Effective Grading Practices for Secondary Teachers: Practical Strategies to Prevent Failure, Recover Credits, and Increase Standards-Based/Referenced Grading

In life, most of us are given second chances. Why should school be any different? A growing body of evidence suggests that many traditional grading practices are not only ineffective; they are also potentially harmful to students. Effective Grading Practices for Secondary Teachers provides specific, concrete, and practical alternatives to some traditional and ineffective grading practices. By effectively implementing these changes, secondary teachers and administrators, and central office personnel, can drastically decrease failure rates, improve overall achievement, and significantly reduce potential dropouts. Coverage includes: – guidance for secondary teachers and leaders in the implementation of new and effective failure prevention strategies such as Safety Net Programs, WIN Programs, and Amnesty Days – approaches to credit recovery such as extending the semester, “re-culturizing” summer school, and on-line credit recovery – alternatives to strict standards-based grading that doesn’t require a total abandonment of letter grades – how to conduct action research to measure the effectiveness of grading reforms – numerous examples of successful practices and programs that have been enacted in a range of secondary settings. Dave Nagel is an international educational consultant and researcher. His educational career started as a middle school science and high school biology teacher. His administrative experiences involved being a middle school assistant principal, high school associate principal, and director of extended day and credit recovery programs. In his former district, Dave was instrumental in implementing power standards and performance assessments. He was honored numerous times as a “Senior Choice” winner, with graduating seniors selecting him as someone who dramatically affected their life in a positive way. His efforts in augmenting and implementing a multifaceted credit recovery model transformed Ben Davis High School (enrollment 3,400, Grades 10-12) from a middle-of-the-road high school in terms of diplomas awarded into a graduation factory. By focusing on differentiated goals for students based on specific proficiency measures, Ben Davis was able to improve its graduation rate 14% in just over 4 years. Dave has been a national and international presenter and consultant to schools for over 10 years. Using his experience and expertise, he has presented and helped schools, from pre-K through Grade 12, implement effective practices leading to gains in student achievement. His main focus when working with schools has revolved around assessment, instruction, leadership, and effective collaboration. He has worked specifically with schools in implementing the following topics: prioritizing standards, common formative assessments, building authentic performance tasks, effective use of scoring guides, data teams, rigorous curriculum design, and effective grading practices. In the past few years, Dave has done extensive work with teachers and leaders across the country assisting schools and entire districts through a proven process to identify essential Common Core State Standards and their relationship with state and local assessment results. Dave has also done extensive work around helping school teams work on critical aspects of effective collaboration. This has significantly impacted student achievement through focusing on intentional adult actions. Published multiple times in various publications such as Principal Leadership and Educational Leadership, Dave has also presented at various national conferences such as those hosted by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, National Staff Development Council, National Association of Secondary School Principals, and National School Boards Association. Dave stays very busy with his beautiful and supportive wife, Kristen, and three boys (ages 10, 5, and 3). Kristen works full time and does most of the raising of the children, and he is extremely grateful for her every day. He acknowledges every day that the Lord guides his actions and is the driving force in his life. Foreword by Jeffrey A. Erickson Acknowledgments About the Author Introduction Part I: Why Changing Grading at the Secondary Level Is a Tough Sell 1. Grading: Long Perceived as the One Immovable Element in a Constantly Evolving Field 2. Determining Why Grading Changes Are Needed Part II: Practice Trumps Policy 3. Policy: The Starting Point, Not the Destination Finder 4. Policy Into Practices: The Path to Effective Grading Part III: Grading Practices to Prevent Failure, Recover Credits, and Increase Grading on Standards 5. Preventing Unnecessary Failure 6. What Do We Do When Failure Does Happen? Effective Credit Recovery 7. Standards-Based Grading Part IV: Elements for Successful Implementation 8. Determining What (Could) Change 9. Implementation: Setting Up and Conducting Action Research Appendixes References Index