Re: [tips] Grading improvement

[Leah Adams-Curtis]

You may want to consider having students use techniques that are supporting
improved study habits as counting toward credit as another tactic to lead
to improvement.  These could include having students complete the online
practice tests available with pretty much all textbooks with a requirement
that these have to be distributed (e.g. you can't earn the credit if you do
them all the night before the exam!),  having students create study guides,
outline chapters or lecture notes, etc.  If you are explicit in telling
students why these are part of the course requirements, they may even use
them in other classes!

Best,

Leah

On Thu, Aug 11, 2016 at 9:36 AM, Carol  wrote:

>
> No, I don't believe rewarding poor performance is the intent at all.
> Rather, it sounds like Michael wants to reward honest effort and is trying
> to come up with a way that is workable. It's why I use multiple measures
> (exams, homework, other written work, etc.) so that I'm not assigning
> higher grades to students simply on the basis of test-taking ability. I
> think he's trying to maintain high standards and I've been interested in
> this thread. C'mon Ed, don't be a curmudgeon. :) <-- note smile.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Phone mail
>
> On Aug 11, 2016, at 8:01 AM, Pollak, Edward  wrote:
>
>
>
> And the slide toward rewarding mediocrity continues
> unabated..  We've already dumbed down so many of our
> intro courses and now we're looking for ways to moderate the effects of
> poor performance.
>
>
> *Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.*
> *Professor Emeritus of Psychology*
> *West Chester University of Pennsylvania *
> *Doc's Bluegrass Newsletter:
> http://www.docsbluegrass.net/bluegrass-newsletter.html*
> *Husband, father, grandfather, bluegrass fiddler &
> biopsychologist... in approximate order of importance*
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *Subject: Grading improvement From: Michael Ofsowitz  > Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2016 12:21:37 -0400
> X-Message-Number: 1 First, forgive me for stepping out of a long-entrenched
> role as lurker. Do any of you have a system to formally grade/reward
> improvement on  course work (e.g., tests) as a component of the total
> course grade? *
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
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> West Chester University.
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-- 

Leah Adams-Curtis
Director of Assessment
Knox College
2 East South Street
Galesburg, IL 61401-4999
309-341-7260

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Re: [tips] Grading improvement

[Carol]

No, I don't believe rewarding poor performance is the intent at all. Rather, it 
sounds like Michael wants to reward honest effort and is trying to come up with 
a way that is workable. It's why I use multiple measures (exams, homework, 
other written work, etc.) so that I'm not assigning higher grades to students 
simply on the basis of test-taking ability. I think he's trying to maintain 
high standards and I've been interested in this thread. C'mon Ed, don't be a 
curmudgeon. :) <-- note smile.







Phone mail

> On Aug 11, 2016, at 8:01 AM, Pollak, Edward  wrote:
> 
>  
> 
> And the slide toward rewarding mediocrity continues 
> unabated..  We've already dumbed down so many of our 
> intro courses and now we're looking for ways to moderate the effects of poor 
> performance. 
> 
> Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.
> Professor Emeritus of Psychology
> West Chester University of Pennsylvania
> Doc's Bluegrass Newsletter: 
> http://www.docsbluegrass.net/bluegrass-newsletter.html
> Husband, father, grandfather, bluegrass fiddler & 
> biopsychologist... in approximate order of importance
> 
> Subject: Grading improvement
> From: Michael Ofsowitz 
> Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2016 12:21:37 -0400
> X-Message-Number: 1
> 
> First, forgive me for stepping out of a long-entrenched role as lurker.
> 
> Do any of you have a system to formally grade/reward improvement on 
> course work (e.g., tests) as a component of the total course grade?
>  
>  
>  
> 
> 
> This e-mail message was sent from a retired or emeritus status employee of 
> West Chester University.
> ---
> 
> You are currently subscribed to tips as: devoldercar...@gmail.com.
> 
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RE:[tips] Grading improvement

[Pollak, Edward]

And the slide toward rewarding mediocrity continues 
unabated..  We've already dumbed down so many of our intro 
courses and now we're looking for ways to moderate the effects of poor 
performance.


Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Psychology
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Doc's Bluegrass Newsletter: 
http://www.docsbluegrass.net/bluegrass-newsletter.html
Husband, father, grandfather, bluegrass fiddler & 
biopsychologist... in approximate order of importance

Subject: Grading improvement
From: Michael Ofsowitz 
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2016 12:21:37 -0400
X-Message-Number: 1

First, forgive me for stepping out of a long-entrenched role as lurker.

Do any of you have a system to formally grade/reward improvement on
course work (e.g., tests) as a component of the total course grade?






This e-mail message was sent from a retired or emeritus status employee of West 
Chester University.

