On Your Mark

Create and sustain a learning environment where students thrive and stakeholders are accurately informed of student progress. Clarify the purpose of grades, craft a vision statement aligned with this purpose, and discover research-based strategies to implement effective grading and reporting practices. Identify policies and practices that render grading inaccurate, and understand the role grades play in students' future success and opportunities.

K-12 teachers and administrators will:

• Question traditional grading and reporting practices, and seek more accurate practices.
• Identify the purpose of grading, and ensure school and classroom visions, practices, and policies support it.
• Implement research-based grading and reporting practices that promote accurate, useful accounts of student learning.
• Understand why traditional practices, such as grading on the curve and offering plus or minus grades, don't fully report student academic performance.
• Examine grading and reporting policies, and make sure they support students, parents, and other stakeholders.

Contents:
Chapter 1: Define the Purpose of Grades
Chapter 2: Challenge the Use of Percentage Grades
Chapter 3: Challenge Plus and Minus and Half-Grade Increments
Chapter 4: Challenge Bell-Shaped Grade Distributions
Chapter 5: Challenge the Computation of Class Rank
Chapter 6: Challenge the Use of a Single Grade
Chapter 7: Challenge the Use of Mathematical Algorithms
Chapter 8: Challenge Practices That Confound the Meaning of Grades
Final Thoughts

Thomas R. Guskey, PhD, is professor of educational psychology in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky. A graduate of the University of Chicago, he began his career in education as a middle school teacher, served as an administrator in the Chicago Public Schools, and was the first director of the Center for the Improvement of Teaching and Learning, a national research center.

Dr. Guskey is the author/editor of twenty books and numerous book chapters, articles, and professional papers on educational measurement, evaluation, assessment, and grading. He coedited the Experts in Assessment series. His articles have appeared in prominent research journals, as well as Educational Leadership, Phi Delta Kappan, and School Administrator.

Dr. Guskey served on the Policy Research Team of the National Commission on Teaching & America s Future and on the task force to develop the National Standards for Staff Development, and was named a Fellow in the American Educational Research Association one of the association s highest honors. He was recently awarded Learning Forward s Distinguished Contributions to the Field Award and is the only person to have won the that group s Book of the Year Award twice and Article of the Year Award three times. He also has been featured on the National Public Radio programs Talk of the Nation and Morning Edition. In his work with educators throughout the world, he helps teachers and school leaders understand the important implications of research in education and offers practical solutions to some of education s most challenging problems.