A Nontraditional Philosophy of Grading
By Norma Bailey, Faculty
Department of Teacher Education and Professional Development

Editor’s Note:  Both attendance and getting students to do high quality of work can certainly be a challenge at times.  At this time of the year, when we are all immersed in grading, and as we reflect back on our semester, I asked Dr. Bailey, winner of the CASE Michigan Professor of the Year Award, to elaborate a bit on her teaching philosophy with respect to grading. Although she was, like most of us right now, swamped with grading student work, she graciously offered the following.  And should you be interested in more information about this approach, and criterion-referenced grading in general, Norma said she is always willing to chat with folks about these topics.      

I believe that students come to me wanting to learn how to be the best kind of teacher possible.  I believe my job is to support and nurture that desire to the best of my ability and their job is to work to achieve it to the best of their ability. I also believe it is my job to take these young students, who see themselves as just students, and convert them into young professionals, ready to take on the task of leading and improving the world.  They are expected to function as young professionals, I model for them what that looks like, and I find that for the most part they do.

I say to my students on the first day of class, “When you signed up to take this class, you signed up to be here every day you possibly could, barring illness or other imperative event, and that to be here means to be here prepared and alert to get the most possible from the class period and to contribute your share to it.  When I signed up to teach this class, I made a commitment to offer you class sessions worth attending, and if I am not doing so, you have every right to let me know that I am not doing so.”  This statement puts the responsibility right where it belongs – on all of us – to act in a professional manner, to do what is  right because it is the right thing to do, not because an outside force bribes or threatens us, and thus to do our part to make each class a powerful learning experience. I also work diligently to create a learning environment permeated by mutual respect, where caring relationships are built between students and me, and among students themselves.  I see that as a critical aspect of any class.

These beliefs lead to my “unconventional” class policies.

I do not have an attendance policy, but there is virtually 100% attendance in all classes.  In fact, this semester, attendance in my three classes has been 98%, 96%, and 95% (based on total number of class periods and number of students).  If students are unable to attend a class session, they are asked to call me to let me know, preferably ahead of time, and they also know to contact me or another class colleague to go over the missed material.  If a student does miss two classes, I meet personally with the student to determine what’s up and how to get back on track.

Rather than having specific due dates for each assignment, I have target dates established, sometimes with the students’ input, so that I can pace them through the course.  I do use traditional due dates when it is important for them to have an assignment in by a specific date so we can use the content in a class activity that day. For most assignments, I believe that students want to get their work in “on time” and will do so if at all possible.  I trust that they can and will make the decisions necessary to meet their responsibilities to multiple professors and to the multiple responsibilities that they have as busy human beings with jobs and relationships, and they do so.  What I have found is that the students almost always turn in quality work since there is no point in turning in something less than quality just to have it in on time (as it will be returned to them to redo the assignment).  That is, they have learned that it is better to turn in a quality product after the target date than a less-than-quality product by the due date and then need to continue to work on the project when it fails to meet the established criteria.

This leads to the last of my “unconventional” class policies.  There is a significant body of literature to support my assertion that grading is essentially destructive of the learning process, for multiple reasons (Kohn, 2004, What does it mean to be well educated?).  Students learn to be mostly interested in finding out what the teacher wants, grades tend to spoil teachers’ relationships with students and students’ relationships with one another, and grades aren’t particularly valid, reliable, or objective.  If I want my students to be learners and to think deeply about important issues, as well as learn to be collegial with and supportive of one another, I must ask them to do so.  Therefore, my students are given the criteria for a product, that is, the content and attributes of an excellent product that I look for, and if they meet those criteria, they have met the criteria.  While I do not “grade” their papers, they receive a significant amount of feedback in the form of comments and/or questions on their papers.  Should a student not meet the criteria, he/she is given the opportunity to improve the product based on those comments and/or questions until the criteria are met. Thus, unless students choose not to do an assignment or choose not to redo an assignment if indicated, all students can, and the vast majority do, earn an A in my classes -  an A I believe they have produced quality work to receive.