How to Use Grading to Improve Learning, July/2017

Originally published by Solution Tree as Grading and Learning: Practices That Support Student Achievement.

Grades are imperfect, shorthand answers to “What did students learn, and how well?” In How to Use Grading to Improve Learning, best-selling author Susan M. Brookhart guides educators at all levels in figuring out how to produce grades—for single assignments and report cards—that accurately communicate students’ achievement of learning goals. Brookhart explores topics that are fundamental to effective grading and learning practices:

1. Acknowledging that all students can learn
2. Supporting and motivating student effort and learning
3. Designing and grading appropriate assessments
4. Creating policies for report card grading
5. Implementing learning-focused grading policies
6. Communicating with students and parents
7. Assessing school or district readiness for grading reform

The book is grounded in research and resonates with the real lessons learned in the classroom. Although grading is a necessary part of schooling, Brookhart reminds us that children are sent to school to learn, not to get grades. This highly practical book will help you put grading and learning into proper perspective, offering strategies you can use right away to ensure that your grading practices actually support student learning.

About The Author:

Susan M. Brookhart is an independent educational consultant and author based in Helena, Montana. She is professor emerita, School of Education at Duquesne University and was the 2007–2009 editor of Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, a journal of the National Council on Measurement in Education. Brookhart is an associate editor of Applied Measurement in Education and author or coauthor of 18 books and more than 70 articles and book chapters on classroom assessment, teacher professional development, and evaluation. She was named the 2014 Jason Millman Scholar by the Consortium for Research on Educational Assessment and Teaching Effectiveness (CREATE) and is the recipient of the 2015 Samuel J. Messick Memorial Lecture Award from ETS/TOEFL. Brookhart's interests include the role of both formative and summative classroom assessment in student motivation and achievement, the connection between classroom assessment and large-scale assessment, and grading. She works with schools, districts, regional educational service units, and universities doing professional development and consultation.