Jeannette Sather

APA Switch Week Project

Grading Practices at Woodbury High School
April 2017

The Project:

In order to better prepare for the standards-based grading work that is

to come in 2019, Sarah Sorenson-Wagner, Woodbury High School
principal, wants to build consistency in grading practices throughout
the school. The goal of this project is to determine the consistency of
grading practices across the school, and gain an understanding of what
current practices. This data will be used as a baseline to develop
grading practices building-wide.

The Action:
I took time to review teacher websites from each of the departments at
the high school. My goal was two-fold. First to determine if teachers
were using their website and if their class information was easily
accessible. Secondly, I needed to know if teachers had a syllabus for
their class, and if their grading practices were obtainable through their
website. I then accessed the grade book for 1 student in each of those
teachers classes, using the online grading system. I compared what
the grading practice of the teacher to the grading policy they had
described in their syllabus (if it was accessible).

In order to gather some insight into grading rationale, I interviewed

three teachers about their grading policies. Part of the discussion was
to determine how they determined their grading policy, and what
guidance from the school they received either via the staff handbook
or directive from their principal.

The Results:
Websites/Syllabus
31 teacher websites were reviewed
9 out of 31 were not easily accessible or required a log in
17 out of 31 teachers did not have a syllabus, or it was not found
1 teacher called the syllabus a Parent letter
1 teacher linked a syllabus on their website, but it was a calendar
timeline
3 teaches that taught multiple subjects had a syllabus for 1
class, but not all of them
length of syllabi varied from 1 to 16 pages
Grading Practices
all teachers that had a grading policy in their syllabus, had a
matching practice in Infinite Campus
math science departments had the most consistency in grading
practices across the department
science department most often weighted their point totals, but
the percent varied from teacher to teacher
o example teacher A breakdown: labs, 30%, final 10%,
tests 50%, HW 10%. Teacher B breakdown: labs 27%, HW
13%, quiz 15%, Exam 35%, final 10%
o 1 teacher had different % breakdowns for two subjects
3 PE teachers give 1 point total for each sport/topic overall
1 PE teacher scores by daily points out of 10, lumped together
for changing for class, timelines, and participation
no consistency found in the Social Studies department 7
teachers reviewed all different grading practices
1 math teachers syllabus stated the grade breakdown was 20%
HW, and 80% tests but both were weighted evenly (1.0) in
Infinite Campus
3 teachers from World Language all different grading practices
English department by total points and percent
1 English teacher had different percentages
o example A: 100-93% for AP class, A: 100-94% for English
10
Teacher Interviews (3 teachers were interviewed either in person or
via email - these were the only teachers that responded to my request
for information)

I spoke with a veteran teacher who was new to WHS. This teacher said
they came from a school that had very rigid grading practices, and
although they appreciated the freedom of decision making at WHS,
they felt they had no direction on grading practices this year, and that
was very uncomfortable for them. They also stated, within their
department there is inconsistency in grading practices. They often
feel they do not know what is expected, not just with grading practices,
but other building policies as well. They said, although they are a very
seasoned veteran teacher, if possible, they would have requested a
mentor this year due to uncertainty they experienced.

The second teacher to provide info was via email. They were reluctant
to meet with me in person as they felt they had little information to
contribute. Their response is as follows. I have been at WHS for the
past 3.5 years and I would be honest with you that I was provided the
grading information by my mentor. I am sure there is direction from
admin, but I have never received any. We have had talk about
changing the policy but havent had any actual changes yet.

I met with the third teacher in person. They had a lot of information to
share, and are part of the district standards-based grading committee.
This teacher teaches across two departments, and said one of their
department had developed a grading rationale across grade levels to
intentionally increase the focus on summative assessments. The
department as a whole emphasizes the importance of homework
completion in order to master the content. Her other department does
their own thing when it comes to grading. This teacher had
recommendations for moving forward which is part of the next section.

Summary and Recommendations

First of all, this was a great project for a complete outsider to take on. I
felt as though I was looking at this information as a parent might.
Some of the teacher websites were very frustrating to try and access.
If a log in is required, and my student is to bring that log in home, it is
highly likely a parent will not receive it. It is unclear to me, from a
parent perspective, why I would need special permission to access
information. It felt like an unnecessary step. Some of the websites led
me to a Google site that had many teachers and subject areas, which I
assumed to be district wide, listed. I was not sure what to look for,
thus gave up and couldnt find what I needed. A few websites had
links to information, but no information. One teacher had almost daily
updates on their website until November 2016. I had to ask the
principals secretary if the teacher was still working at WHS, it was
unclear why the information had stopped being posted.

The syllabi varied greatly. If I were a parent it would be very confusing.

Some were almost too detailed, the example being 16 pages long.
About half of the teachers I looked at did not have a syllabus of any
kind, and many of those had no breakdown of grades. Again, as a
parent, I would not know by looking at it why or how my child received
their grade.

If taking small steps to standardize these processes at WHS, I would

begin with requiring all teachers to have some sort of syllabus. I would
go as far as to provide direction on what information needs to be
included in the syllabus, and would even provide a template for those
who do not know how to start on their own.

Another recommendation is to incorporate departmental grading, and

possibly homework, policies, at least for required courses. This piece
may require a good deal of time, and possibly a task force to dig
deeper into the reality of this work.

If having a teacher website is mandatory, it is apparent that

professional development needs to be provided in order to do this.
One teacher recommended the building participate in differentiated PD
for this, as some teachers are very experienced with websites, some
are in survival mode, and some dont use them at all. Timing with this
PD would need to be strategic. Providing this PD at the beginning of
the year may be overwhelming and less effective.