Download - Making the Grade
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Making the GradeGrading Practices for
Students with Disabilities
By
Cathy Sartain Industries
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Why Worry About Grading?
• LRE
• Standards based curriculum and state assessment
• District grading policies
• Litigation
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What Makes Grading Hard?
lack of regulatory guidancelack of regulatory guidance
“faulty” thinking
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Doesn’t Federal Law Tell Us Everything We Need To Know?
IDEA: is silent with respect to grading issues
Section 504: prohibits discrimination in grading procedures
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What is Some of the Faulty Thinking?
I can’t fail a special education student
I give all my Life Skills students an 85
• The report card grade does not really mean anything
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The grade on the report card can’t be less than the IEP mastery level
I teach a lot in my classroom, but I can only grade the things that are on the IEP
I don’t do the grades for my sped students in my classroom, the sped teacher does
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I really want to do things correctly…
what guidance is there so
I don’t make mistakes?
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May I use a different grading system?
Only if the IEP team adopts an alternate system based on specific disability related needs
Don’t take it upon yourself to make changes outside of
an IEP Team meeting!
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My student is receiving
accommodations in my classroom, do I modify the grade?
Do not reduce a grade merely because the student receives accommodations, or is in special education
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Since my classroomis inclusive, I
arbitrarily weight my sped students’ grades,
this is OK, right? Of course not!!!!
But, what if we take out the word
arbitrary?
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It Depends!
A district may use a weighting system in which [each] course is analyzed separately and assigned a degree of difficulty based on methods of instruction and material covered(North East ISD, TX. 1995)
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Most of my students are in general education,
can I identify as a goal, that they will make a
passing grade? Definitely not!
The mastery criteria is tied only to the skill specified in the goal
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Are good grades on my sped students’ report cards proof that the district is providing FAPE?
• Persuasive, but not definitive
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If I send out IEP Progress Reports,
must I also send out Report Cards?
IDEA requires that the IEP describes how progress toward annual goal will be measured, and
When the periodic reports on progress will be provided to the parents
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So, we must look to Section 504 for
guidance!Section 504 tells us that:
We can’t discriminate
We must document in IEP if ARDC determines alternate grading method
Grading must be meaningful and useful
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Can the grade be based solely on
effort?State law (TEC 28.0216): requires a teacher to assign a grade that reflects
the student’s mastery of an assignment, AND
may not require a teacher to assign a minimum grade without regard to the student’s quality of work (not on effort alone)
May allow reasonable opportunity to make up or redo assignments and tests failed
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If the IEP Team recommends a grading accommodation, will
that affect the graduation option?
No, graduation options are determined by rigor of content and grading is about mastery of content
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Is it OK to identify if a sped student is
working on a modified curriculum on his report card?
Report cards are intended as a communication to parents and asterisks or other symbols or codes may be used to indicate a modification or exception to the generally applicable grading scale.
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Well then, can we identify if a student is taking sped classes on
their transcript? We can not use a notation for the
purpose of identifying a course for students with disabilities
A transcript is generally expected to be shared with others than just the parent
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In other words:
Grading practices need to be fair and equitable
Practices can’t be discriminatory or exclusionary
Grades need to be meaningful and useful
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What does that look like?
Consistent framework for making decisions on determining grades for report card
Decisions are documented in IEP
Grades are true reflection of student’s progress
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What should we base our decisions
on? District policies
Impact of disability on grading policies and procedures
Place of instruction
Curriculum expectations
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What are my grading options?
District policies
District policies with accommodations
Alternate grading system
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How is this documented in the ARD paperwork?
Depends on the district’s IEP paperwork
Most often is addressed in the accommodations portion of the paperwork
May also be addressed in the deliberations (minutes)
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But this sounds like it could look
differently for each student?
You got it! Must be:Specific to the studentSpecific to the content areaSpecific to the impact of the student’s disability on the grading policies and procedures
Discussed, decided and documented in the IEP meeting
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What tools can help make this happen?
Guidance for IEP Team decision making and documentation
Guidance for IEP Team selection of grading accommodation
Guidance for IEP Team development of alternate grading systems
Training, training, and training!
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Sample ARD Decision-Making GuideFor
Determining Grades
If the instruction is: Then the grading may be:
Curriculum Expectations
Accoms/Mods
Instruct.Setting
State Assessment
Grading Options ARDDocumentation
TEKS with orwithout
Generaland/or Special
STAARSTAAR LSTAAR ASTAAR Alt
1.District policies2.DP with accommodations
TEKSModified
Content mods with Or w/oaccoms
Generaland/or Special
STAAR ASTAAR Alt
1.District policies2.DP with accoms3.Alternate grading
TEKSAlternate
Content Mods(academic & functional)
Generaland/or Special
STAAR Alt 2.DP with accoms3.Alternate grading
DistrictDistrictSpecificSpecific
This is a guidance document. The ARD Committee makes all IEP Decisions based on individual student need.
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SampleGuidance on Selection of Grading Accommodations
Rationalfor Accommodation
Type ofaccommodation
ARD Documentation
• Deficits in long-term retrieval
• Deficits in acquiring basic knowledge
• Deficits in attention and concentration
• Deficits in ability to complete tasks
Assessments
Will take benchmark but will not count as grade
Additional points will be given for corrections on test items
Drop lowest test grade
Assignments
Minimum of ___ daily grades
Grades determined from work completed in class
No grade penalty for classroom notebook check
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Sample Grading Rubric for Student on Alternate Curriculum in General Education
for Social Skills Development
Criterion 4 3 2 1
TransitionsAppropriately moves between activities with no assistance
Appropriately moves between activities with limited assistance
Inconsistently moves between activities with assistance
Refuses to move between activities with assistance
ParticipationStays in work area, on task and participates in all activities
Mostly stays in work area, on task and participates in all activities
Seldom stays in work area, on task and participates in all activities
Refuses to stay in work area, on task and participate in all activities
CommunicationVerbalizes in appropriate manner to express needs and thoughts
With guidance, verbalizes in appropriate manner to express needs and thoughts
Rarely verbalizes in appropriate manner to express needs and thoughts
Inappropriately verbalizes to express needs and thoughts
Total
Comments: Raw Score: ________X/12 Converted Score: ________%