GRADING AND REPORTING

Learning Objectives
At the end of this Chapter, the students should be able to:
 explain the functions of grading and reporting;
 distinguish between criterion-referenced and norm- referenced grading;
 compute grades in accordance with the current DepEd policy on grading system and
 cite points to observe when reporting students' progress to both students and
parents.

Introduction
Based on the author's experience both as a parent and as a school head, grades are
very contentious. There is no Card-givng Day where there is no parent complaint or question
about a child's grade. Complaints come in these forms: "The grade should be higher, it
should not be a failing grade; teacher does not explain well; teacher did not accept a project
submitted an hour or so after her/his deadline". Therefore, grading and reporting as a way of
communicating assessment results should never be taken for granted.
We cannot blame students and parents for their grade consciousness. Ours is still a
world that puts emphasis on grades. When you enroll in a college course, you have to meet
a minimum Grade Point Average that is required; when you apply for and enjoy a
scholasrship grant, you have to meet and maintain certain grade; and when you apply for a
job, you have to present your grades because of all the things that people ask, grades are
always a part. So grades are indeed important. But the competency that grades should
reflect are as important.
It will help students to get good grades if teachers discuss assessment and grades
before conducting the assessment. Reviewing test results with students after assessment
test is important. However, communicating with students as a class or individually before
assessment is equally important. Here are seven things to consider discussing with your
students before assessing (Bobowski, 2017):
 Explain where the test fits in the bigger picture. Any given test or assessment is just
one piece of their overall progress as students. This one test in this one day is not
the sole measure of their potential or their future. A better understanding of context
will help them better understand how it all fits together.
 Share how the test results will affect their overall class grade. Often, students are
unaware why they are being tested or why the teachers need the data they are
looking for. Is it going to be used for setting student or class goals, establishing a
grade, or for placement purposes? Share this information with your students before
the test so that they will understand clearly what the test score will mean to them.
 Pre-empt questions about what their data will look like and who will be seeing it.
Depending on the age of your students, you should consider sharing with them what
results you'll be receiving after the test, what results they, as students, will receive
and what will be shared with their parents.
 Take the fear out of the testing jargon. Words like evaluate, criteria, evidence and
scores can be scary for some students. While they may seem obvious and
interchangeable to you as a teacher, it can help students if you explain these terms
to them and set their minds at ease.
 Clarify the testing environment. Some students are less familiar than others when it
comes to testing and how testing, schedules can interrupt a given week. Providing
better clarification can help alleviate student stress. Let them know if it will be a one-
day test or if it will happen over a period of days. Provide insights into breaks,
whether they can use the restrooms and what they should bring with them on testing
days.
  Make any transition to computers or tablets easy. If there is a computer lab being
used as part of the testing process, be sure they know where the lab is, how the
computer will be used as part of the test and how to log in.
 Provide the dates of the next assessment. When you explain growth over time to
students, it helps to share a basic schedule of how the assessments will be
administered. Let them know when the next one will occur and whether it will be
similar to the one they are preparing for.

Functions of Grading and Reporting Systems

Grading and reporting systems have some very important functions in the educative
process. Some of these important functions are enumerated below:
a) Enhancing students' learning through: clarifying instructional objectives for
them, showing students' strengths and weaknesses, providing information on personal-
social development, enhancing students" motivation (e.g., short-term goals) and indicating
where teaching might be modified. These can be achieved through day-to-day tests and
feedback and integrated periodic tests.
b) Reports to parents/guardians Grading and reporting systems also inform
parents and guardians of students on the progress of their wards. Likewise, grades and
reports communicate objectives to parents, so they can help promote learning and likewise,
communicate how well objectives were met, so parents can better plan.
c) Administrative and guidance uses. The administrative and guidance purposes
of grading and reporting consist in: (1) helping to decide promotion, graduation, honors,
athletic eligibility; (2) reporting achievements to other schools or to employers; and (3)
providing input for realistic educational, vocational and personal counseling.
These three main purposes of grading and reporting by no means exhaust all possible uses
of the activity. The main point, however, is that grades and report cards should promote and
enhance learning rather than frustrate and discourage students. In many schools, reports
cards are given to students and then parents are asked to sign these report cards. Most
schools call for parent-teacher conferences or set aside Card Getting Day for this purpose.

