Chapter 4
Grading and
Reporting
This chapter attempts to simplify and minimize
the task of complexities by describing the various
types of grading and reporting system and provide
guidelines for their effective use…
The main aim of grading and reporting system is to
provide results in brief, understandable form of
varied users which lead to several big questions..
• What should I count
• How do I interpret student’s score
• Do I compare it to other students scores(norm referenced)
• What should my distribution of scores be
• How do I display student progress and weaknesses to
students and their parents
And the answers to that question
may be obtained from:
• Schools that may have some policies or
guidelines
• Consulting your colleague, and then
applying some your good judgement
• Learning form first hand experience
Measurement and assessment of learning are
the first two stages in educational evaluation
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 important to know the process of
giving grades and reporting these to students and
parents and other stake holders in the system
Functions of Grading
and Reporting Systems
a.Enhancing student’s learning
Clarifying instructional objectives for them
Showing students’ strengths ad weaknesses
Providing information on personal and
social development
Indicates where teaching might be modified
These can be achieved through day to day test,
Feedbakc and Integrated periodic tests.
b. Reports to parents and guardians
Is a way of communication from
teacher to parents on the progress of
the learner
C. Administrative and Guidance Uses.
1.Helping to decide promotion, graduation, honors,
athletic eligibility
2.Reporting achievement to other schools or to employers
3.Providing input for realistic educational, vocational, and
personal counting
Types of Grading and Reporting Systems
A.Traditional letter-grade system
Students’ performances are summarized
in means of letters thus, A stands for excellent,
C stands for average, D stands for needing
improvement and an F is failjure.
B. Pass-fail
System that utilizes a dichotomous grade system
C. Checklists of objectives
This system is a very detailed and time consuming when prepared
Levels of achievement arranged respectively:
Outstanding, Very Good, Good Fair and Poor
D. Letters to Parents/guardians
Are useful supplements to grades and are very time
consuming when prepared and can be misinterpreted sometimes.
E. Portfolios
Is a set of purposefully selected works, with
commentary by students and teacher
It also shows the weaknesses and strengths and the
progress of the learner.
F. Parent-teacher conferences
This requires that parents of pupils come for a
conference with the teacher to discuss the pupils progress
Development of a Grading and Reporting System
Grading and reporting systems should be developed
cooperatively (parents, students, school personnel)inorder
to ensure development of a more adequate system
Guidelines in developing a grading and reporting
system are as follows….
o Based on a clear statement of learning objectives
o Consistent with school standards
o Based on adequate assessment
o Based on a right level of detail
o Provide for parent-teacher conferences as needed
Assigning Letter Grades and Computing Grades
Grades reflected on report cards are numbers or numerical
quantities arrived at several data on the students’ performance
are combined, thus the guidelines below must be consider in
combining such data:
Properly Weight each component to create a composite.
Put all components o same scale to weight properly
a. equate ranges of score
b. or, convert all to T-scores or other standard scores
Norm or Criterion-Referenced Grading
When grades are compared to other students, (where you rank) it is
called Norm-Referencing. In such a system:
a. Grade depends on what group you are in, not just your own
performance
b. Typical grade may be shifted down or up, depending
on group’s ability
c. It is the widely used system
Grades that reflect absolute performance or compared
to a specified standards is called Criterion –
referenced grading.
• Your grades or performance are compared to a set of
performance standards
• Grading is a complex task, because grades must:
i. clearly define the domain
ii. Clearly define and justify the performance standards
ii. Be based on criterion-referenced assessment
• Conditions are hard to meet except in complete mastery learning
setting.
Grades may also reflect learning ability or
improvement performance , in such a system:
• Grades are inconsistent with a standard-based system because
now, each child is his or her own standard.
• Reliably estimating learning ability is very difficult
• One cannot reliably measure change with classroom measures
• Therefore, shuld only be used as a supplement.
In summary this chapter focuses on Grading and
Reporting systems in terms of its..
Functions
Types and forms
Development
Assigning letter grades and computing
grades
Norm or Criterion referenced grading
