Because of all of the data provided by MATHia, grading is not only unnecessary, but it can be demotivating for students. MATHia means that students get the just-right amount of practice for each skill they are mastering -- for some students, this may take less time; for others, this may take more problems. Neither of these is indicative of student success. Therefore, we recommend focusing your grading on summative assessments and not MATHia.
If you choose to grade activities within MATHia, you should develop a grading method based on your classes and school protocols. Below are a few ideas to get started.
Download and share these strategies!
In this option, teachers set standards for what they want students to accomplish in a given time period. The number of units or workspaces that students can accomplish might depend on access to computers, length of class period, or other factors.
Keep in mind:
Benchmarks can be set for any time period: two weeks, four weeks, nine weeks, etc.
Students can access the software remotely at https://www.carnegielearning.com/login to catch up or accelerate, if needed.
Benchmarks can be set individually based on special student needs or circumstances.
Beyond the first benchmark, expectations of individual students can be adjusted to respond to student performance.
Once they understand the system, students can set benchmarks themselves.
It is much easier to lower high expectations than to increase low expectations; set the standards high!
Some teachers set time benchmarks in addition to unit/workspace benchmarks. This encourages students to continue working even if they've completed all of their assigned units, and rewards students for their time commitment.
REPORT NEEDED: Any report could be used for this method, depending on what benchmarks the teacher sets for each student.
This grading model assigns points based on how much work students have completed and how much time and effort they have invested.
Sample metrics for awarding points:
for each problem completed
for each hour worked
for each workspace completed
for APLSE score increases
for improvement score "points"
for green pace or green hints/errors
REPORT NEEDED: The Session Report (class summary) will give you the data for the first three bullets. The APLSE report will give you the data for the last three bullets. In both of these reports, you can select a start and end date to run a report for a specific time period. Once points are determined for each student in a class, use the data to determine grades. You can assign the highest point total 100% and use that total to determine percentage scores for remaining students. You may want to consider eliminating extreme outlier point values before setting the 100% score.
Students will self-assess daily and assign a grade for their work. Each student is given a small sheet of paper with space for their name, unit/workspace starting, unit/workspace finishing, and tally marks to track how many problems they complete in this class time. Have the students fill in their information at the beginning of class and tally their progress during class. At the end of the class, students will give themselves a grade out of 5 points and write a sentence of evidence for this grade. The teacher can modify the grade as needed. The advantages to this method are that there is immediate feedback for the students each day, and that they are self-monitoring and assessing their own progress. The disadvantage is that it is only focused on progress, not mastered skills. It might be ideal to combine this with another method, or use it at the beginning of the year to establish a routine and then phase it out.
REPORT NEEDED: None (although teachers can double check a student’s tally marks with by running the Session Report (class summary) for just that day/period).
While the APLSE Score, by design, is built to be a rubric, teachers may be more comfortable creating a rubric of their own. Below is a SAMPLE rubric. Please note that each teacher should determine the performance indicators that are most important to them for the first column as well as the appropriate benchmark scores (based on average student data) for their batch of students.
Sample four-session grading rubric:
REPORT NEEDED: Session Report (Class Summary)
Other potential performance indicators (that could be used to create a rubric) include …
Improvement Score (in the APLSE report)
Performance Scores (in the Student Detailed Report)
Average Hints/Errors (color is located on the APLSE report, data is in the Session and Student Detail Reports)
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