Grading system essay: feedback please

Educators have long been debating on grading systems. Teachers, from long ago to present, use a variety of grading systems. Grading systems strive to accurately evaluate of schoolwork and provide useful feedback. Schools in the Philippines use two grading systems, which categorize activities differently: the old one categorizes activities based on the type of activity (seat work, quiz, long test, etc.), while the other categorizes activities based on the level of learning demonstrated by the student (knowledge, skills, understanding, and product). The new grading system more accurately evaluates schoolwork and provides more useful feedback to the student.


Although some people perceive learning a concept as a whole, categorizing activities based on level of learning pinpoints where the student needs to improve on. For example, some students can easily memorize facts and concepts, but have difficulty applying their knowledge in related skills. Other students may know the facts, be able to do the related skills, and understand the bigger ideas, but may have difficulty translating their knowledge, skills, and understanding into a product. In contrast to the usual grading system’s categorization of activities, which does not help provide feedback, the new grading system’s categorization helps provide feedback. The student does not gain anything from knowing that he does not do well in quizzes, for example, because quizzes could test any of the first three levels of learning: knowledge, skills, or understanding. At most, he will know what topic he needs to work on, but he will never know in which level of learning he is lacking. On the other hand, the new grading system clearly separates activities based on the level of learning required. The new grading system helps students determine which level of learning they are lacking, so they can put in more effort in that category in future activities.


The benefit of the new grading system in this aspect extends further than improved feedback in a single category. If the student continually struggles with activities that require understanding, then he will exert more effort in future lessons to understand the big picture, not just superficially memorizing facts and performing related tasks. The new grading system will help him pinpoint the level of learning he struggles with, so that he can take appropriate action. 1


Admittedly, it will not be easy to apply and can become a source of confusion to both the student and the teacher. However, the extra effort expended is justified by the more accurate picture of the quality of work it gives. The new grading system includes rubrics for activities under understanding and product. These rubrics give points for proficiency showed in skills used. For example, in grading an essay, the rubric has categories of organization, evidence, and style, among others). This will make the students know exactly where to improve in a certain assignment where many components can influence the grade, and in turn, take necessary steps to improve in those aspects. 2

The new grading system also solves the issue of subjectivity in grading, which will make grading fairer and more uniform. One of the problems with holistic grading, which is widely used, is that the teacher may give a disproportionate weight to certain aspects of the assignment, like, for example, quality of evidence used. This will make a deficiency in one aspect ruin the whole assignment, discouraging the student and giving a false impression, while a deficiency in another aspect which is not prioritized by the teacher will hardly affect the overall grade, not making the student learn.


Another main component of the new grading system is giving higher levels of learning a higher weighting. Although the proportion of the grade determined from each of the levels of the learning (knowledge : skills : understanding : product = 15% : 25% : 25% : 35%) does not necessarily stand for anything specific or is the best possible weighting, it is a practical and fair proportioning. Understanding and products, which show thorough learning, should be given more weight. Skills are also very important because the main purpose of basic education is to have the skills needed for higher education or for the workplace. Nowadays, anyone can search facts on the Internet, so knowledge is not very important as compared to higher levels of learning. Hence it is practical to give higher weighting to understanding and products, and give lower weighting to knowledge.


However, the weight given to the lower levels of learning still has to be substantial. Since many of the activities given in a class is under knowledge or skills, the weighting given for the two lower categories (knowledge and skills) could not be too low, so that the student will still exert effort in those categories. If too little weighting is given to the lower forms of learning, then the student will exert little, if any, effort for the assignments under those categories. This will make the student learn less, which will affect his performance in the understanding and product categories, which incorporate knowledge and skills. The allocation of percentages for each level of learning is thus practical and fair, making the higher levels of learning have a higher weighting while at the same time not devaluing the lower levels of learning too much.

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The new grading system evaluates schoolwork more accurately and provides more useful feedback to the student. It helps the student pinpoint areas of improvement in a concept, in a skill, and in a general level of learning. It also helps teachers use grading as a practical tool to help students learn, which is the main purpose of grading.