from the teacher and/or with some assistance from peers, can transfer these
understandings through authentic performance tasks.
 Proficient. The student at this level has developed the fundamental knowledge and skills and core understandings, and
can transfer them independently through authentic performance tasks.
 Advanced. The student at this level exceeds the core requirements in terms of knowledge, skills and core
understandings, and can transfer them automatically and flexibly through authentic performance tasks.

Translating these proficiency level into its numerical value is described in the following table:
Level of Proficiency Equivalent Numerical Value
Beginning 74% and below
Developing 75-79%
Approaching Proficiency 80-84%
Proficient 85-89%
Advanced 90% and above
Source: DepEd Order 31, s. 2012

Comparison of Levels of Proficiency

Indicators Beginning Developing Approaching Proficiency Advanced
Proficiency
Acquisition of Struggling or Minimum Fundamental Fundamental Exceeding
knowledge, skills and have not
understanding acquired
Transfer of Needs help With little Independent Automatic and
knowledge/Application guidance from flexible.
of knowledge the teacher or
some assistance
from peers

2. The Effect of Grading of Students

Over the years, studies have also been made on how grades and the comments of teachers written on students' papers
might affect students' achievement. An early investigation by Page (1958) focused specifically on this issue. In the said study,
74 school teachers administered a test to the students in their classes and scored in the usual way. A numerical score was
assigned to each students' paper and on the basis of the scores obtained, a corresponding letter grade of A, B, C, D, or F was
given. Next, teachers randomly divided the students' papers into three groups. The first group received only the numerical score
and letter grade. The second group aside from the score and grade, received standard comments:
A: Excellent! Keep it up;
B: Good work! Keep it up;
C: Perhaps try to do still better?;

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D. Let's bring this up; and
F: Let's raise this grade.
For the third group, teachers marked the score, letter grades and then wrote on each paper a variety of individualized comments.
Page asked the teachers to write anything they wished on these papers but to be sure their personal feelings and instructional
practices. Papers were then returned to students in a normal way.

Page then evaluated the effects of the comments by considering students' scores on the very next test or assessment
given in the class. The results showed that students who received the standard comments with their grade achieved significantly
higher scores than those who received only a score and grade. Those students who received individualized comments did even
better. This led him to conclude that grades can have a beneficial effect on student learning when accompanied by specific or
individualized comments from the teacher (Stewart & White, 1976). Studies conducted in more recent years confirmed Pages'
conclusion.

Based on the study presented in the previous paragraphs, its relevance are:

1. It illustrated that while grades may not be compulsory for teaching or learning, it can be used in positive ways to enhance
students' achievement and performance.
2. It showed that positive effects can be gained with relatively little effort on the part of teachers. Stamps or stickers with
standard comments such as these could be easily produced for teachers to use. Yet the effect of this simple effort has
significant positive effect on students' performance.

3. Building a Grading and Reporting System

3.1 The Basis of Good Reporting is Good Evidence

Whatever is preferred and required of the teacher when it comes to format, grading and reporting should provide high-
quality information to interested person by means of any schema they can understand and use. The basis of such high-quality
information is critical evidence on student learning. Evaluation experts stress that if one is going to make important decisions
about students that have broad implications, such as decisions involved in grading, the more that good evidence must be ready
at hand (Airasian, 1994; Linn & Gronlund, 2000; Stiggins, 2001). In the absence of good evidence, even the most detailed and
hi-tech grading and reporting system is useless. It simply cannot serve the basic communication functions for which it is
intended.

There are three qualities that contribute to the goodness of evidence that are gathered on student learning. There three
qualities are described in the following table.
Quality Description Example
Validity Refers to the appropriateness & If an assessment is to be used to describe students' reading
adequacy of interpretations made from comprehension; evidence should actually reflect reading
that information (Linn & Gronlund, comprehension and not other irrelevant factors.
2000)
Reliability Refers to the consistency of assessment Attain very similar scores when the same assessment
results procedures are used with the same students at two different
times, results have a high degree of reliability.
Quantity The more sources of evidence on Any single source of evidence of student learning can be
student's learning, the better the imperfect, it is essential that multiple sources of evidence in
information can be reported. grading and reporting students is utilized.

