Notes on attending a seminar by Ken O'Connor

Attended a seminar by Ken O'Connor earlier today. I was kindly invited by Chadwick International School in Incheon to see this published and very opinionated expert on grading and report cards.

He was primarily discussing his latest book How to Grade for Learning by Using 15 Fixes for Broken Grades. Noted that grades and marks are used interchangeably, but should have distinct meanings: Marks (or scores) are on individual assessments, whereas
Grades are summary symbols on report cards.

Reminding us of the Understanding By Design guidelines: are grades
Accurate
Consistent
Meaningful
Supporting of Learning ?

In his opinion, grades should be simply the way to communicate achievement status to parents, students, other schools.

It confuses the issue when we try to also incorporate these others uses of grades: self-evaluation, selecting students for later coursework, incentives to learn, effectiveness of teaching.

O'Connor is rather strident about his position, but he has some great points that we must take to heart.

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