Test graders show bias
In a study in India, teachers hired as test graders gave higher scores when the student was identified as high caste, lower scores to low-caste students, reports Inside School Research. The Harvard...
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Grading exams: The staircase method
Daniel Solove, a law professor, offers A Guide to Grading Exams on Concurring Opinions. It starts with a stack of exam papers. Then comes the toss down the stairs, which provides a spread for the...
View ArticleTeachers can learn from tests
Once a foe of standardized testing, Ama Nyamekye improved her teaching by analyzing her students’ scores on New York’s Regents exam, she writes in Ed Week. When she asked her sophomores to take the...
View ArticleLearning from Mrs. G
As a night student at Howard University, Thomas Sowell was inspired by Marie Gladsden, his English professor, and kept in touch over the years. Years later, when he returned to Howard to teach...
View ArticleGrade the work, not the behavior
Grade the Work, Not the Behavior, writes Cindi Rigsbee on Education Week Teacher, hitting a topic that Cal has raised in the comments. A middle-school English teacher, Rigsbee no longer gives a zero...
View ArticleTo pass or not to pass
Elena drifted into sophomore English class without any materials and spent class time texting or socializing. She didn’t complete assignments. Yet she reads and writes — when she bothers to do so — at...
View ArticleIn 2 days, failing students pass, graduate
Three Los Angeles seniors who failed a required class, were able to transfer to a credit-recovery school for two days, pass and return to graduate with classmates, reports the Los Angeles Times....
View ArticleCrowdsourcing Sociology 101
Millions of students around the world are enrolled in hundreds of MOOCs (massive open online courses), reports the New York Times. To evaluate students’ progress, Princeton Sociology Professor Mitchell...
View ArticleUK study: Female teachers give boys lower grades
At least in Britain, female teachers mark boys more harshly than outside examiners, according to a London School of Economics study. Expecting lower grades from female teachers, boys worked less in...
View ArticleTeachers lay blame for finals failures
In a suburban Maryland county known for high-performing schools, 62 percent of students flunked their geometry finals in January, 57 percent failed their Algebra 2 exams and 48 percent earned F’s on...
View ArticleBennett’s grade changed to F
Tony Bennett has resigned as Florida education commissioner days after AP reported he’d raised the grade of a donor’s charter school when he was Indiana’s education chief. Leaked emails showed...
View ArticleTeaching without grading
When Mark Barnes decided to stop grading students’ work, it changed everything, he writes on Education Week Teacher. “I’ll never put a number, percentage, or letter on any activity or project you...
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Sometimes, A is for alike
LA Johnson/NPR Teachers overestimate the abilities of students who resemble them in personality, according to a newly published paper. They downgrade students who are different. Teacher bias could...
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Grading the prof: An ‘F’ for insensitivity
A group of black students at Emory are demanding that students be asked to report their professors’ “microaggressions” in course evaluations, reports the Emory Wheel. If the demands are met, students...
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Don’t grade me, bro
Erica Taicz, who just graduated from Johns Hopkins, and others want to retain “covered grades” in the first semester. From left are: Taicz; John Hughes, 20, a rising junior; Jonathan Liu, 21, who just...
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Too hard to fail?
Is it becoming too hard to fail?, ask Moriah Balingit and Donna St. George in the Washington Post. School districts are making it harder to fail by banning zeroes for missed or failing work and...
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Teachers outsource grading
Teacher have outsourced grading at two Michigan public schools that are “teacher-powered,” reports Education Week Teacher. Sarah and Dan Giddings, spouses who teach at two different Washtenaw...
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Dumping the D-: What mastery learning looks like
Windsor Locks students master a set of skills to pass courses. In Windsor Locks, Connecticut, “24 credits and a D-minus average” aren’t good enough to earn a high school diploma, Superintendent Susan...
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50 is the new 0
Is 50 is the new 0?, writes Kate Stoltzfus on Education Week Teacher. Schools in Maryland and Virginia are implementing “no zero” policies to make it harder for students to fail, reports the Washington...
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