Republic of the Philippines

NUEVA VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY

Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE
IM NO.: IM-PROFED8-2NDSEM-2020-2021

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

Bayombong Campus

DEGREE PROGRAM BSEd, BPEd COURSE NO. Professional Education 8

SPECIALIZATION English, Filipino, Social Studies COURSE TITLE Assessment in Learning 2
YEAR LEVEL 3 TIME FRAME 6 Hrs. WK NO. 16-17 IM NO. 7

I. UNIT 7: GRADING AND REPORTING

II. LESSON TITLE: Lesson 1: Functions of Grading and Reporting Systems

Lesson 2: Types of Grading and Reporting Systems
Lesson 3: Development of a Grading and Reporting System
Lesson 4: Assigning Letter Grades and Computing Grades
Lesson 5: Norm/Criterion-Referenced Grading
Lesson 6: Distribution of Grades and Guidelines for Effective Grading
Lesson 7: Guidelines for Effective Grading
Lesson 8: Conducting Parent-Teacher Conferences

Additional Lessons:
K-12 Curriculum and Standards-Based Assessment
Samples of Grading Systems

III. LESSON OVERVIEW

Grading and reporting are the two terminal stages in the educative process. Decisions related to
grading must not be taken for granted. Thus, this stage must be studied and eventually be applied with
the highest level of sanctified conscience.

In this lesson, the students are even encouraged to resolve and commit to become teachers who
will be applying the lessons including values which hopefully have been truly learned in Assessment of
Learning.

IV. DESIRED LEARNING OUTCOMES

Given different conditions, the students should be able to:

1. apply the functions of grading system;
2. determine the appropriate grading system to use;
3. apply principles in conducting parent-teacher conferences
4. appreciate the K to 12 Grading System

V. LESSON CONTENT
`

GRADING AND REPORTING

Grading and reporting are the two terminal stages in the process. Measurements are simply
numerical aids which guide our decisions in the educative process. It is, therefore, very important that
we also pay attention to the process of giving grades and reporting these to students, parents and other
stakeholders in the system.

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only and not for commercial distribution.”
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 Republic of the Philippines
NUEVA VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE
IM NO.: IM-PROFED8-2NDSEM-2020-2021

Functions of Grading and Reporting Systems

1. Enhancing students’ learning through clarifying instructional objectives for them, showing students’
strengths and weaknesses, providing information on personal-social development, enhancing
students’ motivation (e.g., short-term goals) and indicating where teaching might be modified. These
can be achieved through day-to-day tests and feedback and integrated periodic tests.

2. Reports to parents/guardians. Grading and reporting systems also inform parents and guardians
of students on the progress of their wards. Likewise, grades and reports communicate objectives to
parents, so they can help promote learning and likewise communicate how well objectives were met,
so parents can better plan.

3. Administrative and guidance uses. The administrative and guidance purpose of grading and
reporting consist in helping to decide on promotion, graduation, honors, athletic eligibility, reporting
achievement to other schools or to employees, providing input for realistic educational, vocational,
and personal counseling.

Grades and report cards should promote and enhance learning rather than frustrate and discourage
students. In many schools, report cards are given to students and then parents are asked to sign these
report cards. Such a practice is discouraged in the Philippine educational system. Instead, it may be a
good practice to call for parent-teacher conferences at this time in order that the report cards will effectively
function as motivation for further learning.

Types of Grading and Reporting Systems

Normally, the type of grading used depends on the extent to which more descriptive and informative
summaries are required by school authorities or by the stakeholders in general. Thus, the major types of
grading and marking found in practice include:

1. Traditional letter-grade system - In the traditional letter grade system, students’ performances are
summarized by means of letters. Thus, A stands for excellent, C stands for average, D stands for
needing improvement and F for failure.

This letter grade system is easy to understand but it is of limited value when used as the sole
report because they end up being a combination of achievement, effort, work habits, and behavior.
As such, they become difficult to interpret and they do not indicate patterns of strengths and
weaknesses.

2. Pass-fail – The pass or fail system utilizes a dichotomous grade system. Either a student has
complied and reached certain standards, in which case he passes, or he failed to do so and he gets
a failing mark.

