The rationale for the use of comparative judgement (CJ) to help set grade boundaries is to provide a way of using expert judgement to identify and uphold certain minimum standards of performance rather than relying purely on statistical approaches such as comparable outcomes. This article summarises the results of recent trials of using CJ for…

Freshman grades relate to academic outcomes, yet limited research explores which students face the highest risk of course failure. With logit analysis using a five-year Arkansas dataset (n = 164,688), we find that economically disadvantaged ninth-grade students are more likely to fail a course than their more privileged peers. This disparity…

In this qualitative phenomenological research, the perspectives of secondary school administrators regarding the tenets of standards-based grading were explored. This research sought to expand the knowledge of understanding the views held by secondary school administrators regarding grading practices as a means to further improve how student…

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to address the need for a robust system to accurately determine a cutoff score by using the Angoff method and leveraging the Rasch infit and outfit statistics of item response theory by detecting and removing misfitting items in a test. Design/methodology/approach: Researchers in educational evaluation…

In contemporary higher education systems, the processes of assessment and feedback are often seen as coexisting activities. As a result, they have become entangled in both policy and practice, resulting in a conceptual and practical blurring of their unique purposes. In this paper, we present a critical examination of the issues created by the…

For teachers to combine the all evidence they gather on a student's performance--including ratings on non-achievement factors like that one's effort level--into a single grade is as inadequate as if a physician summed up a patient's physical condition with one number. Instead of funneling all information on performance into one grade, Guskey says,…

Anonymous marking, as a means to mitigate bias in grading, involves evaluating student work with their identities withheld. Anonymous marking is explored in this self-study to mitigate implicit bias, which negated a practitioner-researcher's educational values. The mixed methods action research findings show withholding student identities during…

The COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted education at all levels. One consequence was that alternative arrangements had to be made for the 2021 summer public examinations. Exam boards asked staff at schools and colleges to generate, for each subject, teacher-assessed grades for their students. The submitted grades had to reflect 'a fair,…

The purpose of grading is to measure progress and assess learning. As students' progress through school, a record of their progress and learning serves as a demonstration of knowledge gained. Educators, students, parents, and other stakeholders agree that grading, or assessment of some sort is necessary. The most prevalent grading system is the…

Ungrading is an emancipatory pedagogy that focuses on evaluative assessment of learning. Self-regulated learning (SRL) has consistently been referred to as the learning theory that undergirds ungrading, but SRL--with its deficit frame in the literature and in practice--fails to uphold ungrading's emancipatory aims. An asset-framed learning…

An interactive textbook for a material and energy balances course measured over 1,300 reading interactions and hundreds of auto-graded problems per student each term. Specifically, seven cohorts and 601 students completed over 700,000 reading interactions and 150,000 auto-graded problems. Median reading participation was over 93%. Median correct…

Background: Instructors often use a point-based system for grading students (e.g., 100 or 1000 total points). This system can impact student outcomes. Objective: The purpose of this research was to examine the implications of different point value courses for student emotions, perceptions of courses, and classroom performance. Method: The…

Contract grading can provide an alternative to traditional grading systems. The goal of this exploratory study was to determine students' reactions to grade contracts as well as their perceived usefulness in undergraduate courses. Contract grading is becoming more popular in higher education. Using a sample of 41 students across three…

The purpose of this article is to review the literature on the issue of grading as a method and technique of expressing students' performance in terms of school reality. Initially, a growing concern about the role of assessment of student's performance in the learning and, generally, in the educational process, is highlighted. Subsequently, the…

In 2019, the four authors were teaching mathematics at the same public middle school in a suburban district of the mid-atlantic. They had been seeking ways to make adjustments to assessment and grading practices to support students in their learning, and after reading Joe Feldman's "Grading for Equity" (2018), they were inspired to make…