Poster #59 - Are Grades Based on Skills or Behaviors? Predictors of Teachers Grading in Math and English Language Arts

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Abstract

Grades can determine whether a student enters advanced or basic math, whether they get into college, and whether they stay on sports teams (Fox, Barr-Anderson, Neumark-Sztainer, & Wall, 2010; Oakes & Guiton, 1995). However, grades are unlikely to be perfect representations of student skill in a given subject. Understanding how teachers make grade determinations is a valuable area of study—it can illuminate potential biases within the system; identification of which can inform efforts of teacher preparation programs and professional development to reduce biases and bring grading more closely aligned with performance. Within this study, we examined within and between class predictors of teacher-reported student grades to explore how teachers may use both behavioral and performance indicators in grade determinations.

Authors

• Jessica Vandenberg, North Carolina State University

• Teomara Rutherford, University of Delaware