Addresses the challenge of finding or creating alternatives to tests and traditional grading systems. Reflects on and describes the experience of creating an assessment tool and cautions against choosing alternatives that merely camouflage the grades. Encourages educators to find authentic alternatives to describe children's growth. (BAC)

This article examines the myths and realities surrounding grading for gifted students, drawing on educational research and anecdotal experience. It contends that current grading systems tend to lack psychometric validity and reliability, that schools should embrace national standards, and that higher order thinking skills should be emphasized in…

The history of grading offers little support for current grading practices. Alternative methods such as mastery, student self-comparison, contracting, multiple grades, and the point system should be examined in the context of philosophical issues to determine new grading policies. (SK)

Maintains that putting a number or letter grade on student writing is fundamentally wrong. Argues that trashing the traditional grading system is the best thing that could be done to ensure better reading and writing among students. (SR)

Outlines a method used for teaching brochure writing in nine one-hour class periods. Discusses grading, and notes ways that students benefit from brochure writing. (SR)

Principals are responsible for improving the grading and marking systems in their schools. School administrators should provide leadership for designing, revising, and validating grading systems that meet sound measurement principles, are applied uniformly, and match local needs. This article reviews definitions, operational principles, legal…

One approach to writing across the curriculum--microthemes--involves short writing assignments such as summary writing, thesis support, inductive reasoning, and quandary posing. Using microthemes in accounting can ease the burden for instructors trying to provide useful evaluative feedback to improve student writing. (SK)

Discusses ways to evaluate students' photographs, offering descriptions from a number of professors and professionals of their approaches. Includes an evaluation exercise, a photo assignment sheet, and three critique or grade sheets outlining criteria for photo evaluation. (SR)

Examines three elementary teachers' conceptions about mathematics assessment in the context of their practice. Teachers' beliefs are shaped by externally defined functions and purposes of assessment; what teachers perceive as the official school curriculum and their position with regard to subject matter; and how they understand learning and…

Describes a semester-long work team project designed to develop team behaviors and skills, such as collaboration, listening, problem solving, decision making, action planning, leadership, communication, and conflict resolution. Recommends that teaching collective processes must reward collective processes, that projects should be meaningful and…

Describes a new format for academic record keeping and grade reporting at Indiana University in the context of faculty divisions on the problem of grade inflation. Reports the new record format resulted in a more effective means to communicate to students the context of their academic performance in each course. The format has received a…

In a case from Oklahoma-"Falvo v. Owasso Independent School District," the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Family Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) prohibits the practice of directing students to grade one another's assignments. Students are not education professionals; only teachers should grade student work. (MLH)

Investigated differential validity and prediction of first-year university grades of two cohorts of students from historically white and historically black schools in South Africa, and the contribution of variations in grading standards between university courses to this differential validity and prediction. Adjustment for differences in grading…

Studied the actual classroom assessment and grading practices of secondary school teachers in relation to a specific class and determined whether meaningful relationships existed between teacher practices and grade level, subject matter, and ability levels of students. Analysis of surveys completed by 1,483 teachers shows that most secondary…

Discusses three steps to help legitimize grades as true measures of student success: eliminating superfluous inflationary pressures on grades; having expert teachers offer frank assessments of student progress (and stop teaching to the test) and give teachers authority over grades and the power to dismiss students who cannot or will not do the…