What Am I Grading?

As the summer is starting to wind down, and I have two weeks before the staff meetings start up, I am thinking about how I structure the grading systems of my classes.  Lately, I have been dividing up quarter grades based on the following weights:  homework is 10%, quizzes are 15%, and tests are 75% of the quarter grade.  I don't penalize students for late homework, although I pester students who are not turning it in on the due date.  I also allow students to retake quizzes once they have corrected the original quiz and reviewed the material with me, and I only count the higher grade.  Finally, the last test of each quarter covers all the material from the quarter, and if a student gets a higher grade on this test than on a test from earlier in the quarter, this test grade also replaces that earlier, worse test grade.  My intent for this system is to try to assign grades based on a student's understanding of the material over the long term rather than his/her ability to turn in homework on time, to cram (or not) for a test, or to quickly perform well with new material versus needing time to practice.  (I don't think catching on quickly to new material and keeping oneself organized should be the criteria for getting an "A".)

The positive outcomes from this grading policy include:

• more homework is getting done
• fewer students report copying homework from classmates
• more students spend time reviewing quizzes
• more students reporting that they understand the material better.

The negative outcomes from this grading policy include:

• students report feeling stressed about tests since they are weighted so heavily
• the students who perform the worst on the quizzes were not taking advantage of the retakes
• the students who turned in the least amount of homework by the due date were least likely to turn in assignments at all or appeared to spend very little time on assignments they did make up
• some students seemed more concerned about making up homework (without really trying to learn the material) than about retaking quizzes, and expected their grades to improve more than they really would given the relative weights.
• most of the students described in the last three bullet points were Black or Hispanic.

I should note that on the end of the year surveys last year, only two students said the homework policy encouraged them to procrastinate and the quiz policy encouraged them to not study for the quizzes.

I'm happy about the positives; I think the policy matches the growth mindset I try to maintain for myself and engender in the students.  The negatives concern me in that I don't think they are a direct result of the grading policy, but probably have more to do with the way I sell the students on growth mindset and how I talk to, work with, and connect to the students of color in my classes.

More reflecting to come ...