Imagine…students working diligently on a project. They are interacting with each other. Their interest levels are peaked. They are seeking out new information. The teacher is happy, the students are happy, everything is right with the world. Then…the final product is turned in…and it is not very good. What happened? What grade do you as a teacher give to the finished product? You have a rubric that you live and die by, you really have no choice but to give a low grade. The final grade is not what the students expected.
As a former high school history teacher, I can speak first hand about how easy it is to forget the importance of the process of learning. High school teachers especially seem to focus more on the final product than the steps that students followed to produce that product. I am not sure if it is the content heavy nature of high school or the idea that students at this level are ready to be set out into the dog-eat-dog world, but there is a huge focus on final products. Educators, no matter the grade level, need to be sure to place an emphasis on the process rather than the final product.
Don’t get me wrong, at some point the final product needs to count for something. The key for those involved in educating kids is to find a balance of process and product. My biggest issue is that many teachers (myself included) give many one and done type of assignments. Students work for a set amount of time (days to weeks), turn in it in, and wait for a grade. The grade is given and the something new is assigned. The problem…many times the new project involves new skills that haven’t been honed through previous work. This process is repeated over and over throughout a semester or school year.
Wouldn’t it be better to incorporate a set of skills/standards that students would work to master throughout the course or year? In theory, every assignment or long term project would incorporate these skills/standards. This would allow students to use what they learn from each project to hone these skills over a longer period of time. Projects turned in at the end of the course or year would presumably be better than those turned in during the beginning of the year. This is true growth!
Probably one of the biggest hurdles to this type of thinking is the nature of grades in our education system. The belief that everything that students complete has to be graded and then recorded is pervasive in our society. Parents have to have something to see in the gradebook…don’t they?? This expectation is then carried over to assignments. If students complete and turn in an assignment, it is easy for a teacher to just look at that final piece of work and, in turn, the learning process is almost completely discounted. And…if the work is all done at home, there is really no effective way to assess the learning process. Thus, the push by some educators to do away with homework. While I am not suggesting that there is no place for homework, I do think that this makes a final grade almost always reliant on the final product and not the process.
How to implement this is the million dollar question! One thought gaining traction is to use more of a standards based grading system. This type of grading system allows students to work on standards that will be mastered over time. In this type of classroom, students are always assessed based upon their best work. I am currently working with a high school ELA teacher on this type of grading system. It is worth noting that this is being done within a traditional grading system, but grades do not appear until midterm and final report cards. This is what George Couros might describe as innovating within the box. As students work to meet standards, their best attempt is recorded. This is direct attempt to balance process and final product. Final products are always being assessed, but there is a focus on continual growth. The focus is on process.
The challenge for teachers is to at least be aware that the learning process is important. This awareness will hopefully lead to some discussions about how to assess the process and not just the product. It is also important to stress this idea to all involved in the education process: students, parents, administrators, and school board members. When showcasing work…focus on the process that was followed and the learning that resulted. Don’t always feel like you have to showcase the final video or presentation to others. In fact, don’t lead with the finished product, lead with process!
Don Sturm
Schools Can Be Better 
Don, I value the process as well and haven’t found a way to incorporate that into grades. I have defaulted to ignoring that part when I do grade projects. However, at the elementary level each grade is generally one of many that average out over the course of the quarter, multiplied by several subject areas. In a way, particularly at the primary grades, those individual grades are formative assessment of general progress. I lived with standards based for several years in first grade and hated it. This was partially because of the way we had to do this within Power School. But also, to truly record progress by standards, I found I had to do much individual reassessment of individual skills twice a quarter, which stole instruction time and increased planning/grading time. We are so data driven now. I’d like to know how standards-based districts handle data for RtI meetings.
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I would love to sit down and talk about this face to face! A couple of thoughts:
1. If you don’t consider the process in the final grade do the students see the process as valuable. If grades, right or wrong, are the reflection of the overall educational process, shouldn’t it be a requirement to make the process itself count in some way?
2. Formative assessment by its very nature shouldn’t be given a grade. Most of the research points to this idea. If it is graded, it isn’t formative assessment.
3. Do you think that you were trained to provide a standards based environment? I really don’t know the answer to this…not trying to be sarcastic 🙂 It is too bad that an SMS, or lack of PD, might have been the cause of you not liking it.
4. There is no doubt that the process of teaching would have to change if a standards based system were implemented. I would readily admit that I would have to do more exploring and reading to feel comfortable with it at the elementary level. I am pleased with what I have seen and heard from the HS class and teacher.
5. I would think that RtI would use the standards information and evidence for making decisions. I would argue this would be better than a grade that doesn’t always truly reflect the capabilities of the student.
I love having these conversations with teachers. I only wish that we had more time, and in some cases, desire to have them! Also, my point of the blog post was simply to get people to think about how the process of education can be respected and acknowledged more than it is. Thanks for taking the time to comment!
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