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= Agenda = Tuesday, May 29 1. Agree/pass the best grading practice recommendations from last meeting 2. Agree and craft how we will present to the faculty

= Minutes = Tuesday, May 15

Best grading practice recommendations and rationale: 1. Jackson & Anne: LAs will develop a consistent retake/correction/revision policy and procedure that allows for students to demonstrate their best learning.

2. Meghan & Mollie: Each LA will have general/uniform/consistent grading policies. Different sections of the same course must have same grading policy with regard to: a. retake/test corrections/revision policy b. weighting policy c. late policy d. make up due to absences

3. Lorrie: Work Habits and proficiency need to be separated in grades.

4. Learning Areas will find ways to communicate work that is undone...to replace the zero Zeroes: don't communicate learning What if we put in 50s? How many zeroes do we have in Powerschool? Needs to be a faculty discussion....

= = = Minutes = Tuesday, May 1 Discuss Surveys Side by Side:
 * Over 80% of both students and teachers favor broad grading principles, so we're going to go forward with this.
 * Lots of discussion about retakes: We discussed limitations, students taking advantage of this policy, creating conditions that encourage students to use the policy fairly, retakes are recommended in much of the professional literature. We might have more agreement among faculty respondents if they knew they had flexibility to to administer retakes that worked best in their course.
 * Lots of discussion about what a grade should communicate. We agree that it should be a one of our broad principles to separate WH from performance on assessments. We might work toward a principle that said something like WH will count no greater than 10% of the final grade. We agree (I think) that the percentage per each course should be decided by learning areas. These percentages can vary by course and/or grade level, but the weighting should be a whole learning area decision. This discussion will encourage us to be more public with our grading practices.
 * Long discussion about the "mathematical dilemma"...the ZERO. Faculty and student are completely in disagreement about this issue. We know the problem with the math...it still feels like we're working through possible solutions to this question. It seems to always create energetic conversation and even debate.

= Minutes = Tuesday, April 3 Observations from Student Survey: PartA:
 * 75% of students understand how grades calculated and how figured, but 25% don't
 * 73% of students use teacher comments on work; 27% use comments sometimes--this was a more positive response than end of quarter comments (68% say helpful but 41% say only sometimes helpful or never)
 * 51% motivated by learning vs. 78% motivated by grades
 * 87% of students favor redoes/corrections but wide variety about how those new grades should be figured into final grade
 * 85% want teachers to drop lowest grade
 * 87% of students say rubrics are helpful but wide variety understanding how grades derived from rubric

Part B:
 * Favor broad principles: 88% vs. favor uniform practices: 60%
 * Negatives are maybe more helpful here: 12% don't want broad principles; 40% don't want uniform practices
 * 79% okay with group grades
 * Wide divide on zeroes for missing work
 * Lots of disagreement about including work habits in grades--most (59%) say it should be included
 * 81% say grading practices are fair
 * Lots of students willing to join a discussion

Comments from discussion:
 * Our primary focus shouldn't be Powerschool--that falls outside our committee
 * Effort and work habits usually help a grade therefore it isn't surprising that they want to include; conversely zeroes hurt their grade
 * 81% say practices are fair but 18% think they are unfair...that is 60 students
 * The respondents who say practices aren't fair could be referring to an incident with one teacher. Maybe they've had 19 classes where the grading was fair, but they are responding with one teacher in mind. Only 8 students have strong disagreement.
 * The stats skew the data. We're missing 43 senior respondents. This is important data b/c they have the most experience. Largest percentage of freshmen took the survey. They are 1/3 of the pool instead of 1/4.
 * % of class type: is this a fair distribution of the student body?

= = = Agenda = Tuesday, March 20 1. Revisit data from faculty survey. Discuss results and next steps

Questions where there seems to be broad agreement in faculty survey, and which do not require lots of discussion: I. Part A Question 3: Almost no teachers include tardiness, attendance and adherence to class rules in calculation of grades Question 5: Almost all teachers reduce Work Habits grades in some way for late work. Question 6: Most teachers never or only sometimes give bonus points. Question 8: Almost all teachers organize information in PS by standard Question 13: All but 7% of faculty allow students to improve grades by doing test corrections Question 16: All but 14% of faculty drop the lowest grade on certain assessments Question 19: All but 2% of faculty believe students understand how grades are calculated in their classes. Question 20: For teachers who include effort in grading, 92% count it less than 10% Question 21: For teachers who include class participation in grades, 92% count it less than 10%

II. Part B Question 2: 95% of faculty DO NOT agree that there should be a limit to the number of students who receive an A Question 5: 85% of teachers believe it would be better if YHS had an agreed upon set of broad grading principles.

Questions with a significant diversity of opinion Part A Q9: I include 0s as marks for missing work in the calculation of grades k

= = 2. Write brief statement to update the faculty on our progress. = Agenda = Tuesday, March 6 1. Consider and revise student survey. 2. Plan to deliver survey to student body. 3. What else should we do with the faculty survey results? = = = Agendas & Minutes = 1. Predict results of survey: We all made guesses as to what the faculty would generally agree and disagree with. 2. Discuss results: We broke into two groups, read data and made observations. Our observations (Marc Brown, Molly Maguire, Anne Tommaso, Meghan Casey)
 * Minutes:** Tuesday, February 7
 * Even split of agree and disagree for First Question of Part B
 * 23/31 factor in work habits
 * 8/31 take points off for lateness of work (always frequently) vs. 11/31 never take points off for lateness of work (Never)
 * Part B Question 3: People who think only communicate achievement 22 v 21 (adding the two)
 * Part A Green (11) Detailed comments: even split between always, frequently, sometimes
 * 35/42 agree to broad principles about grading practices
 * ⅔ of teachers do not completely replace a redo grade for the first grade; 6/31 almost always completely replace a redo grade.

