One of the most commonly practiced and widely agreed upon beliefs in education is the idea of a proper bell-curve when delivering final grades. This practice allows some students to thrive, give many more a chance to pass and support the notion that some must fail for a class to operate correctly. As a teacher I heard many times that, before finalizing grades, it was important to make sure there was a bell-curve because it showed that a class was appropriately rigorous and that a bell-curve would also be a microcosm of the real world in which these three categories are clearly delineated. However, it is the antiquated belief in the bell curve that reinforces the lines between the haves and have nots in the public education system and for students who are already disenfranchised it is time to eliminate the bell-curve culture that too often is just a microcosm of the greater society.
Marginalized students and their families live in social environments that are maintained by a bell-curve culture in which some thrive, many just maintain and others fail and are forced to live trying to catch-up while often just falling further behind. While educators work hard to develop students in order for them to transcend this type of environment they are often using methods of assessment and more specifically grading that simply replicates the same methods of marginalization that are seen in our unjust bell-curve culture.
As educators it is important to grade in a manner that projects our true beliefs about students and does not maintain the fences that often separate the haves and the have notes in our schools. In order to accomplish this task teachers and school leaders must pursue the following three habits of mind around assessment and grading.
1. Competency and Not Compliance: Educators must learn and become reflective on each that is given to a student. Grades should simply be based on the current mastery of content and skills that a student has worked towards. Grades that measure anything but learning should not be incorporated in a grade book. Grades like participation, being present or completion are not a measure of learning and do not display a student's current level of content and skill competency. I am not simply promoting competency or standards based grading because I know that each have their short-comings instead I am suggesting that those teachers who operate in a traditional grading system should make sure that each grade given is an assessment of mastery and not a tool used to force compliance or proper behavior.
2. All students can pass a class: To break the bell-curve culture it should be a belief all students can pass a class and the F's become an anomaly and not the norm in any given grade book. Outside of significant attendance issues it should be the responsibility of the teacher to grant the student enough chances to show mastery to move them forward. The argument that an employer would never allow an employee to miss work and still have a job is suspect. I have been in plenty of meetings with absent members and plenty of days where teacher attendance is lower than student attendance yet adults keep their job. I also believe that our job in schools is help students learn and not replicate our society. If so, we are replicating a society that does include marginalized students anyway so why would educators seek to recreate that society in their classroom?
3. Resolve: Working with disenfranchised students is already a complicated process. Tailoring curriculum, developing interventions and building relationships can be an overwhelming proposition for educators but it is important to add resolve as an essential skill to be an effective educator. Being determined to know each student and wanting each of them to be successful may mean writing personalized lesson plans or units. Getting past personal conflicts with students and being relentless when working to get every student to pass seems like something every teacher wants to do but it is remarkably challenging in practice. Having resolve when it comes to teaching and grading means that personal conflicts go away and educators work to move students forward despite personal conflicts or frustrations with students. Giving a failing grade because a student was not compliant is the same ineffective strategy used to marginalize students and families and using that power in the classroom is a dangerous game to play with students who face those same societal obstacles outside of school everyday.
Grading is not a simple task that is done at the end of a semester. A deep and clear school and personal philosophy around grading must be established and transparency in grading systems and moves must be created. It is odd that in a time when education is moving towards collaboration and community there is still a practice in which grade books remain under the control of one single person. This practice, the awarding of grades without accountability and transparency and without the habits of mind discussed above will continue to separate students along lines built by compliance and reinforced by a bell-curve culture.
As educators it is important to grade in a manner that projects our true beliefs about students and does not maintain the fences that often separate the haves and the have notes in our schools. In order to accomplish this task teachers and school leaders must pursue the following three habits of mind around assessment and grading.
1. Competency and Not Compliance: Educators must learn and become reflective on each that is given to a student. Grades should simply be based on the current mastery of content and skills that a student has worked towards. Grades that measure anything but learning should not be incorporated in a grade book. Grades like participation, being present or completion are not a measure of learning and do not display a student's current level of content and skill competency. I am not simply promoting competency or standards based grading because I know that each have their short-comings instead I am suggesting that those teachers who operate in a traditional grading system should make sure that each grade given is an assessment of mastery and not a tool used to force compliance or proper behavior.
2. All students can pass a class: To break the bell-curve culture it should be a belief all students can pass a class and the F's become an anomaly and not the norm in any given grade book. Outside of significant attendance issues it should be the responsibility of the teacher to grant the student enough chances to show mastery to move them forward. The argument that an employer would never allow an employee to miss work and still have a job is suspect. I have been in plenty of meetings with absent members and plenty of days where teacher attendance is lower than student attendance yet adults keep their job. I also believe that our job in schools is help students learn and not replicate our society. If so, we are replicating a society that does include marginalized students anyway so why would educators seek to recreate that society in their classroom?
3. Resolve: Working with disenfranchised students is already a complicated process. Tailoring curriculum, developing interventions and building relationships can be an overwhelming proposition for educators but it is important to add resolve as an essential skill to be an effective educator. Being determined to know each student and wanting each of them to be successful may mean writing personalized lesson plans or units. Getting past personal conflicts with students and being relentless when working to get every student to pass seems like something every teacher wants to do but it is remarkably challenging in practice. Having resolve when it comes to teaching and grading means that personal conflicts go away and educators work to move students forward despite personal conflicts or frustrations with students. Giving a failing grade because a student was not compliant is the same ineffective strategy used to marginalize students and families and using that power in the classroom is a dangerous game to play with students who face those same societal obstacles outside of school everyday.
Grading is not a simple task that is done at the end of a semester. A deep and clear school and personal philosophy around grading must be established and transparency in grading systems and moves must be created. It is odd that in a time when education is moving towards collaboration and community there is still a practice in which grade books remain under the control of one single person. This practice, the awarding of grades without accountability and transparency and without the habits of mind discussed above will continue to separate students along lines built by compliance and reinforced by a bell-curve culture.
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