Chapter 12: Grading Scales

Chapter 12 is all about different grading scales. The bulk of the chapter focused on the pros and cons of the two most common grading scales, the 100-point scale and the 4-point scale (which also included other small-scales). The chapter discussed how things like minus grades are useless and harmful to student morale. I hadn’t heard of school districts that didn’t use minuses, and I think it’s a tiny little change in grading systems that could make an improvement on student morale. I thought that the chapter got really interesting, however, when it moved on to the section that listed more grading scales, such as “A, B, C and ‘not-yet-achieved’ or ‘you’re not done’,” or ones that listed how often students showed understanding (consistently, usually, sometimes, seldom). Also, there were scales that boiled the grade right down to the standard itself (exceeds the standard, meets the standard, making progress, getting started, or no attempt). This scale emphasizes that students can make up work and see assignments not as hills they have to get over but as roads that they can always keep going down.