FIAE 11, 12, 13, 14

Grading students with IEP’s can be incredibly difficult. A student with an IEP can make progress in both their goals for mastery and their IEP goals. However, grading these students can lead to tensions within the class. An example of this would be during my high school career, a student with disabilities ranked in the top ten percent. The blow back from the community, students, and parents was almost immediate. The most common answer to grading students with IEP’s is to set a max grade (70 or 2.5) that they can attain. The book however, describes identifying reasonable and unreasonable areas of mastery and adjusting to make mastery possible,

            The 4.0 or the 0-100 scale. These two types of grading scales are the most prevalent in education. The 0-100 scale is the most common and traditional method of grading. The 4.0 scale is the grading scale looking to replace the 0-100 scale. The 4.0 scale works so that everything is graded based on a rubric. The rubric clearly describes the criteria necessary to achieve each category. These categories range from beyond proficient, proficient, approaching proficient, and no attempt. However, most schools are advised to create a system using either 3, 4, or 6 categories. A five category system usually leads to the student or parent contributing 2.0 to a C.

            There are a number of ways a teacher can format their grade book. By date, by similar subject, and by topic. The book emphasizes the topic-based gradebook. Each topic covered is given a category. Each assignment is list in the left column and coded with a letter. Each letter corresponds to a specific assignment listed in a key. At the end of a grading period, the number of grades in each column is totaled up and determines the overall grade. The book admits it would take practice, but this method seems the most effective.

            The purpose of a report card is to show the grade and progress of a given student. They should be relatively simple to understand and informative. Adjusted curriculum typically can be found in the level of classes a student takes. Honors, CP, CPI, etc, serve as indicators for what skills and level of mastery the student will understand. Another form is tracking mastery and growth at the same time. A1 would equate to mastery, but no educational growth. D3 would equate to approaching mastery, significant growth.