This is popular in some courses in college. This system should be kept to a minimum because
it does not provide much information, students tend to work to the minimum (just to pass), and in
mastery learning courses, no grades are reflected until ‘mastery’ threshold is reached.

3. Checklists of objectives – In this system, the objectives of the course are enumerated. After each
objective, the students’ level of achievement is indicated: Outstanding, Very Good, Good, Fair or
Poor.

This is a very detailed reporting system and tends to be more informative for the parents and
pupils at the same time. It is, however, also very time consuming to prepare. There is also the
potential problem of keeping the list manageable and understandable.

4. Letters to parents/guardians – These are useful supplement to grades. However, they have limited
value as sole report because they are very time consuming to prepare, the accounts of weaknesses
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NUEVA VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE
IM NO.: IM-PROFED8-2NDSEM-2020-2021

are often misinterpreted by parents and guardians, and they are not characterized as systematic nor
cumulative.

3. Portfolios – These are useful for showing students’ strengths and weaknesses, illustrating range of
students’ work, showing progress over time or stages of a project, teaching students about objectives/
standards they are to meet.

4. Parent/teacher conferences – These are mainly used in elementary schools. This requires that
parents of pupils come for a conference with the teacher to discuss the pupils’ progress. Portfolios,
when available, are useful basis for discussion. Such conferences are useful for a two-way flow of
information and getting more information and cooperation from the parents. They are, however, of
limited value as a report because most parents do not come for such conferences.

Development of a Grading and Reporting System

Grading and reporting systems are guided by the functions to be served in the educative process.
The system will most probably be a compromise because of the host of factors to be considered in the
preparation of such.

Ideally, grading and reporting systems should be developed cooperatively (parents, students,
school personnel) in order to ensure development of a more adequate system, and a system that is
understandable to all. They should be:

• Based on clear statement of learning objectives. The grading and reporting system needs to be
based on the same set of learning objectives that the parents, teachers and students agreed at the
beginning.

• Consistent with school standards. The system must support the school standards rather than oppose
the school standards already set.

• Based on adequate assessment. The grading and reporting system should be easily verifiable
through adequate system of testing, measurement and assessment methods.

• Based on the right level of detail. The system must be detailed enough or be diagnostic but compact
enough to be practical: not too time consuming to prepare and use, understandable to users and
easily summarized for school records purposes.

• Providing for parent-teacher conferences as needed

Assigning Letter Grades and Computing Grades

Grades assigned to students must include only achievement. It is very important to avoid the
temptation to include effort for less, able students because it is difficult to assess effort or potential and it
is difficult to distinguish ability from achievement. Furthermore, if achievement and effort are combined
in some way, grades would mean different things for different individuals.

Grades reflected on report cards are numbers or numerical quantities arrived at after several data
on the students’ performance are combined. Properly weight each component to create a composite.
The weights used are normally agreed upon by the school officials e.g. how many percent goes for
quizzes, unit tests, periodic tests etc.

Norm or Criterion-Referenced Grading

Norm-referenced grading system. Grades may reflect relative performance i.e. score compared
to other students (where you rank). In this system:
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 Republic of the Philippines
NUEVA VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE
IM NO.: IM-PROFED8-2NDSEM-2020-2021

a. grade (like a class rank) depends on what group you are in, not just your own performance
b. typical grade may be shifted up or down, depending on group’s ability.
c. widely used because much classroom testing is norm-referenced.

Criterion-referenced grading. Grades may also reflect absolute performance i.e. score compared
to specified performance standards (what you can do). In this system:

a. grade does not depend on what group you are in, but only on your own performance compared to a
set of performance standards.
b. Grading is a complete task, because grades must:
i. clearly define the domain.
ii. clearly define and justify the performance standards.
iii. be based on criterion-referenced assessment.
c. Conditions are hard to meet except in complete mastery learning settings.

Finally, grades may also reflect learning ability or improvement performance i.e. score compared
to learning ‘potential’ or past performance. In such a system:

a. grades are inconsistent with a standards-based system because now, each child is his/her own
standard.
b. reliably estimating learning ability (separate from achievement) is very difficult.
c. one cannot reliably measure change with classroom measures,
d. therefore, should only be used as a supplement.

