Is it Time to Stop Averaging Grades?

By St. Gil, Marc, 1924-1992,Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17119541
Educational consultant and author, Rick Wormeli, makes a strong case that it does not make sense to average grades. He suggests that finding the mode might be better. Consider this data:
Cheryl gets a 97, 94, 26, 35, and 83 on her tests, which correspond to an A, A, F, F, and a B on the school grading scale. When the numbers are averaged, however, everything is given equal weight, and the score is 67, which is a D. 
Wormeli argues that this is not an accurate measure of Cheryl's grades.

The same logic applies to averaging two scores on the same test. Doesn't the student show mastery on the material if he or she scores higher on the second test. And if so, why then should we average the two scores?

In addition, doing away with averaging should cut down on students trying  to game the system.
[It] will help eliminate teacher concerns about students who “game” the system when their teachers re-declare zeroes as 50s on the 100-point scale. These students try to do just enough— skipping some assessments, scoring well on others—to pass mathematically. 
It would be nice if our electronic grade-books would give us an option to find the mode instead of the average.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

World War I Resources

Image
Here are some short videos and websites that are terrific for World War I. MAIN CAUSES History on the Ne t has a nice concise page on the MAIN causes of World War I. This video clip also reviews the MAIN causes in six minutes. It comes from "Made from History." John Ruddy has an awesom review of the war in six minutes. Day that Shook the World reviews the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. It's dramatic and engaging and only seventeen minutes. WEAPONS Check out weapons of World War I on this page from History on the Net. And here's a two minute clip about chemical gases during the war. SYKES PICOT Khan Academy reviews  the Sykes-Picot agreement  between Britain and France below. From BBC News, Why border lines drawn with a ruler in WW1 still rock the Middle East . The author reviews teh Sykes Picot Agreement and includes good maps. A GLOBAL WAR What makes World War I a global War ? The Guardian has an awesome interactive site  with seven parts. Each par...
Read more

Çatalhöyük: Resources Including 3D Animation

Image
Çatalhöyük or Çatal Höyük (pronounced "cha-tal hay OOK") is an ancient neolithic city located in south central Turkey. It  is important because it marks the transition from exclusively hunting and gathering  to domestication of plants and animals and tells us a lot about prehistory. Along with Jericho, it represents early neolithic communities currently under excavation and study. Here are some resources to help with that understanding. T he Çatalhöyük Research Project is a terrific site with images, maps and essays. The most interesting is the belief that religion may have originated at Çatalhöyük. That belief comes from the discovery of female figurines .  Khan Academy has a good site with background background. Finally,  here are three clips.  First is  a short seven minute clip that introduces the Neolithic site.  Second, you can watch a sixteen minute clip that goes into even more detail. Old Dominion University has a terrific 3D animation ...
Read more

Using Images in AP World History

Image
Images offer students a great way to understand history. The AP World History chat recently asked teachers to suggest images they used in their classes.  Here are a few that I snagged. Bram Hubbell tweeted the handout below for analyzing images which ask students to consider the context, audience, and message of each image. The nine images below cover all periods from post-classical to the early 20th century. The image below represents the Danse Macabre, or the Dance of Death, painted in the 16th century during the Black Death. Here's an image from the Song Dyansty scroll which shows society and urban life in Song China. Here is a 1918 image from an Indian Home Rule pamphlet. It shows the British keeping Indians off Wilson's boat of self-determination. The image below from Puck in 1899  shows Japanese perceptions of the West. The image below come s from a Chinese newspaper in China on western colonialism and the response of the Qing court.  ...
Read more