3.2 Major Purposes of Grading and Reporting

The following are the major purposes of grading and reporting:
• To communicate the achievement status of students to parents and others
• To provide information that students can use for self-evaluation
• To select, identify or group students for certain educational paths or programs
• To provide incentives for students to learn
• To evaluate the effectiveness of instructional programs
• To provide evidence of students’ lack of effort or inappropriate responsibility.

Below are possible sources of Grading and Reporting System

 Major exams or composition  Class observation  Attendance
 Class Quizzes  Oral presentation  Punctuality of assignment
 Reports or projects  Homework Completion  Class Behavior or Attitude
 Students’ portfolios  Homework Quality  Progress made
 Exhibits of students’ work  Class participation
 Laboratory projects  Work habits and neatness

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 Students’ notebook or  Effort
journals
3.3 Grading and Reporting Methods

3.3.1 Letter Grades

• The most common and best known of all grading methods
• Mostly composed of five-level grading scale
• Letter Grade Descriptions

Despite their apparent simplicity, the true meaning of letter grades is not always clear. What the teachers would like to
communicate with particular letter grade and what parents interpret that grade to mean, often are not the same (Waltman &
Frisbie, 1994). To give more clarity to the meaning of letter grade, most schools include a key or legend on the reporting from
in which each letter grade is paired with an explanatory word or phrase. Descriptors must be carefully chosen, to avoid additional
complications and misunderstanding.

Advantages:
• A brief description of students' achievement and level of performance including students' potentials can be provided to
parents and other interested persons.
• Based on parents' experience when they were still studying, it is easier for them to believe and understand what letter
grade means.

Disadvantages:
• Requires abstraction of a great deal of information into a single symbol (Stiggins, 2001)
• Despite educators' best effort, letter grades tend to be interpreted by parents in strictly norm-referenced terms. The cut-
offs between grade categories are always arbitrary and difficult to justify.
• Lacks the richness of other more detailed reporting methods such as standards based grading, mastery grading, and
narrative.

Different Interpretation of Letter Grades

Grade Criterion-Referenced Norm-Referenced Combined Norm- Based on
(Standard-Based) Referenced and Improvement
Criterion-
Referenced
A  Outstanding or advanced Outstanding: among Outstanding: very Outstanding: much
 complete knowledge of all the highest or best high level of improvement on most
content performance performance or all targets
 mastery of all targets
 exceeds standards

B  Very good or proficient Very good: performs Very good: better than Very good: some
 Complete knowledge of most above the class average performance improvement on most
content average or all targets
 Mastery of all targets.
 Meets most standards
C  Acceptable or basic Average: performs at Average: Acceptable:
command of only basic the class average
concepts or skills S O m e improvement
 Mastery of some targets on some targets
 Meets some standards

D  Making progress or Poor: below the class Below average or Making progress:
developing average weak: minimum minimal progress on
 Lacks knowledge of most performance for most targets
content passing
 Mastery of only a few targets
 Meets only a few standards

E  Unsatisfactory: lacks Unsatisfactory: far Unsatisfactory: lacks Unsatisfactory: no

knowledge of content; No below average; among sufficient knowledge improvement on any
mastery of targets the worst in the class to pass targets
 Does not meet any standards

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3.3.2 Percentage Grades

• Are the ultimate multi-category grading method
• Can range from 0 to 100
• Generally more popular among high school teachers than elementary teachers

Advantages:
• Allows for maximum discriminators in evaluation of students' achievement and performance
• Maximizes the variation among students, making it easier to choose students for honors or representative for special
programs

Disadvantages:
• Requires a great deal of abstraction
• Interpretation of meaning of a percentage grade extremely difficult
• The cut-offs are no less arbitrary but a lot more
• Because of a large number of grade categories, it is less reliable and more subjective.

3.3.3 Standards-Based Grading

In an effort to bring greater clarity and specificity to the grading process, many schools initiated standards-based grading
procedures and reporting forms. Guskey and Bailey (2001) identify four steps in developing standards-based grading. These
steps are:
1. Identify the major learning goals or standards that students will be expected to achieve at each grade level or in each
course of study.
2. Establish performance indicators for the learning goals.
3. Determine graduated level of quality (benchmarks) for assessing each goal or standard.
4. Develop reporting tools that communicate teachers' judgments of students' learning progress and culminating
achievement in relation to the learning goals and standards.

