Assessment

The Use Of Grades in Assessment

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The Use of Grades in Assessment

Grades are one of the most recognizable components of modern education and serve many important functions. They provide feedback to students, their teachers, and institutions. They can also serve as summative judgments that influence future opportunities, such as receipt of scholarships or entry into a program or institution. Grades are assigned to individual assignments and then aggregated at the course, program and degree level. With so much focus on and effort put into grading, it is unsurprising that many see grades as an efficient assessment of student learning. But are they effective?

“One of the most common questions from faculty when discussing outcomes assessment is, ‘We are already assessing students in courses; why can’t we just use student grades as an indication of what our students know or can do?’ Grades represent the extent to which a student has successfully met the faculty member’s requirements and expectations for a course. Because many factors contribute to an assigned grade, it is almost impossible to make inferences about what a student knows or can do by only looking at the grades for a course.” (Rogers, 2003, p1)

There are several drawbacks to using grades to assess program learning objectives (PLOs). Course grades, for example, typically reflect more than a single PLO and sometimes include things that may be correlated to learning but are not true measures of it (e.g., attendance, participation, performance relative to the rest of the class). There is also significant variance in the definition of individual grades between institutions, programs, credentials, and instructors. Further, content and instructor variability across multiple sections of the same course is often so high that students’ grades in different sections may reflect different learning outcomes. When grades are aggregated even further to GPA, these drawbacks are magnified.

When can grades be an appropriate assessment tool? A grade can be a good assessment measure when alignment between the components that make up a grade and a PLO of interest is very tight. Given the PLO “Problem Solving,” a grade could be a reasonable assessment measure if the assignment asks students to solve an unstructured problem and factors unrelated to problem solving (e.g., writing skills) contribute minimally to the grade. Note that even in this example, a grade’s usefulness, on its own, is limited because it does not provide information about the strengths or weaknesses students have relative to the PLO. In contrast, a rubric-based grade that breaks down the grade into various performance criteria would be a good assessment measure.

“It is important to remember that the focus is not a score or grade, but the student knowledge or skill that is represented by that score or grade.” (Rogers, 2003, p4)

What are some better assessment methods? The best assessment method is determined by many factors including the nature of the task being assessed, the PLO of interest, and the resources available for assessment. Common methods include capstone projects and senior papers, projects, and performances; performance on tests and assignments; rubric-based evaluations of assignments; and ratings of student skills by field experience or internship supervisors. No matter what method you choose, the key is to seek strong alignment between the method and the PLO. An essay is never going to be a good tool to assess students’ oral communication skills.

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