TT0209: What the Heck is Mastery and How Do We Measure It? A Grading Experiment

As our school tries to transition to full SBG school-wide, we’ve been trying to find ways to implement it incrementally. We’ve also had to work to find a way that makes sense within the confines of our grading software. We have a 4 point rubric that translates to a percentage system. Figuring out how we measure mastery has been a challenge. We’ve had issues with grade inflation and motivation. We want to find a way that is fair and reasonable. We decided that in order to show mastery, they had to be at a mastery level for each of the 4 questions on that learning target. Research showed that there needed to be a certain number of repetitions to show mastery. Another reason for 4 was that in math, there are often multiple applications and/or representations within a learning target. We wanted to make sure that we had room to account for everything we might need to see to satisfy us that mastery was achieved. The way that we decided to determine overall mastery of the learning target was meant to highlight any major misconceptions so that students would know exactly what they needed to focus on in order to improve. We have a retake system in place for a reason and don’t necessarily expect students to master on their first attempt. Needless to say, we got some pushback on our decision. From colleagues, students, and parents. Our principal had our back though. Throughout the year, some students started to get used to the system. Occasionally, I would have students break into debates when they got assessments back about how they favored one way of grading or the other. Believe it or not, there were students and parents who understood and appreciated what we were doing. But there were also still a lot of students who were not adjusting to the grading system. I still heard a lot of complaints. I hear students saying things like, “Well, I would have a better grade if the grading system was changed.” They kept asking for us to go back to traditional grading. Some of their arguments made sense, others really didn’t. It seemed like some of them were using the grading system as an excuse for not doing better. They believed that it was because of my choices of grading that were bringing their grade down, not the fact that they showed through their work that they had major misconceptions about the topic. Not the fact that they did very little work to ensure that they had a thorough understanding. They had some external force to blame for their failings, which allowed them to continue their poor habits. On top of that, I was hearing a lot of concerning comments about the depression they were experiencing as a result of their grades. Keep in mind, almost no one was failing. As long as they attempt every problem, the lowest grade they can get on an assessment is a 65%. The only way to have an F is to miss an assessment and never come take it. But our kids are used to being the top of their class and only getting A’s and B’s. Cs and Ds were causing some major mental health issues, despite the fact that they could fix any score by doing some extra work and retaking assessments. The Experiment?Concerned about my students, I decided to run an experiment. For a whole unit, I graded all of their assessments 2 ways: the way I had been grading, and as a traditional percent. We still had 4 questions per learning target, and I still graded each individual question on a 4 point scale. Their overall score is what was calculated 2 ways. They were able to see both scores when I passed back assessments, but I didn’t enter anything into gradebook yet. At the end of the unit, but before the summative, I created a spreadsheet of all of their scores. I calculated each student’s average grade for that unit with each method of grading, as well as class averages. In general, the traditional way of grading left the class averages about ten percentage points lower than the way I had been grading. There were only a handful of students whose scores would go up with the traditional method, and those were only minimally increased. The majority of students scores would decrease, many of them drastically. I gave each student a printout of the data from my three classes without names. I informed them that we needed to make a decision that would be the best for everyone. It was important that their feedback be about the data as a whole rather than their own wants for their own grade. On the other side, I asked them to give me some feedback and answer some questions about what they saw in the data, and whether it changed their mind. Ultimately, I wanted us to make a choice together about how we would proceed with grading for the rest of the year. The Results?Out of my 85 math students, 6 of them voted to change to the traditional grading system once they saw the numbers. 6 students had unclear answers. They wrote one option, but explained the other, or just didn’t have a strong opinion. Every other student wanted to continue as we have been. For most of them, they saw that they would be worse off with the grading system that they have been so conditioned to. I also got some good feedback about how they like knowing which problems they mastered or didn’t, to help them focus their attention. I’d love to say that this experiment changed all of the kids and now they completely buy into the system and do retakes and are mastering everything, but we all know that’s not how it works. They still complain, although it is less. If nothing else, I think it gave them a chance to see behind the curtain. They were given the opportunity to analyze the situation, and see what it’s like to have to make a decision that will impact many other students. They were given voice, and they were given a clearer insight into how their grades could be. I’m glad I did it. There are certainly still drawbacks to our grading system. I’m curious to learn more about other possible methods of giving students feedback to help them improve and achieve mastery. How do you determine mastery? How do you get kids to buy into how you decide to grade? Let us know in the comments! The post TT0209: What the Heck is Mastery and How Do We Measure It? A Grading Experiment appeared first on Teacher Tribes.