Advantages:
• When clear learning goals or standards are established, standards-based grading offers meaningful information about
students' achievement and performance to students, parents and to others.
• If information is detailed, it can be useful for diagnostic and prescriptive purposes.
• Facilitates teaching and learning processes better than any other grading method.

Disadvantages:
• Takes a lot of effort.
• Often too complicated for parents to understand.
• May not communicate the appropriateness of students' progress.

3.3.4 Pass/Fail Grading

Simplest alternative grading method available to educators reduces the number of grade categories to just two: Pass or
Fail. In the late 1800s Pass/Fail grading was originally introduced in college-level courses in the college in order for students to
give more importance to learning and less to grades they attained. By lessening the emphasis on grades, many educators believed
that students would be encouraged to take more challenging subjects.

Pass/Fail was popular in most universities and colleges in 1970s. These universities and colleges utilized this pass/fail
grading to various programs.

Advantages:
• Simplifies the grading process for teachers and students.
• Use of a single minimal cut-off and only two grade categories improve the reliability of grade assignments.
• Pass/Fail grading has the potential to make learning environments more relaxed by focusing students' attention on
learning rather than on grade (Goldstein & Tilker, 1971).
• Pass/Fail grading is what students will face in many real-life situations.

Disadvantages:
• Students gain very little prescriptive information.
• Students spend less time studying if pass/fail grading is used than when a wider range of grading system is utilized.
• Students only study to attain minimum passing level and show less effort in striving for excellence.

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The table below provides a summary of the different grading methods discussed:
Method Advantages Disadvantages
Letter Grade  Convenient  Broad, sometimes unclear
 Concise indication of performance;
 Familiar  Often includes a jumble of
factors including the effort and
improvement
Percentage Grade  Easy to calculate, record, and  Broad, sometimes unclear
combine; indication of performance, false
 Familiar sense of difference between
close scores;
 High scores not necessarily
signify mastery
Standards-Based  Focus on high standards for all  May not reflect student learning
students; in many areas;
 Pre-established performance  Does not include effort or
levels improvement
Pass/Fail  Simple;  Little discrimination in
 Consistent with mastery of performance
learning  Less emphasis on high
performance.

4. Developing Effective Reporting System

The most critical issue to be addressed in selecting the tools included in reporting system is what purpose or purposes
it is to serve. Why we need to convey this information and what we need to accomplish.

To determine the purpose or purposes, three aspects of communication must be considered.

Critical Aspects in Determining Communication Purposes:

• What information or messages do we want to communicate?
• Who is the primary audience of that message?
• How would we like that information or message to be used?
5. Tools for Comprehensive Reporting System
Reporting systems most highly regarded by parents typically include a mix of traditional and more modern reporting
tools.

Tools that might be included in comprehensive reporting system:

1. Report Cards
2. Notes: Attached to Report Cards
3. Standardized Assessment Report
4. Phone Calls to Parents
5. Weekly/Monthly Progress Reports
6. School Open-Houses
7. Newsletter to Parents
8. Personal Letter to Parents
9. Evaluated Projects or Assignments
10. Portfolios or Exhibits of Students' Work
11. Homework Assignments
12. Homework Hotlines
13. School Web Pages.
14. Parent-Teacher Conferences
15. Student-Teacher Conferences
16. Student-Led Conference
6. Guidelines for Better Practice
To ensure better practice of grading and reporting systems, the following statements serve as guide on how to utilize
effectively the grading and reporting systems:
1. Begin with a clear statement of purpose
2. Provide accurate and understandable descriptions of learning

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3. Use grading and reporting to enhance teaching and learning.

