What does work? Equitable grading has three pillars: accuracy, bias-resistance, and intrinsic motivation. Many administrators have cautionary tales of when Wylesolthey tried to broach the subject with teachers and were met with emotional reactions and perhaps even threats of formal complaints and union grievances. When we suggest that their grading practices could be improved, itвЂ™s no surprise that teachers often react with suspicion and defensiveness. The grade is one of teachersвЂ™ last remaining islands of autonomy, perhaps the most concrete and respected symbol of their expertise and judgment. They are asked to serve in so many roles besides teacher, and yet they must adhere to layers of mandates and requirements.

Why donвЂ™t more educators question grading practices? Teachers work under incredibly difficult conditions. For example, when we include a studentвЂ™s behavior in a grade, weвЂ™re imposing on all of our students a narrow idea of what a вЂњsuccessfulвЂќ student is. The second problem is that in traditional grading, many commonly used grading categories invite biases. ThereвЂ™s nothing to distinguish those two B grades, although those students have very different levels of content mastery. A student who writes an A-quality essay but hands it in late gets her writing downgraded to a B, and the student who writes a B-quality essay turned in by the deadline receives a B. WhatвЂ™s wrong with deducting points for work turned in late? This approach combines both academic and nonacademic information in the grade and creates what author Susan Brookhart calls вЂњgrade fogвЂќ - weвЂ™re not sure what the grade means because weвЂ™re asking it to communicate too much disparate information. Because grading is rarely addressed in graduate training or certification programs, each teacher must create grading policies on her own. For any task that we ask of students, we have to decide: Should the studentвЂ™s performance on the task be included in her grade and, if so, for how much value? TeachersвЂ™ answers to these question are based on deep-seated values and ideas about what we each believe students are supposed to learn, how students are best motivated, and what our role and relationship to students should be. Although we might assume that grading is only a software-driven, end-of-term calculation, a teacherвЂ™s grading system is implicated throughout her work every day. Grading: What are we actually talking about? We mean the way teachers calculate, describe, and report student performance. about his new book, Grading for Equity, and why inconsistent grading isnвЂ™t fair for students yet is so hard for educators to change. Joe Feldman, Ed.M.'93, a former teacher, principal, and district administrator, talked to Ed. One deducts points for sloppy binders.Two include participation in the grade, one offers extra credit. One accepts late work the others donвЂ™t accept it at all.

Each has a different grading policy: One counts homework as 40 percent of the grade, the other two as 30. Think about the sixth grade at the school where you teach or where your kid attends.

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