Note: Adhere to your district and school’s grading policies. It is imperative to get permission, support, and buy-in from your administration before implementing any changes.
Grading practices vary widely across states, districts, and schools. It often sparks debate among teachers, parents, and students because grades can carry a lot of weight. The impact of grades can extend beyond report cards and influence student motivation, teacher effectiveness, and parental perceptions of education. Traditional approaches to grading have long-standing roots in educational systems. However, there is growing interest in finding new methods that better reflect student learning and foster equity and consistency. This is especially true in the art room where assessing artistic growth can sometimes be challenging to capture with a numeric grade or through an established grading ritual.
Let’s investigate common grading scenarios to refine our assessment practice in the art room.
Extra Credit: Boost Engagement or Inflate Grades?
Benefits
Extra credit can motivate students to engage more deeply with the material, offering them a chance to go beyond basic requirements and improve their grades. For students who struggle with formal tests or assignments, extra credit can provide an opportunity to recover and demonstrate their learning. If you’re collecting supplies or need tasks completed, it can be a huge help to your budget and classroom and build ownership in the art room.
Considerations
Extra credit may also pose equity concerns, as students with more resources, such as time or finances, are better positioned to complete extra assignments. It can also be tricky to be consistent across classes and grade levels, creating possible misunderstandings. There’s a risk of artificially inflating grades and potentially masking the true level of student understanding.
Further Investigation
Align extra credit with meaningful enrichment activities connected to learning objectives to keep grades more reflective of content proficiency. Also, remember that extra credit should not be extra work for you, the art teacher! Challenge your students to take ownership of their learning and come up with their own extra credit assignments.
Open-Note Tests: Promote Real Understanding or Encourage Laziness?
Benefits
Open-note tests can mirror real-world scenarios where individuals use resources to solve problems. It can shift the focus from rote memorization to the application of knowledge. Open-note tests reduce test anxiety, allowing students to demonstrate understanding without the pressure of cramming.
Considerations
Open-note tests may lead students to rely too much on their notes, neglecting thorough preparation. In subjects where critical thinking and recall are essential, open-note assessments may not fully capture students’ mastery of content.
Further Investigation
Combine open-note questions with analytical tasks that require deeper engagement. Let’s say you just finished a unit on the elements and principles of art and guided your students through art analysis. It’s their turn to show what they’ve learned! Give students an artwork they’ve never seen before. Allow them to use their notes to reference the definitions of each element and principle. Ask them to apply the information to identify examples in the artwork.
Pop Quizzes: Grow Consistent Study Habits or Cause Unnecessary Stress?
Benefits
Pop quizzes can motivate students to stay up-to-date with the material and learning objectives. It can encourage regular review and preparation and keep students on their toes. Pop quizzes provide teachers with immediate feedback, allowing for adjustments in instruction.
Considerations
The unpredictability of pop quizzes can cause significant stress, especially for students who already experience test anxiety. There is also the potential to penalize students who may have valid reasons for being unprepared on a given day, such as an excused absence.
Further Investigation
A more low pressure way to capture real-time feedback is to build a habit of doing exit tickets before students leave. Students will appreciate the consistency in routine and the accountability in learning that period. Switch up the activity by doing questions, games, drawings, or tasks!
Participation Grades: Foster Engagement or Penalize Introverts?
Benefits
Grading participation is often used to encourage active engagement in class. Participation can take many forms, such as attending classes, contributing to discussions, being on time, and demonstrating attentiveness. It aims to foster a dynamic learning environment and build communication skills.
Considerations
However, grading participation can be subjective and favor more visible contributions over substantial ones. It may disadvantage introverted students, absent students, or those with anxiety. If participation is not explicitly linked to a learning objective, it may not accurately reflect a student’s understanding.
Further Investigation
Offer multiple ways students can participate. Students can write or type responses and submit them for you to read aloud anonymously. Break the class into smaller groups or pairs with guiding prompts for more comfortable discussions. If you do have a required whole class discussion or large presentation, give students advance notice so they can prepare and ask questions ahead of time.
Homework: Reinforce Learning or Burden Students?
Benefits
Homework provides an opportunity for students to practice and reinforce skills learned in class. It also teaches life skills like time management and responsibility. Depending on the assignment, it can invite families to participate in their student’s learning. It can also provide a way for students to catch up if they don’t have enough time during class.
Considerations
Homework can present equity issues, as not all students have access to resources like a quiet workspace or internet at home. Many students may not have the time, energy, or attention to adequately focus on homework at home due to other responsibilities. Excessive homework can lead to burnout and take away from quality family time.
Further Investigation
Use homework as a formative tool for practice and offer flexible completion options. Adjust deadlines or try a “ketchup” day in class for students to catch up on any assignment. Additionally, try optional assignments to do at home that are fun and foster a love for creativity!
Curved Grading: Level the Playing Field or Mask Performance Gaps?
Benefits
Curved grading can be helpful for adjusting scores on challenging tests, ensuring fairness in assessment. It may also create a sense of competition that motivates students to perform well.
Considerations
It can foster an unfair comparison among students, where one student’s performance impacts another’s grade. Curving may also obscure gaps in understanding and give a false sense of achievement.
Further Investigation
Try curved grading if you give an assessment that ends up being more difficult than expected for your students. Alternatively, focus on creating fair assessments that measure learning objectives. If you’re looking to level up your assessment practice, enroll in Assessment in Art Education or watch the Designing Effective Assessment Practices Pack in PRO Learning.
Grading practices are essential to the educational system but come with inherent challenges. There may be many common grading rituals that we’ve done for years without thinking much about them. It’s important to keep evaluating why we do things and refining how we do them so we will continue to grow as art educators. From pop quizzes to curved grading, each practice has benefits and considerations for our students. With the guidance of your district and school administration, investigate your grading practices and take steps to find a solid balance between tradition and innovation in your art room.
Which grading practice are you investigating further in your art room?
Is there a common grading practice you’d add to this list?
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Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.
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