Topic: Marking Systems

These 6 scenarios comprise a list of 6 different teachers and the marking system each employs. Choose any 2 of the scenarios and list the advantages and disadvantages of each. Also, identify the approximate weight that is to be placed on each part of the system.

The 6 scenarios below are taken directly from the instructor's manual of the Kubiszyn&Borich textbook (2016):

1. Mr. Smith, a ninth grade teacher, has had a personal animosity towards grades ever since he unjustly received a "C" in one of his college courses. After this experience, he swore he would always be a fair grader and has therefore devised an extensive set of criteria for determining a student's grade. These criteria and the percent of the student's final grade they comprise are the following:

a. Has work in on time (15%)
b. Completes all homework assignments (15%)
c. Participates in class (20%)
d. Helps other students learn (5%)
e. Volunteers for extra work (8%)
f. Shows good study habits (10%)
g. Has a good attitude toward school (2%)
h. Conveys a proper attitude towards the subject matter (5%)
i. Does well on tests (20%)

2. Mr. Williams is a sixth grade teacher who is known as a strict grader. 100% of a student's grades is based upon his or her weekly classroom tests, with only one exception: the student who improves the most in each subject during the grading period automatically receives an "A" for that subject.

3. Ms. White believes the only humanitarian way to grade is to take into consideration the student's aptitude for learning along with his or her actual performance. To do this, she has written each student's IQ score next to his name in the grade book. This way, she can make warm and encouraging comments to those students with low IQ's and critical and stimulating comments to those students with high IQ's.

4. Mr. Bell has always believed to be successful in life, you must learn to compete. To help each of his students in this regard, he ranks each of his pupils at the end of each six-week grading period according to their (a) test scores, (b) class participation, and (c) homework assignments. He then places these ranks on the bulletin board. To those students who have moved up one or more ranks in any area, he gives special prizes, such as colored pencils, erasers, pads of drawing paper, etc.

5. Ms. Wallace believes that every grade should reflect precisely what a student does or does not know. Therefore, her testing strategy is to administer criterion-referenced tests exclusively, in which the grade given reflects the number and type of concepts mastered. She then uses these grades to provide either remedial or advanced work to those who need it.

6. Mr. Wiggleroom cannot resist any opportunity to remind anyone who will listen that he is an unrecognized visionary because "I have been using authentic (i.e. performance) assessment for the last 15 years, long before these ivory tower types discovered that this is the only fair way to test." He assigns grades based on global perceptions of the notebooks, folders, and projects his students complete. To support his case, he reports that no student of his has ever repeated his class. (ch. 12)

References

Kubiszyn, T., &Borich, G., D. (2016). Educational testing & measurement: Classroom applications and practice (11thed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.