Like many of us, I attended the June TCC conference with Linda Nilson to learn more about collaborative learning. In one of those terrific moments of serendipity, I wound up learning about something I'd never heard of: specifications grading. I took notes when she was talking about this idea and selected that book as the one I would take home and study. Over the following weeks my excitement over this system grew, and I made the decision to implement specifications grading in one of my courses this fall.
Specifications grading is a system for evaluating student work that doesn't involve scoring individual assignments and then averaging or adding the scores together. Instead, every assignment is evaluated as either satisfactory or unsatisfactory, then grades are based on the total number of satisfactory assignments It became my job to develop highly detailed descriptions of what constituted satisfactory performance on each assignment (this is where the term "specifications" comes from). I also had to develop precise descriptions of the work that would be required to achieve each letter grade at the end of the semester. The idea is that students could decide individually what grade they were working toward and make sure they were accumulating the number of satisfactory assignments they would need to reach their goals.
I was attracted to this form of grading for several reasons. I like that it puts the control over grades squarely on the students’ shoulders. They know, for example, that missing more than two of the chapter quizzes will put a B grade out of reach. I hoped that it would reduce the compulsion that some students feel to be perfect at everything. If their performance on a task meets my specifications, then it is satisfactory, and there is no point in worrying about every detail. I also hoped that it would encourage students who might struggle early in the semester, since they can clearly see that if they meet specific criteria in future work they can still achieve a particular grade.
Does it work? So far, the class seems to be going well, but I have a number of challenges and questions that I will want to reflect on at the end of the semester. For example:
* Will the students and I agree that the final grades accurately reflect their performance and learning in the class?
* How can Blackboard help students clearly see their grade?
* Because students need a certain number of satisfactory grades, and they have opportunities to make up missed/unsatisfactory work, do students really know where they stand in the class at the mid-term?
To hear what I learned from this experiment and to share your own experiences, please come to the TCC’s brown bag session on Monday, December 19, from 10-11:30 a.m. in the TCC (12-201). Bring your own questions. The first 10 participants will receive a copy of Nilson’s book about specifications grading!
Then, everyone who is interested in implementing specifications grading (or doing it again) is invited to a work session in January. We will have time to work collaboratively and independently to develop course-specific plans.
Celia Reaves
Psychology
10/21/2016 |