“Are comments on student work superior to grades?” asks
assessment guru Thomas Guskey (University of Louisville/University of Kentucky)
in this article in Phi Delta Kappan.
“It depends… The research on this issue is far more complicated and more highly
nuanced than most writers acknowledge.” Guskey cites several studies that
provide helpful guidance for K-12 educators.
• A 1958 study by
psychologist Ellis Page – Secondary-school teachers gave numerical scores
on their students’ assessments and then converted the scores into A, B, C, D, F
grades. Three randomly-selected groups of students then got their papers back
with:
-
Numerical
and letter grades only;
-
Numerical,
letter grades, and standard comments for each grade: A: Excellent! Keep it up. B: Good work. Keep at it. C: Perhaps try to do still better? D: Let’s bring this up. and F: Let’s raise
this grade!
-
Numerical
score, letter grade, and individual comments based on each teacher’s personal reactions
and instructional priorities.
Page compared the
impact of these three approaches by looking at how students did on their very
next assessment. Here’s what he found: students in the first group did no
better; students in the second group did significantly better than those in the
first; and students in the third group did better still. The conclusion (which
has been confirmed by subsequent studies): grades are helpful only if they’re
accompanied by teachers’ comments.
What’s striking about this study is that the standard,
boilerplate comments given to the second group of students had such a positive impact.
The comments involved very little work for teachers, but made almost as much
difference as the much more time-consuming individualized comments given to the
third group of students. Guskey believes a little-recognized insight from
Page’s study is the nature of the
standard comments. First, each of these seemingly robotic comments communicated
the teacher’s high expectations and the importance of students’ continued effort.
Second, all the comments made clear that the teacher was on students’ side and
willing to partner with them to improve. Instead of saying You must raise this grade, the comment was Let’s raise this grade! – conveying, I’m with you in this, we can do it! In other words, says Guskey, “The
message teachers communicate in their comments may be what matters most.”
• Benjamin Bloom’s
mastery learning – In the late 1960s and 1970s, Bloom promoted the idea
that on formative assessments, students should receive a grade of Mastery or Not Mastery. Bloom defined Mastery as the clearly described level
of performance that teachers believe would deserve an A, which then becomes the
standard of mastery for all students.
Students scoring below Mastery on formative assessments are in a temporary
state, not there yet, and should
receive diagnostic and prescriptive instruction from the teacher and additional
chances to demonstrate mastery. Bloom believed that with sufficient time and
skillful corrective instruction, 95 percent of students can achieve Mastery. In
short, Bloom believed in comments to guide under-par performance to mastery grades,
guided by clear expectations up front.
• Ruth Butler’s
1988 study – Fifth and sixth graders took a test and were then divided into
three groups, each receiving a different type of feedback:
-
Grades
from 40 to 99 based on students’ relative standing in the class
(norm-referenced or competitive grades);
-
Individual
comments on students’ performance on the objective (criterion-referenced or task-focused);
-
Both
competitive grades and task-oriented individual comments.
The study found that
students in the second group did best, indicating that competitive grading is
not an effective practice, and task-focused comments can boost learning by
giving students specific information on their performance and suggestions for
improvement. What’s interesting is that the competitive-grades approach benefited high-performing students,
maintaining their interest and motivation, while undermining the interest and
motivation of low-performing students.
Guskey adds that the nature of the comments is the key
factor. In Butler’s study, they were task-oriented and instructionally helpful.
Additional research by John Hattie and Helen Timperley reinforces the idea that
it’s the quality, nature, and content
of teachers’ comments that make a difference.
• Guskey’s
conclusions – First, he says, grades – whether they are letters, numbers,
symbols, words, or phrases – are not inherently good or bad: “They are simply
labels attached to different levels of student performance that describe in an
abbreviated fashion how well students performed.”
Second, grades should always be based on learning
criteria that the teacher has clearly spelled out. Grades that compare students
to their peers do not move learning forward. In fact, says Guskey, “Such
competition is detrimental to relationships between students and has profound
negative effects on the motivation of low-ranked students, as the results from
the Butler (1988) study clearly show.”
Third, assessments must be well-designed, meaningful, and
authentic, and grades should reliably and accurately measure the learning goals
and provide useful information to guide teachers and students to improve
learning.
Fourth, grades by themselves are not helpful. “Grades
help enhance achievement and foster learning progress,” says Guskey, “only when they are paired with
individualized comments that offer guidance and direction for improvement.” And
of course those comments must be followed up with time and support for students
to improve their work.
Fifth, students and families must understand that grades
don’t reflect who students are, but their temporary location on the learning
journey. “Knowing where you are is essential to understanding where you need to
go in order to improve,” says Guskey. This metacognitive awareness also makes
students better judges of their own work and increasingly self-sufficient as
learners.
Finally, Guskey sums up the collective wisdom of
researchers, especially Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues, on effective
comments on students’ tests, essays, products, performances, or demonstrations:
-
Always
begin with what the student did well, recognizing accomplishments or progress.
-
Identify
the areas that need improvement.
-
Offer
specific guidance on steps the student needs to take to meet the learning
criteria.
-
Communicate
confidence in the student’s ability to achieve at the highest level.
(Please Note: The summary above is reprinted with permission from issue #814 of
The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.)