Distribution of Grades and Guidelines for Effective Grading

How should grades be distributed? The norm-referenced or relative distribution is a big issue
because of the following considerations:

a. normal curve is defensible only when we have large, unselected group.

b. when ‘grading on the curve’, school staff should set fair ranges of grades for different groups and
courses.
c. when ‘grading on the curve’, any pass-fail decision should be based on an absolute standard (i.e.
failed the minimum essentials)
d. standards and ranges should be understood and followed by all teachers

On the other hand, the criterion-referenced or absolute grading system is not an issue because:

a. it seldom uses letter grades alone.

b. it often includes checklists of what has been mastered
c. the distribution of grades is not predetermined.

Guidelines for Effective Grading

The following guidelines for effective grading and reporting are recommended for use in Philippine
Schools:

1. Describe grading procedures to students at beginning of instruction.

2. Clarify that course grade will be based on achievement only.
3. Explain how other factors (effort, work, habits, etc.) will be reported.
4. Relate grading procedures to intended learning outcomes.
5. Obtain valid evidence (tests, etc.) for assigning grades.
6. Try to prevent cheating.
7. Return and review all test result as soon as possible.
8. Properly weight the various types of achievements included in the grade.
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NUEVA VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE
IM NO.: IM-PROFED8-2NDSEM-2020-2021

9. Do not lower an achievement grade for tardiness, weak effort or misbehavior.

10. Be fair. Avoid bias. When in doubt, review the evidence. If still in doubt, give the higher grade.

Conducting Parent-Teacher Conferences

Parent-teacher conferences become productive when they are carefully planned, and the teacher
is skilled in handling such conferences. Skills in conducting parent-teacher conferences can be
developed. Here are some hints on conducting good conferences:

Guidelines for a good conference

1. Make plans
• Review your goals
• Organize the information to present
• Make list of points to cover the questions to ask.
• Bring portfolios, select and review carefully.

2. Start positive-and maintain a positive focus.

• Present student’s strong points first.
• Be helpful to have example of work to show strengths and needs.
• Compare early vs. later work to show improvement.

3. Encourage parents to participate and share information.

• Be willing to listen.
• Be willing to answer questions.

4. Plan actions cooperatively.

• What steps you can each take?
• Summarize at the end.

5. End with positive comment.

• Should not be a vague generality.
• Should be true.

6. Use good human relations skills.

VI. LEARNING ACTIVITIES / EVALUATION

Group Activity

Reflections and Resolutions

VII. REFERENCES

Teaching Guide in Assessment in Learning 2

Other references indicated in the Course Outline

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only and not for commercial distribution.”
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 Republic of the Philippines
NUEVA VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE
IM NO.: IM-PROFED8-2NDSEM-2020-2021

Course & Section: ____________________

Group Members: ____________________ ____________________ ___________________
____________________ ____________________

Republic of the Philippines

NUEVA VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya

College of Teacher Education

Prof Ed 8 (Assessment in Learning 2)

2nd Semester, 2020-2021

Activity for IM No. 7

Reflections and Resolutions

Reflections on Values Learned related with Assessment:

Resolutions:

When I will be a teacher:

I will:
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓

I will not:
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓

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only and not for commercial distribution.”
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 Republic of the Philippines
NUEVA VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE
IM NO.: IM-PROFED8-2NDSEM-2020-2021

Therefore, this is my prayer:

I am a teacher, created in the image and likeness of God. I am very likeable! I will make
teaching my mission and students my mission field.

I will do my best to teach them, and I will be fair in assessing their performance. I know I can do
it; I am certain I can do it; I am sure I can do it! By His Grace I can do it!

So help me God.

______________________________ ______________________________
Signature over Printed Name Signature over Printed Name

______________________________ ______________________________
Signature over Printed Name Signature over Printed Name

______________________________ ______________________________
Signature over Printed Name Signature over Printed Name

Activity Guide Prepared by:

JANE D. NAVALTA
Professor

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