Do’s and Don’ts of Effective Grading

Do Don’t
 Use well-thought-out professional judgments.  Depend entirely on number crunching.
 Try everything you can to score and grade fairly.  Allow personal bias to affect grades
 Grade according to pre-established learning targets  Grade in the curve using the class as the norm group.
and standards.  Keep grading procedures secret.
 Clearly inform students and parents of grading  Use effort, improvement, attitudes, and motivation
procedures at the beginning of the semester for borderline students.
 Base grades primarily on student performance.  Penalize poorly performing students early in the
 Rely most on current information. semester.
 Mark grade and return assessments to students as  Return assessments weeks later with little or no
soon as possible and with as much feedback as feedback.
possible.  Be inflexible with borderline cases.
 Review borderline cases carefully, when in doubt,  Use zero scores indiscriminately when averaging
assign the higher grade. grades.
 Convert scores to the same scale before combining.  Include extra credit assignments that are not related
 Weight scores before combining. to the learning targets.
 Use a sufficient number of assessments.  Rely on one of the two assessments that are not
 Be willing to change grades when warranted. related to the learning targets.
 Lower grades for cheating, misbehaving, tardiness,
or absence.

7. Planning and Implementing Parent-Teacher Conference

The parent-teacher conference is the most common way teachers communicate with parents about student progress. It
is typically a face-to-face discussion, though phone conferences and calls can also be used. Parent-teacher conferences may be
initiated by either the teacher or the parent, based on purpose.

There are two types of parent-teacher conferences, based on two purposes.

a. Group Conferences
These are conducted in the beginning of the year to communicate school and class policies, class content, evaluation
procedures, expectations, and procedures for getting in touch with teachers.

b. Individual Conferences
These are conducted to discuss the individual student's achievement, progress or - difficulties.

It is important to plan the conference to be prepared. It means having all the information well-organized in advance and
knowing what to achieve from the conference.

It will include a list of areas pertaining to student that need to be discussed with parents. The conference is an ideal time
to discuss and point out specific areas of strength and weakness that is not communicated through the report card. Note that
conference is not a lecture type of gathering or meeting, it is a conversation. Listening is the primary key to understanding.
Listening to parents will help the teacher understand the student better.

McMillan (2007) shared the following checklist in preparing for parent-teacher conferences.

Checklists for Conducting Parent-Teacher Conferences

 Plan each conference in advance
 Conduct the conference in a private, quiet, and comfortable setting.
 Begin with class discussion of positive student performances.
 Establish an informal, professional tone.
 Encourage parent participation in the conference.
 Be frank in reviewing student strengths and weaknesses.
 Review language skills
 Review learning targets with examples of student performances that show progress.
 Avoid discussing other students and teachers.
 Avoid bluffing
 Identify two or three areas to work on in a plan of action.

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Indeed, parent-teacher conferences entail hard work to be successful. It is necessary that preparation of the logistics as
well as teachers for their face-to-face encounter with their parents be carried out so as to ensure that the objective of the parent-
teacher conference is met. The table below summarizes some recommendation of effective parent-teacher conference.

Recommendations for Effective Parent-Teacher Conference

Before the Conference During the Conference After the Conference
 Encourage parents to review  Provide child care,  Provide parents with a
student work at home, note refreshments, and telephone number and schedule
concerns or questions, and transportations if necessary. of specific times so they may
bring those to the conference  Show multiple samples of call you with concerns.
 Schedule times that are student work and discuss  Follow up on any questions or
convenient for both working specific suggestions for concerns raised during the
and non-working parents. improvement. conference.
 Notify parents well ahead of  Actively listen and avoid the  Plan a time to meet again if
scheduled conference times. use of educational jargon. necessary
 Provide staff development for  Communicate expectations and  Encourage parents to discuss
new teachers on the purpose for describe how parents can help. the conference with their child.
conferences, preparation and  Develop a system for on-going  Ask parents for written
scheduling. communication with each evaluation of the conference
 Consider alternative locations, parent that recognizes parents and encourage them to make
such as church or community as partners. suggestions.
centers for parents’  Provide resources materials that  Debrief with colleagues to look
convenience. parents might use at home to for ways to improve future
 Print conference schedules and strengthen students’ skills. conferences.
materials in multiple languages,
if necessary.
Source: Gusky, T.R & Baily J.M. (2001). Developing grading and reporting systems for student learning. Thousand Oaks, CA;
Corwin Press p.188. Copyright 2001 by Sage Publications.

Chapter 9: Grading and Reporting System