Observations on Grading Survey Graphs (Mark Marstaller, Ted Hall, Lorrie King, Gina Micucci, Chris Hill) 3. Next steps:
 * There was a 50-50 split for the full faculty for Specific Grading Practice Agreement.
 * More faculty members were in favor of Agreement of Broad Grading Practices.
 * 5 out of 44 faculty members agree that the number of A’s should have a limit.
 * 25 out of 31 classroom teachers never use Tardiness, Attendance, or Class Rules as part of the grade.
 * 8 out of 32 classroom teachers said that participation was included in the grade.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There seemed to be a split on including homework in the grade (16 to 13).
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3 people reported they never make comments about students work.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3 people reported that they never allow retakes.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Effort and Class Participation showed up as less than 5% of the grade about 75% of the time.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">6 classroom teachers said that Almost Always (and 2 said Frequently) that retakes replace the original grade.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">11 classroom teachers said that they organize their grades by source instead of by standard.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">16 out of 31 (50%) never drop the lowest grade.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A large percentage of the teachers believe that their students understand how their grades are computed
 * What else do we do with the results? Choose 4-5 mixed response questions to discuss further.
 * Create student survey and collect, analyze results: hopefully have draft to look at
 * Revisit our goals...revise? What other deadlines, what do we hope to accomplish?

1. Consider comment about refraining from discussing specific classes or teachers in our meetings. Hear and discuss multiple views, vote--3 min. Tabled<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. We agreed to start right in on talking about our upcoming faculty meeting. 2. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Planning the meeting__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We decided to have the survey first, then have faculty read the article, then break up into small groups for discussion. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Agenda for Feb. 1 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I. Meet in Chris’s room--take survey <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">II. Break up into small groups <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> a. read article <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> b. facilitate discussion and take notes on participants' comments <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Discussion: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Should we have a set protocol for the discussion for the article. Anne suggested we have open discussion in small groups with one of us leading each group. Facilitators can just take notes, and not participate, except to facilitate if the conversation gets stuck. Should students be there--we decided teachers will feel more comfortable speaking if students are not present. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Discussion questions: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. What is one thing you agree with in the article? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2. What should be the purpose of grades? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3. What shouldn't be the purpose of grades? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5. What is one thing that you struggle with in your grading practice? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Survey <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We went through question by question, and discussed each. Made changes--Anne made them on hard copy and updated them online.
 * Minutes:** Tuesday January 24

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Adjourned at 3:30

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Minutes:** Tues Jan 10 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Present: Molly, Gina, Ted, Anne, Jackson, Marc, Mark, Chris, Alice, Lorrie <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Prior: Read “Starting the Conversation about Grading” and be ready to discuss; think about ways to design faculty and/or student survey <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Decide next mtg's agenda: Not sure we came to a conclusion about Guidance's role in our meetings
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Text based discussion about the article--30 minutes: check article link at left
 * 2) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Work on survey(s)--30 minutes: this turned into an open, informal discussion:
 * Use the survey in Repair Kit as a model to create our own: Ted, Lorrie, and _ will work on this
 * Conversation about:
 * Narrative data vs. numerical data
 * Course specific grading changes test groups/trials
 * Open gradebooks to discussion
 * What is mastery grading? What will Powerschool allow?
 * Good question for survey: How satisfied are you with your current grading practice? Which of the following are the most fair?
 * Comments about inconsistencies being the biggest issue: grading homework, retakes, slight differences are actually significant, weighting
 * Who is the audience for a grade? What would Guidance sat?
 * Can we split grades between achievement and other qualities?
 * Where does Academic Dishonesty fall in all of this?
 * Alice, Jackson, Anne will begin to work on survey for students.
 * Consider surveys created
 * Could we finalize one survey during the next meeting? Maybe faculty?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Minutes: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Tuesday Dec 20, 2011 2:30--3:00
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Prior: All read at least 3 articles plus short overview “What We Learn from Grades” and post abstracts and ratings
 * 2) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Do we have a quorum? Yes, addition of a History teacher would be welcome
 * 3) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Revisit Committee Objectives: passed
 * 4) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Examine ratings and abstracts and nominate 1-2 articles for the group to read: done, see Jan 10 agenda
 * 5) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Spontaneous discussion about the difficulty of designing a survey including numerical versus narrative replies


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Minutes: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wednesday Dec 7, 2011 7:20-8:20
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Agreed on meeting schedule: Alternate Tuesdays from Leadership Team 2:30-3:30
 * 2) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Discuss and approve Committee Objectives & Methods: Edits made, will revisit at the beginning of next meeting
 * 3) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Divvy articles and collaborative reading ideas: Done
 * 4) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Agree on agenda for next meeting: Done