Teachers certainly know how important grades are to school, to the students, even to parents. Problem is, most current university teacher education programs focus on instruction, a

Teachers certainly know how important grades are to school, to the students, even to parents. Problem is, most current university teacher education programs focus on instruction, and do not talk about how to actually grade student work.

Teachers have, and like, the autonomy to set their own practices. That has resulted in inconsistency, inequity and even unreliability in grading practices. While teachers primarily use tests, quizzes, projects, and homework to assign grades, they may also include nonacademic evidence like behavior and effort in their grading equations.

Once teachers decide what to include in their grades, they decide how much weight to assign to each grade category. One teacher may weigh homework as 20% of the final course grade, while another teacher in the same grade level will not grade homework at all. Some teachers may add extra credit points to students’ final course grades if they attend a school event, such as a play. Some other teachers will add points if a student never missed an assignment deadline.

The effort to keep up with multiple teachers’ different grading expectations causes students chronic stress and anxiety, especially for those students with poor organizational, time-management and self-regulation skills. Still, students rarely question teachers’ grading or the grading differences between teachers; rather, they have accepted these differences because “this is how it’s always been”.

(Laura Link. www.theconversation.com, 16.03.2023. Adaptado)

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