Purpose: To gain a better understanding of the assessment practices currently implemented by Quebec physical education teachers regarding reporting and grading. Method: Exploratory mixed-methods study using semistructured interviews (n = 13), interviews to the double (n = 12), and a questionnaire (n = 164) with elementary and high school physical…

Fair assessment in the classroom is a concern from student, teacher, principal and public perspectives. Standards and policies also underscore fairness as a key underpinning for assessments. Perceptions of fairness impact students' socio-emotional and learning outcomes, and build confidence, trust and legitimacy for the assessment outcomes.…

Objectives: Automatic assessment systems are widely used to provide rapid feedback for students and reduce grading time. Despite the benefits of increased efficiency and improved pedagogical outcomes, an ongoing challenge is mitigating poor student behaviors when interacting with automatic assessment systems including numerous submissions,…

Given the longstanding role of grades in education, and their increased use for high-stakes decisions including student mobility, admission, selection, and accountability, this paper presents a systematic review of grading policies across all 10 Canadian provinces and 3 territories. In total, 23 policies were inductively analyzed for their…

This practice-sharing piece outlines two main approaches to flexible summative assessment schemes, including for each approach one example from my practice and another from a published study. The bento approach offers the same assessments to all students but a variety of grade weighting schemes, allowing students to change weighting during the…

The "Your Kid's Progress" public engagement process represented an unprecedented level of direct conversation between the Ministry of Education and British Columbia (BC) parents. A total of 5,531 feedback forms were submitted, and 379 members of the public attended 11 community open houses. In addition, 63 participants attended small…

A multi-disciplinary academic unit at a Canadian university completed an evaluation of course syllabi used in its undergraduate programmes over the previous five years. This paper examines the reasons for the evaluation, the processes employed to collect and analyse the data, and how the results will be incorporated into the next steps of the…

Knowing that grades can have long-term consequences for students, teachers voice concern about being fair in the grading process. However, their interpretations of fairness are varied and sometimes contradictory. This study looked at how teachers in one standards-based educational system determined secondary students' grades, focusing specifically…

Teachers are smart people, so why does marking reduce them to stressed and soulless messes? Because in their hearts they know that students do not learn from it, and that drives them nuts. Researchers like Lorna Earl and Dylan Wiliam have looked closely at marking systems and have proven what teachers already know deep down: marking student work…

The authors examined how the grading scheme affects learning and students' reactions to the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IFAT), an answer form providing immediate feedback on multiple-choice questions. Undergraduate students (N = 141) took a general-knowledge multiple-choice test of low, medium, or high difficulty. They used the IFAT…

The purpose of this study was to review the methods currently used to report pupil progress and to evaluate report cards used experimentally in Vancouver schools during the 1971-72 school year. Five report cards were developed for primary grades and five more were developed for intermediate grades. Secondary schools were permitted to use any of…

A review of British Columbia (Canada) Education Ministry documents and published research literature examined theory and practice regarding grading of special needs students undertaking modified programs. A lack of equity in reporting progress for these students was found despite professional consensus that students with special needs should be…

Grading, feedback, and reporting of student achievement are key elements that support learning. This article reports an interview study on a range of English as a Second or Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) teachers' classroom assessment practices at the tertiary level in Canada, Hong Kong, and China. The interviews focused on teachers' use of marking…

Describes Newfoundland's method of identifying discrepancies among high school graduation marks and the consequences for students of adjustments made to reduce the differences. Notes effect of size of school, random error, and influence of school or teacher on differences. Considers three sets of assumptions necessary for the analysis. (SB)

A set of constructed portfolios containing achievement products and background information for a simulated student was used to investigate how teachers formulate the evaluation of achievement of their students. The materials, developed for a simulated student named "Chris," were presented to 147 student teachers who graded the 8 product…