On Tuesday, January 31st, Dean Stevenson (current PhD student in Mathematics Education at UGA) gave his talk titled:
A, B, C, D, and F: Meaningful Grades or Random Letters?
To watch the talk, please go here! If you have comments, questions, or would like a copy of the slides from the presentation, please contact Dean directly.
Abstract:
“Johnny is failing my class. He would have an ‘A’ but he won’t do his homework. He gets an ‘A’ on every test, he just won’t do what I ask him to do.”
-High School History Teacher, 2013, Parent/Teacher Conference
Based on this quote, what grade do you think Johnny deserves? An “F”? An “A”? Something in between? Contemplating the answer to this and similar questions is the premise of this professional development session. By attending, it is my hope that you will critically reflect on the way you approach both assessment (how you determine what a student knows) and grading (how you communicate what a student knows). The presentation will include several activities, a handful of thought provoking questions, and a brief outline of Standards-Based Grading.
Dean Stevenson is a former high school mathematics teacher in Virginia and was part of a team that lead professional development sessions on assessment practices. Dean is hoping to incorporate Standards-Based Grading (SBG) into his research while at UGA to see how SBG impacts both teachers and students.