PAideia Grading: Rationale and Strategy

Grades, per se, indicate the relative quality of work in an educational course or class. That is not our goal in student evaluations; rather, it is our desire to come along side parents and help by giving constructive feedback on assignments.

We have found that numerical ratios (percentage grades) are the least effective way to communicate actual progress in comprehension, application, insight, expression, and originality. Therefore, we focus on comments, suggestions for improvement and correction of misconceptions or errors in students' papers, but give no "score" as such.

Parents retain all final student evaluation authority, and therefore may add any type of score (number or letter) to an assignment as their own evaluation of effort, as well as for personal permanent records or transcript purposes. Parents may opt to keep their own grades.

Rubrics:

Strategies for evaluation and communication of objectives

A rubric is a simple chart that explains what the teacher is looking for in an assignment; in other words, it describes what the assignment will look like if the objectives are met.

In a rubric, the column on the left lists key elements the teacher is expecting—the "objectives" of the assignment. The columns to the right of the objectives describe levels of quality describing student's work, from "E," exceeding the assignment expectation, to "F," has not meet expectation.

The criteria for success changes for each individual assignment; therefore, we provide a rubric for each item of significance. Both parents and students need clear examples of good and not-so-good efforts to grasp how to interpret rubric descriptions. Teachers go over this in class, and parents can access the same information in webinars, conference calls and on-campus training meetings.

Rubrics also are excellent tools for peer and self-evaluation—a major goal in PAideia—because they force thoughtful reasoning on the part of the student. As one child lamented, "If you get something wrong, your teacher can prove you knew what you were supposed to do!"*

Obviously, if an assignment is not turned in on time it has not met expectations. A student has two weeks to overturn the "fails to meet assignment expectations" evaluation; however, an assignment turned in late, by definition, also could not meet the 'exceeds expectations' category. By design the 'evaluation levels' are broad, and most of the feedback is in the descriptions the teacher circles. "No number grades" also applies to all tests and quizzes. The teacher determines a satisfactory level of comprehension, and grades accordingly.

Click HERE to view a sample Rubric.

May my student try again on an assignment?

Absolutely. In fact, it is a good idea. After an assignment has been submitted and the teacher has returned it with comments, a student then has two weeks to redo his work and resubmit for a (hopefully) brighter assessment, if he desires.

What about records ? Do I receive a gradesheet or report card?

We use an online record-keeping system called Engrade , accessible at www.engrade.com. Parents may log in and check their students' progress as often as they desire. We recommend checking it weekly. You must sign in to Engrade and set up an account. Teachers distribute the information the students need to access that particular class. It will look something like this: engrade-mrsgolden-3021.

Teachers enter weekly assignments and record a letter grade for each student. Engrade makes evaluation available at any point in a quarter, but the records are deleted two weeks after a quarter ends.

Matrix vs Rubric

A matrix has a similar purpose to a rubric, but its structure is different, and it incorporates mathematical weighting to place more emphasis on certain areas of the assignment. It has less feedback overall than a rubric.

PAideia teachers still determine a "satisfactory" benchmark and evaluate a student's work upward or downward from the satisfactory standard. Therefore, a returned matrix, even though it will have a designated number of available of points, will still be graded E, S, D or F.

Many major projects and writing assignments have matrices. Click HERE to view a sample of a culturative history rhetoric-level convocation matrix.

Accomodation and Modification of Assignments

Modifying an assignment, as opposed to accommodating for a student are two distinctive actions that parents often confuse. In modification, the assignment itself and its objectives are changed, which in turn actually changes the curriculum.

Accommodation, on the other hand, allows parents and teachers to find the best way for a student access information and then communicate his knowledge to others; the changes allowed in accommodation do not lower the expectations of a lesson.

Accommodations

Any physical adjustments to assist a student qualify as 'accommodations.' These include books on tape, simplified versions of a book, oral testing, oral answers that a parent documents, computer-assisted technology, advance notice to parents to allow time to secure Braille or large print editions or to work on writing that will take more time, furniture rearrangement for accessibility, smaller groups, smaller lists, or taped class discussion.

In accommodation, the lesson objective and the coordinating lesson plans do not lower the expectations on material to learn. The method to reach the objective may change, and the adjustment makes learning more accessible to an individual student.

Modifications

Parents, especially those who have chosen to take responsibility for their children's education, often have learning opportunities or family situations that alter their original circumstances. For example, a dad may have a sudden business trip to Washington, D.C and wants to make it a field trip, or a new fitful baby disrupts efforts to work through a reading book on time.

The logical question to follow such a situation is, "May we change our child's assignment to match what we are going through?" The answer is:

We evaluate student work based on the objectives we have written. If you choose to modify the objective, you, the parent, also need to modify the evaluation based upon your particular objectives for this assignment and keep a record of the work.

You may certainly alter your child's assignment, but PAideia can not then evaluate it according to the original objectives, and therefore cannot give a consistent cumulative assessment of the quarter. The grading benefit of PAideia is simply waived for that quarter.

Special Needs

Special needs students are specially loved in PAideia, and flourish in this multi-sensory classical educational environment. Participating in a medieval feast communicates!

The rubric design of PAideia allows tremendous flexibility in accommodating and evaluating. If a student struggles with reading an assigned book, parents may read it to him, have a sibling read aloud, secure a book on tape, or substitute a simpler version of the book. We are open to helping students anyway we can.

We differentiate between the skill of reading and reading a book for content. Of course, a student must continue working on the skill of reading, but it does not follow that he cannot enjoy the content of the book his classmates are discussing in Culturative History or English.

Writing can be accommodated in similar ways. The critical factor is communication and cooperative planning between teachers and parents.

Parent Accountability

Dialectic and Rhetoric Parents give weekly accountability to PAideia by checking off and signing a Parent Accountability Sheet in both Culturative History and English. Graders check the sheet each week. The checklist relates to student-parent discussions, tracking down missing assignments, assigned Bible reading, vocabulary words, and spelling (English only).

In the "comments" section, parents may note special needs to the grader, and the grader may likewise send personalized information to the parent.

These sheets should be stapled in the front of the student notebook (a red folder for English, blue for Culturative History) on the left side.

Each quarter, replace the completed sheet with a new blank one. The forms are posted on our website under "Class Materials."

Student-Parent Accountability Sheets are only for Dialectic and Rhetoric level students.

Preschool and Early Grammar

Teachers give regular feedback of grammar-level students to parents. The scale for young students is similar to the older:

• E = excellent
• S = satisfactory
• N = needs improvement
• U = unsatisfactory

Grammar students receive feedback in academic subject areas and in conduct. The best way, however, to achieve maximum progress is frequent and open conversation between parent and teacher. Enjoy the relationship you share, and become friends