Grading on a Curve?

This week I saw something that caused me to think, “Huh?” I was reviewing a student’s grades and saw an asterisk after a test and the footnote indicated, “Two points added due to curve.” While adding points was unlikely to harm any students, I was curious. I rarely see mention of grading on a curve and began wondering if adding points covered up missed learning or could lead to inequity if there was a gap between the high score and the next highest score. There are countless articles and resources regarding grading and reporting, the purpose here is to provide a shortcut to some relevant sources for practitioners to use and share to improve grading and reporting practices.

· What is Grading on a Curve (GOC)?

· Is there evidence to support grading on a curve and what are the effects?

· Where are high-quality grading resources?

What is Grading on a Curve?

The best definition I found was from Calsamiglia and Loviglio (2019) where they reported teachers grade on a curve “whenever having better-performing peers harms the grade provided to a given student, namely when relative performances affect the given evaluation.” The authors acknowledge this is a minimal definition but this would apply to classes where a student may only get one wrong and a gap exists between that score and the next highest. All students in the class then earn a lower score based on the outlier student’s performance. Also, having been around high school students, I would predict it is likely the identity of the outlier will soon be known and behavior toward that person may change to the negative.

Is there evidence to support grading on a curve and what are the effects?

The short answer is, no. For most or all grading questions I have, I turn to the works of Drs. Thomas Guskey and Lee Ann Jung. In 2013, Guskey and Jung authored the book, Answers to Essential Questions About Standards, Assessments, Grading, and Reporting. Chapter 20 is “What is Wrong with Grading on the Curve?” One of the points mentioned immediately is that grading on a curve pits students against each other for a grade. By grading on a curve, assessment of learning is not conducted and the grade obtained is a measure of the student’s performance relative to the class and not an indication of learning. Although I did not find a wealth of peer-reviewed studies when searching “grading on a curve and effects”, Guskey and Jung provide a rational argument that grading on a curve assesses student performance relative to others and is not a measure of mastery of the material that was taught.

The “curve” in grading on a curve refers to the bell curve or natural distribution. When using a natural distribution, it is assumed that scores will fall across a spectrum in an evenly distributed manner. If a teacher instructs and assigns practice to assist students in learning concepts, it would be logical to expect that the distribution would skew positively and more students would score higher on the assessment.

Dr. Adam Grant wrote an op-ed for the New York Times where he cited that 40 percent of grades across 200 universities were in the A realm (Grant, 2016). Grant also mentioned that grade inflation was occurring in this situation but when a curved distribution is forced, only a certain percentage of students can excel. He argues that if more than a specific number of students mastered the material but the curve limits the number that can receive a grade indicating mastery, several will be penalized. Through a series of in-class experiments, Grant found that cooperative methods increased performance and mastery of material more than competing with each other.

What are some high-quality grading resources?

As I searched for grading and reporting resources, many related to higher education rather than secondary education. During this time of school closings and altered attendance models, I would argue that some high schools are moving to more of a college-based attendance model. It would be logical that instruction and grading for some students will resemble higher education during high school. If students attend two to three times a week and then have independent work that seems to be more college like than traditional high school. It is hoped we will return to “normal” sooner than later and time will tell. It could also be predicted that some changes will remain even when COVID is the past.

There are numerous resources and websites devoted to the improvement of grading and reporting. The list below is not exhaustive but may be useful for others to share or use in their practice.

Online Resources:

Grant, A. (2016). Why we should stop grading students on a curve. New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/opinion/sunday/why-we-should-stop-grading-students-on-a-curve.html

Dr. Thomas Guskey and Associates: http://tguskey.com/

Eight Essential Principles for Improving Grading: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept20/vol78/num01/Eight-Essential-Principles-for-Improving-Grading.aspx

Ethical Grading Tips (CTL), Oregon State University: http://ctl.oregonstate.edu/sites/ctl.oregonstate.edu/files/gradingtips-2017.pdf

Books:

Guskey, T. R., & Brookhart, S. M. (2019). What we know about grading: What works, what doesn't, and what's next. https://www.amazon.com/What-We-Know-About-Grading/dp/1416627235/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=guskey+grading&qid=1601739909&sr=8-1

Guskey, T. R., & Jung, L. A. (2013). Answers to essential questions about standards, assessments, grading, and reporting. Answers to essential questions about standards, assessments, grading, and reporting. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Jung, L. A., & Guskey, T. R. (2012). Grading exception and struggling learners. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.