It’s time for another conversation about grades with my students. It’s an important topic, of course, and one in which old habits often rear their ugly heads if we aren’t vigilant. We will come back to the topic a number of times in the course of the year, which is as it should be. It’s part of what we are all learning.
The reason this time is that it has come to my attention that several parents of my students have been looking at their grades on HAC, the Home Access Computer program, are wondering why there’s much less information available for this class than their other classes. I should explain about HAC. After floundering for a number of years in an attempt to create a computerized grade system for the entire school, the new system allows teachers to post their students‘ grades on a daily basis and gives parents full access to those grades.
Many teachers have seized upon HAC as a powerful new tool to communicate with parents and keep their students up-to-date with how well they are doing, what homework assignments they still haven’t completed, and so forth. But there is a price to pay, of course. While there are several options for what format grades can be entered in, and some flexibility in “weighting” the various grades, there is certainly a focus on quantifying every aspect of assessment to a precise number. For a number of teachers, including me, this is another step down a slippery slope.
Given some parents’ concerns, I feel the need to discuss the matter with my students, and follow up with a letter to their parents.
“Before we get into the lab that’s set up in the back of the room, I’d like to get a sense of how you are experiencing the grading structures from your other teachers. Things have been changing pretty quickly in how we report grades, so I’d like to get a better feel for your experiences.
“I’m curious - how frequently do your other teachers post grades, and how often do you check up on them?”
“My teachers are all over the map,” says Mike. “In my Algebra class, we get a grade posted on HAC every day, and a summary of those grades are posted on the wall once a week.”
“And do you find that useful?”
“I don’t find the daily HAC thing all that useful, but I do check the weekly report to see if I’m missing any work, for instance.”
“What about your other teachers?”
“Most of them are in the middle, somewhere. They’ll post a HAC update every week, or so. Some of them post grades on paper, some even hand them out. Some just assume you’re going to check on the computer. Then there’s this class, of course,” he says with a laugh, “and we’re lucky to find anything on HAC at all.”
“You’re right, of course,” I say. “As you know, I have some real reservations about focussing on grades too frequently.
“Does anyone else have anything to add about how your teachers do grades?”
“Yeah,” Jasmine says. “I think most of my teachers are very focussed on having us keep up with all the work. They want us to know if we’re missing anything that would lower our grades so we can make it up in time.”
“How many of you feel that that’s a basic reason for posting grades frequently?”
Half the class raises their hands.
“And does it help you keep on top of making up work?”
“Nah,” says Sam. “Sometimes I’ll pay attention, but I’m almost never surprised to learn I’m missing something. I know when I’m not doing work. I think it might help some people, if they are disorganized or can’t keep the deadlines straight.”
“Yeah, and it also helps to know when your grade is slipping for any reason. Right now, I’m working hard in my U.S. History class, because I know parent conferences are coming up, and I want that grade to be higher before my parents show up.”
“Well, that raises the question of how parents use HAC. How many of you have parents who check the computer regularly to look at your grades?”
Again, maybe half the class responds.
“And what happens as a result? How do they interact with you when they have this information?”
“My parents have become a real pain about it,” Sam says, to wide-spread laughter. My mom lets me know every time I’m missing any homework in any class. I tell her ‘Mom, I already know it’, but she still nags me about it. To be honest, I wish I could put some parental controls on her.”
I can always count on Sam to find the humor in a situation.
“And the rest of you? How has HAC changed your relationship with your parents about school?”
“Well, they know so much more now,” Jessica says, “so in one sense it’s a good thing because they don’t get surprised when they get a report card. But on the other hand, they seem more stressed about school now than when I was younger. Maybe it’s because I’m applying to colleges right now, and they are worried about whether I’ll be able to get into the school of my choice.”
“I wish it were that simple with my parents,” George adds. He often avoids these whole group discussions, so I’m surprised to see how animated he is about this. “My mom has gotten into ragging me on a regular basis about how my grades have slipped this year. I’ve actually left the dinner table a couple of times, it’s so bad. Now my dad is talking about taking away the car keys if I don’t get my math grades up. I guess I don’t blame them for being worried, but the pressure is definitely on.”
“And I have the opposite problem,” Nadine says. “My parents are looking at bribing me with money for every “A” I get. I don’t want to be doing school for money. I mean, I’ll take it, don’t get me wrong,” - there is laughter - “but it doesn’t seem right.”
“Yeah,” Sam chips in. “I would hate it if my parents did that.” More laughter.
“Okay,” I say, “we’ve talked about this before, of course, but I want to remind you about my reasoning on why we do grades the way we do in this class, so you can talk to your parents about it if you want to. I’ll also be sending a letter to your parents to explain.
“In the meantime, let me break this into two parts. I believe that putting grades in the computer on a daily basis is actually counterproductive and contradicts the philosophy that is the basis of this class. First, we don’t need the computer to tell youthe grade you are getting. Here are a few of the specific reasons why using the computer is a bad fit for this class:
We don’t have points in here.
You are self-evaluating your work, so you already know how you’re doing.
You also know your own test grades and whether you need to resubmit or retest.
“My point is that, if you believe the grading system is fair, you can keep your eyes on the prize of learning, and trust that the appropriate grade will follow. And if you need a summary of where you stand grade-wise, you can always come to me and we can work out the details very quickly. But as you know, I believe that getting the grades out of the day-to-day business of learning is healthy and allows us to focus on why we’re really here.
“As for your parents, and whether I am communicating well with them, here are a few other wrinkles they should be aware of. As you know, grades are often in flux - maybe you’re in the process of resubmitting a test, or your latest contract is a few days late. Putting down a grade knowing it will change in a day misleads and sometimes scares your parents unnecessarily. More importantly, though, learning is a process that takes a while. Think about how you are learning the contract we’re working on now - some of it makes sense, some of it doesn’t. You are working on building a body of knowledge, and in a couple of weeks, we’ll have a pretty good sense of how well you’ve mastered it. At that point, it makes sense for you to turn in your contract with a grade, and for me to post that on the computer. Taking the temperature of the learning process every five minutes adds a layer of pressure and even anxiety, which is counterproductive to learning.