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RE: [tips] Grading improvement

[Maxwell Gwynn]

Michael,
Rather than providing bonus points for improved grades, you could consider 
making the early work (assignments, essays, quizzes) worth proportionally less 
than later work. That way, the students aren't "penalized" as much if they get 
lower grades on early work compared to their later work.
I have also heard of instructors who will simply drop earlier quiz or essay 
grades if subsequent grades are higher.
-Max Gwynn
Maxwell Gwynn, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor & Academic Advisor
Department of Psychology
Wilfrid Laurier University
Waterloo, ON Canada N2L 3C5
519-884-0710 ext 3854
mgw...@wlu.ca  



-Original Message-
From: Michael Ofsowitz [mailto:m...@rochester.rr.com] 
Sent: August-10-16 12:22 PM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Subject: [tips] Grading improvement

First, forgive me for stepping out of a long-entrenched role as lurker.

Do any of you have a system to formally grade/reward improvement on course work 
(e.g., tests) as a component of the total course grade?



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Re: [tips] Grading improvement

[Peterson, Douglas (USD)]

I consider demonstrated improvement when determining final grades. I tell 
students that I will round up at 89.5, 79.5, 69.5 if they have improved over 
the course of exam performance. Otherwise I hold a very firm line stating that 
there must always be a cut point.

While I can see that a students who has completed C B A A is improving a 
student who has had A A B C might be strategizing across all classes such that 
they need to devote more time in Calculus to get to a B while slipping in 
psychology will allow them to maintain a B (or even an A depending on point 
totals).  It is often the best students who follow this strategy and who can 
blame them if they have the points.


In another strategy, I have created created groups and offered extra credit to 
the group that shows the largest average improvement. My hope is that this will 
incentivize not only improving oneself but to encourage others. I’ve only done 
this once (this past spring) and all of the groups improved.  Yes this rewards 
the group that improves the most but at least in my class the greatest 
improvement was for the group with the lowest starting score so the net result 
is more of a leveling rather than “the rich get richer” outcome.  Note: the 
amount of extra credit was 2 points on that exam out of 600 points in the 
course so extra credit of about .33% in the whole class. The net gain from the 
competition was almost 4 points across the whole class and between 3. And 7 
points per group (so what they gained from trying to earn those 2 points had 
more impact than the two points). I guess that could be called gasification. 

Doug

P.S. I never considered exploring this more but after writing up this summer I 
think I’ll be submitting this to a teaching portion of my regional APA 
conference.

On 8/10/16, 11:21 AM, "Michael Ofsowitz"  wrote:

>First, forgive me for stepping out of a long-entrenched role as lurker.
>
>Do any of you have a system to formally grade/reward improvement on 
>course work (e.g., tests) as a component of the total course grade?
>
>In the background, I'm thinking that it must be possible to measure 
>student learning independent of IQ; my tests and other assignments 
>reward comprehension and expression mostly (they're written), so all of 
>that is conflated with IQ. But can there be an acceptable measure of 
>learning independent of IQ? So if a person who's poor at comprehension 
>improves from poor to low-mediocre, can something show that in a 
>rewarding way without cheapening the experience to gold stars or a 
>dumbed-down grading scale?
>
>I'm also thinking that getting a rewarding experience of extra points 
>that are real and meaningful can take some of the frustration away from 
>the student who gets low grades, without me having to play self-esteem 
>games.
>
>I was thinking something like extra credit points for improvement based 
>on a baseline of the first test score. (I also thought about punishment 
>for a high-IQ student who fails to make improvements, but I'm ignoring 
>this for now.) Can it be done fairly and meaningfully so the improving 
>student experiences it as reward? And can it be formalized into an Excel 
>gradebook? Is self-handicapping a potential problem if this is 
>formalized into the syllabus (e.g., strategic underperformance on the 
>first test)? How to avoid that?
>
>And how much credit? Someone who gets grades of A A A A on four tests 
>should have a final grade higher than the student who gets C B A A  and 
>much more than the student who gets C- C+ B- B.  I thought maybe B A A A 
>could be equivalent to A A A A after the "improvement" addition. I 
>wouldn't be bothered by that.
>
>I'll spare you the rest of my rambling thoughts. Any ideas?
>
>  --> Mike O.
>
>Psychology
>Monroe Community College, etc. etc.
>
>
>
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RE: [tips] Grading improvement

[R C Intrieri]

Mike O.
Just to clarify are you wanting a measure of learning that is not consistent
with IQ?  In other words, you want to parcel out the effect of IQ on
learning?
Did I understand that completely?
Bob I

-Original Message-
From: Michael Ofsowitz [mailto:m...@rochester.rr.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2016 11:22 AM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Subject: [tips] Grading improvement

First, forgive me for stepping out of a long-entrenched role as lurker.

Do any of you have a system to formally grade/reward improvement on course
work (e.g., tests) as a component of the total course grade?

In the background, I'm thinking that it must be possible to measure student
learning independent of IQ; my tests and other assignments reward
comprehension and expression mostly (they're written), so all of that is
conflated with IQ. But can there be an acceptable measure of learning
independent of IQ? So if a person who's poor at comprehension improves from
poor to low-mediocre, can something show that in a rewarding way without
cheapening the experience to gold stars or a dumbed-down grading scale?

