Lottery prompts push for schools to adopt uniform grading
NASHVILLE (AP) — To teacher Harry McMackin, not even a change in state law can make an ‘A’ from one instructor equal the ‘A’ from a different one.
McMackin, who has taught history at Hillsboro High School for almost three decades, says grading a student’s performance is the most subjective decision teachers make.
‘Teachers are so diverse in their viewpoints of the subject matter, their relationships with students, their grading philosophies,’ said McMackin, the outgoing president of the Nashville teachers’ union. ‘Teachers are just about the most nonconformist people anywhere.’
Despite that opinion, lawmakers and education officials believe uniform grading, a system that would define for every high school in Tennessee what level of achievement each letter grade represents, may now be a necessity thanks to the new Tennessee lottery set to begin early next year.
Legislators latched onto the idea this spring as they worked to establish the games and use most of the proceeds for college scholarships.
Discussions of scholarship qualifying standards led lawmakers to realize that the B average identified as one criterion for receiving the awards wasn’t uniform across the state. They worried grading systems varied too widely to allow students to compete fairly for the money.
‘A lot of members were surprised’ there wasn’t already a statewide system in place, said Rep. Chris Newton, House lottery sponsor. ‘But it soon became very evident it was something that has to be addressed.’
For example, 40 of the state’s 110 public systems that operate high schools call a numerical score of 95-100 an A, while 28 use a 94-100, 33 use 93-100, three use 92-100 and six use 90-100. In Nashville alone, the numerical equivalent of an A varies among individual schools from 90-100 to 95-100.
As for a B letter grade, there are 16 variations of its numerical equivalent among the systems, Tennessee School Boards Association data show.
‘I’m sure there will be jurisdictions that say ‘We don’t want to do this, the state’s getting into our business,’ Newton said. ‘But given the fact that we’ve got this scholarship program, it is imperative for us as legislators to ensure everyone has a fair shake.’
Because of the lack of uniformity, the General Assembly eventually decided to make qualifications for the awards an either-or proposition — meaning students will be required to have either a B high school average or a 19 ACT score, but not both.
Lawmakers voted to ask the state Board of Education to ‘examine the issue and come back (next year) with a comprehensive proposal to address it statewide,’ Newton said.
Dr. Douglas Wood, the board’s executive director, thinks that’s easier said than done.
‘It’s incredibly complex to do, incredibly difficult to get consensus around what the grading scale should be and the weights assigned to courses,’ Wood said. ‘But the positive part of it is, you won’t have such a broad range of grading scales that currently exist.’
Wood added — in an echo of McMackin’s comments — that even with the new system, Tennessee will ‘never, in my estimation, get full uniformity’ because of the inherent subjectiveness of teacher grading.
In a presentation this spring to lawmakers, Wood cited South Carolina — the only Southeastern state to standardize grades because of lottery scholarships — as an example of ‘the complexity of putting together uniform grading.’
South Carolina’s lottery bill required uniform grading.
‘It was a massive task,’ Dr. Sandra Lindsay, a South Carolina Board of Education official who chaired the uniform grading task force. ‘Folks didn’t come to blows, but they certainly had strong opinions.’
That included arguments over what the cutoff should be for different letter grades and the insistence of school boards on ‘flexibility to suit local interests,’ she said.
South Carolina adopted the task force’s recommendations and phased it in beginning with 2000’s freshman class. The lottery games began in January 2002.
‘As hard as it was to put together, implementation was relatively smooth,’ Lindsay said. ‘Uniform grading has brought a sense of fairness in administering the (lottery) program, that you have treated all children the same.’
Lindsay offers three pieces of advice if Tennessee officials decide in favor of uniform grading: Choose a task force coordinator who is trusted by local school districts, be inclusive and flexible and thoroughly communicate all changes.
Back in Tennessee, uniform grading is getting mixed reviews from district officials.
‘Some school boards say it’s a local matter and should be a local decision,’ said Stephen Smith, TSBA’s director of government relations. ‘Others that generally have higher (grading) scales say ‘We need to do this’ because they don’t want their students to be at a disadvantage.
‘I think it’s likely it will happen.’
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Tennessee Board of Education: http://www.state.tn.us/sbe/
Tennessee School Boards Association: http://www.tsba.net/