PowerTeacher Gradebook: Weighting Assignments
November 3, 2013
Tags: Gradebook, Grades, PowerSchool, PowerTeacher
Not all assessments are equal in importance or time, and as a result, they should not appear to be such in the Gradebook. Some assessments may not count toward a grade at all. Others may prove to be very small. Many will be of some medium weight. A few will be very large, such as an important long-term project.
Simply put, assignments should be weighted based on a combination of:
- how important the concepts/content/skills from the assignment are within the context of the Curriculum
- how much time was spent working on/toward this assignment
Weighting a quiz or test
In most cases, a traditional quiz or test will weight itself, though if you are assessing multiple academic areas or Power Standards on that assessment, you will need to split up those elements prior to adding up the points possible for each. On this traditional quiz or test, you’ll simply assign a point value to each problem, and at the end of the assessment, you’ll add up these points.
Weighting a rubric or checklist – (Click here for a more specific example of weighting rubrics)
In the case of an assessment that is based on a rubric or checklist, you will want to transfer that rubric to points. (If you are assessing multiple areas of assessment or multiple Power Standards on the same rubric or checklist, each should have its own line or section. Then, you simply do this process for each area of assessment or Power Standard.)
You do so using the following steps:
- How much is the assessment worth? Is this a small grade, a medium grade, or a big grade?
- Based on that answer, assign a point total consistent with the number of points that your team has determined is reasonable for a small grade or a medium grade or a big grade. This is how many possible points the assignment is worth.
- Now, determine how many points a student who scores an “Exceeds” will receive. You will want to consider this based on the total possible points. Typically, you will want the Exceeds scores to equate to an A. If so, you may pick a number that is somewhere around 95% of the total possible points. (It may not be 100% if their work did not have to be perfect to score an Exceeds.)
- Determine how many points a student who scores a “Meets” will receive. Again, base this on the total possible points. Typically, this student will score a B. If so, you may pick a number at around 85% of the total possible.
- Determine how many points a student who scores a “Beginning to Meet” will receive. Again, base this on the total possible points. Typically, this student will score a low C/high D based on the gut reactions of District 21 teachers over the past year. If so, you may pick a number at around 70% of the total possible.
- Determine how many points a student who scores a “Not Meeting” will receive. Again, base this on the total possible points. You will need to choose a percentage that makes sense with the rubric–somewhere around 60% most likely.
Helpful hint: Once you’ve done this process for a couple of different assignments, you are likely to find that you can use and re-use these same values on most of your rubric/checklist assessments. As a result, this will become fairly intuitive and quick with the more rubrics and checklists you use.
Weighting assignments that are not included in the Final Grade
When you are using the Gradebook for data collection on assessments that do not count in the Final Grade (ie, Progress Monitoring data, Exit Slips, etc.), you do not need to consider weighting. So, if a team has decided that its large assesments are typically worth about 100 points, but it is using an assessment tool for progress monitoring a small group of students that is worth 150 points, there is no problem if these assessments are being marked not to be included in the Final Grade. The team can just go ahead and enter each assingment as being out of 150 points in this case.
Topic: Assessment, PowerSchool
Each District 21 school is named after an American author, and learning and literacy is at the center of our Professional Learning Community. The Modern Pen provides a collaborative location in which District 21 teachers can come together to learn the skills that will enable their students to learn new skills and to understand concepts at an even different level than before.
Preparing all students for success
