Wendy was recently interviewed by The Grading Podcast. This definitely goes further into the weeds than we often are in PROSPECT, where we focus on partnerships and transfer pathways.
Within our courses, assessment strategies and practices can either support student learning or raise barriers to student success. Aligning assessment practices with what we know about effective ways to help students learn can be a powerful tool, especially if we can agree on some common assessment principles across our institutional partners.
The history of grading and grades in the U.S. also is problematic and a great candidate for de/colonisation attention. Grading was initially designed to rank students, and then to provide information as students moved from one level of education to another or transferred institutions. However, grades often capture behavior (e.g., deducting points for late work) more than student mastery of course learning objectives. Grades often are a student’s goal (e.g., passing or getting a C) rather than goals instructors might prefer, such as mastering learning objectives.
However, the way grades are used in higher education, it is hard for students to have any goal other than achieving particular grades. Progress toward degrees, course-taking trajectories, scholarships, athletic eligibility, and more are all tied to grades. You might find episodes from The Grading Podcast (https://thegradingpod.com/) interesting, not that you need to agree with every idea, but that you might use some of the ideas to have discussions among your S-STEM team about improving assessment practices, policies, and strategies.
If you want to listen to my interview in particular, the direct link is here.I don’t expect everyone to agree with all my statements and practices about assessment, and would welcome having further assessment discussions with all of you.
Summary provided by Wendy Smith, PROSPECT Project Director.