Components of a Grading System

Airasian and Russell (2008) cite 3 components of a grading system: 1) standards of
comparison; 2) aspects of performance and 3) weighting different kinds of evidence.
1. Standards of Comparison. In relation to standards of comparison, the following
questions are asked: What standard for comparison will you use for grading? Will you
compare a student performance to other students' performance (norm-referenced
grading)? Or will you compare student performance with a pre-determined established
standard (criterion-referenced grading)? Or will you compare it to what a student is able to
do (learning potential or self- referenced)?
If we go outcome-based or competency-based, we will be for criterion-referenced,
grading. The pre-determined standards are the intended learning outcomes presented and
explained at the beginning of every lesson.
2. Aspect of Performance. The second component of a grading system is aspect of
performance, i.e., what aspects of performance must be graded? One group of educators
claim only academic performance must be graded. This academic performance to be graded
include quiz and test results (paper- and-pencil tests), assignments, products and
performances to show processes learned. Examples are oral reports, projects, interviews,
portfolios.
Another group of educators asserts that in addition to academic performance,
student's motivation, effort and participation should also be graded. One of the problems in
grading student's motivation, effort and participation, however, is the difficulty in determining
the reliability of effort and motivation.
3. Weighting Different Kinds of Evidence. This refers to how much weight is given
to the different aspects or components of a student's grade. Let us take a look at the
weighting of the different kinds of evidence in the DepEd grading system issued in DepEd
Order 8, s. 2015.

Components Language / AP / EsP Science / Math MAPEH / EPP / TLE

Written Work 30% 40% 20%
Performance Task 50% 40% 60%
Quarterly Assessment 20% 20% 20%

Table 1. Weight of the Components for Grades 1-10

Core Technical-Vocational &

Subject Academic Track Livelihood/Sports/Arts and
Design Track
All other Work All other Work
Subjects Immersion/Research/ subjects Immersion/Research
Business /Exhibit
Enterprise/Simulation Performance
/ Exhibit Performance
Written Work 25% 25% 35% 20%
Performance 50% 45% 40% 60%
Task
Quarterly 25% 30% 25% 20%
Assessment
Table 2. Weight of the Components for SHS
An analysis of the Tables given above shows that DepEd puts the heaviest weight on
performance tasks from Grades 1-10 and from Grades 11-12. From Grades 1 to 10, the
highest percentage (60%) is given to Music, Arts, Physical Education and Health (MAPEH)
and Edukasyong Pantahanan at Pangkabuhayan (EPP-Home Economics and Livelihood
Skills). In Senior High School, the highest percentage (60%) understandably is for the
specialization subjects for the Tech-Voc, Sports and Arts and Design tracks. Obviously,
MAPEH, EPP, the specialization subjects in the Tech-Voc, Sports and Arts and Design
tracks are dominantly skill subjects.
For complete details on the DepEd Grading System, refer to DepEd Order #8, s. 2015.

Why Communicate Assessment Result

We document our assessment processes for accountability, institutional and
individual memory. Documenting the decisions made means learned lessons. Asessment
results that have been thoroughly discussed should be communicated clearly and accurately
to learners as well as parents for improved learning.
 Sharing assessment results is an opportunity to tell an important and meaningful
story. Your role is to educate stakeholders about context, background, methods, results of
assessment and to involve them in making sense of the results and identifying possible
solutions or next steps. These can be done during Parents-Teachers Conference.

Some Pointers in Communicating Assessment Results

In order to effectively communicate our assessment results, we need to do the
following: 1) to establish learning outcomes related to what we are assessing; 2) document
the process we used to assess the outcomes; 3) tie the results back to our learning
outcomes to communicate whether the program or service "worked" as we intended and 4)
take note of decisions made as a result of the assessment process. This is the essence of
outcomes- based teaching and learning.
We all agree that students are key education stakeholders. When they are involved
in the assessment process and in their own learning, the result is an improvement in
achievement. An objective, transparent and respectful assessment feedback to students
drives home the points which the students need to work upon.

Giving Feedback to Students and Parents after Assessments

Giving feedback is never easy. It is important that the feedback process is handled
delicately. Below are some points that can guide the teacher as an assessor during
feedback:
 A cliché, which works effectively, is to open the session with a positive feedback.
 Know the expectation of the student/parent from the feedback session; it acts as a
compass for the teacher as assessor.
 Be very specific and stick to the pre-defined parameters or competencies to make
reference.
 Cite examples whenever possible to help the student/parent understand better.
 Involve the student/parent. Feedback has to be a dialogue and not a monologue
which means that the student/parent should be given an opportunity to discuss
student's/parent's aspirations, motivations and experience of the assessments.
 Be patient and display great listening skills to create the required trust and rapport
with the student/parent.
 Allow the student/parent to explain the intent behind his/ her action and differing
opinion whenever appropriate.
 Refrain from passing a judgmental statement; your statements have to be suggestive
rather than stated as absolute truths.