I'm also thinking that getting a rewarding experience of extra points that
are real and meaningful can take some of the frustration away from the
student who gets low grades, without me having to play self-esteem games.

I was thinking something like extra credit points for improvement based on a
baseline of the first test score. (I also thought about punishment for a
high-IQ student who fails to make improvements, but I'm ignoring this for
now.) Can it be done fairly and meaningfully so the improving student
experiences it as reward? And can it be formalized into an Excel gradebook?
Is self-handicapping a potential problem if this is formalized into the
syllabus (e.g., strategic underperformance on the first test)? How to avoid
that?

And how much credit? Someone who gets grades of A A A A on four tests should
have a final grade higher than the student who gets C B A A  and much more
than the student who gets C- C+ B- B.  I thought maybe B A A A could be
equivalent to A A A A after the "improvement" addition. I wouldn't be
bothered by that.

I'll spare you the rest of my rambling thoughts. Any ideas?

  --> Mike O.

Psychology
Monroe Community College, etc. etc.



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Re: [tips] Grading improvement

[Jim Clark]

Tricky issue. Could be major problems if 60&80 got higher mark than 80&60 or 
70&70 or any other combo producing same average. Perhaps some formula to apply 
it to just low scoring students so they don't jump over other students? Not 
clear if that is possible.


Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 10, 2016, at 7:22 PM, "Michael Ofsowitz"  wrote:
> 
> First, forgive me for stepping out of a long-entrenched role as lurker.
> 
> Do any of you have a system to formally grade/reward improvement on course 
> work (e.g., tests) as a component of the total course grade?
> 
> In the background, I'm thinking that it must be possible to measure student 
> learning independent of IQ; my tests and other assignments reward 
> comprehension and expression mostly (they're written), so all of that is 
> conflated with IQ. But can there be an acceptable measure of learning 
> independent of IQ? So if a person who's poor at comprehension improves from 
> poor to low-mediocre, can something show that in a rewarding way without 
> cheapening the experience to gold stars or a dumbed-down grading scale?
> 
> I'm also thinking that getting a rewarding experience of extra points that 
> are real and meaningful can take some of the frustration away from the 
> student who gets low grades, without me having to play self-esteem games.
> 
> I was thinking something like extra credit points for improvement based on a 
> baseline of the first test score. (I also thought about punishment for a 
> high-IQ student who fails to make improvements, but I'm ignoring this for 
> now.) Can it be done fairly and meaningfully so the improving student 
> experiences it as reward? And can it be formalized into an Excel gradebook? 
> Is self-handicapping a potential problem if this is formalized into the 
> syllabus (e.g., strategic underperformance on the first test)? How to avoid 
> that?
> 
> And how much credit? Someone who gets grades of A A A A on four tests should 
> have a final grade higher than the student who gets C B A A  and much more 
> than the student who gets C- C+ B- B.  I thought maybe B A A A could be 
> equivalent to A A A A after the "improvement" addition. I wouldn't be 
> bothered by that.
> 
> I'll spare you the rest of my rambling thoughts. Any ideas?
> 
> --> Mike O.
> 
> Psychology
> Monroe Community College, etc. etc.
> 
> 
> 
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[tips] Grading improvement

[Michael Ofsowitz]

First, forgive me for stepping out of a long-entrenched role as lurker.

Do any of you have a system to formally grade/reward improvement on 
course work (e.g., tests) as a component of the total course grade?


In the background, I'm thinking that it must be possible to measure 
student learning independent of IQ; my tests and other assignments 
reward comprehension and expression mostly (they're written), so all of 
that is conflated with IQ. But can there be an acceptable measure of 
learning independent of IQ? So if a person who's poor at comprehension 
improves from poor to low-mediocre, can something show that in a 
rewarding way without cheapening the experience to gold stars or a 
dumbed-down grading scale?


I'm also thinking that getting a rewarding experience of extra points 
that are real and meaningful can take some of the frustration away from 
the student who gets low grades, without me having to play self-esteem 
games.


I was thinking something like extra credit points for improvement based 
on a baseline of the first test score. (I also thought about punishment 
for a high-IQ student who fails to make improvements, but I'm ignoring 
this for now.) Can it be done fairly and meaningfully so the improving 
student experiences it as reward? And can it be formalized into an Excel 
gradebook? Is self-handicapping a potential problem if this is 
formalized into the syllabus (e.g., strategic underperformance on the 
first test)? How to avoid that?


And how much credit? Someone who gets grades of A A A A on four tests 
should have a final grade higher than the student who gets C B A A  and 
much more than the student who gets C- C+ B- B.  I thought maybe B A A A 
could be equivalent to A A A A after the "improvement" addition. I 
wouldn't be bothered by that.


I'll spare you the rest of my rambling thoughts. Any ideas?

 --> Mike O.

Psychology
Monroe Community College, etc. etc.



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