The feedback provider has to remember that feedback is also a mechanism to learn for
people. Let us make a reference to the Johari Window given below:
 The feedback should help the students/parents become aware of both their areas of
strength and areas for development, It should encourage students/parents to do
introspection, help students/parents to draw inference and reach conclusions.
People are very good at hiding any feeling of hurt and upset However, beneath the
façade lies a demoralized and de-motivated individual. For example, some students might
start thinking "if that is what I am like, am I really going to get where I want?" or "Is this what
they think of me?" Such situation requires very careful handling of feedback or else it can
become the road to frustration.
If the desired level of trust does not exist between the teacher and the
student/parent, feedback discussion becomes very difficult and the purpose of feedback is
defeated. If teachers share the outcomes and feedback with the student/parent without
allowing discussion or comment, the feedback session becomes a fiasco. Where
students/parents do not share hopes, aspirations or intrinsically commit to their development
actions no further progress can take place. It helps if the teacher knows the profile of the
student/parent beforehand as it later helps in navigating the feedback discussion
appropriately. This results in greater acceptability of feedback.

Reporting Students' Progress and Grades to Parents

Students' progress and grades are reported to parents through Report Card,
Parents-Teachers conference and written conferences.

Report Card. The Report Card is a standard method of reporting students' progress
and grades to parents. See sample report card for junior and senior high school from the
Department of Education.

https://www.teacherph.com/progress-report-card-elementary-jhs/
For a more meaningful reporting of students' progress, the meaning of grades is given. The
DepEd gives the following grade interpretation:

Descriptors Grading Scale Remarks

Outstanding 90-100 Passed
Very Satisfactory 85-89 Passed
Satisfactory 80-84 Passed
Fair Satisfactory 75-79 Passed
Did Not Meet Expectation Below 75 Failed

Report cards convey letter grades like A, B, C, D and F sometimes with or so a

student may get an A+ or A-, B+ or B-, etc. Some report cards convey numerical grades
such as 85 in Math, 93 in English and 88 in Biology. Still other report cards simply have Pass
or Fail. The DepEd Student Report Card include affective characteristics such as Maka-
Diyos, Maka-tao, Maka- bansa and Maka-kalikasan.

Written Progress Reports. These can be weekly, bi-weekly or monthly reports of

the student's progress and achievement (McMillan, 2007). These written reports may include
the student's performance on tests and quizzes, projects, oral reports... They also can
include information about the student's motivation, cooperation and behavior, as well as
suggestions for how parents can help the student improve his/her performance.
Figure 1. for a sample written progress report.

Parent-Teacher Conferences. Durham (2006) asserts that "parent-teacher

conferences are both a responsibility and an opportunity." The education of the learner is the
primary responsibility of parents. In this task of educating children, parents are assisted by
the school. For the benefit of children then it is best for teachers and parents to come
together to discuss their children's progress. Parent-Teacher Conferences are a perfect
avenue for this purpose.
It has been a practice of schools to set aside a day for Report Card distribution which
is at the same time the opportunity for parents and teachers to confer regarding their child's
performance.
Here are some reminders for schools/teachers to get the most from parent-teacher
conferences:
1. Announce the date for card-giving in advance. Or better still the school calendar
which should be given at the beginning of the school year must already include the
dates for card-giving and parent-teacher conference/s. Parents are busy and can't
just be there at the school's beck and call.
2. Be positive in approach. Start the conference with something positive and maintain
the positive atmosphere. There is always something good in every student. Even if a
student has performed poorly, try to find at least some areas in which the student has
performed well.
3. Be objective. While you should be positive, be truthful and honest. Give an accurate
picture of a student's performance in order not to give false hopes to parents.
4. Have a listening ear. Act with empathy. Parents are parents. They will tend to favor
their children.
5. Don't project an "omniscient "image. You don't know all the answers to questions.
Refer the parents to the right person. Example, the Physics teacher if the problem is
the child's performance in Physics.
6. Practice good communication skills. Communicate criteria for grading. Have a
dialogue not a monologue where the only one talking is you (or only the parent).
7. Don't talk about other students. The focus of the parent- teacher conference should
only be the parent's child. Never compare the child with other students.
8. End with an encouraging note in the same way that you began with a positive note. It
is not the end of the world.