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On a side note, I read an article in the Washington Post Magazine this weekend that some of you might be interested in. It was written by a high school English teacher from Thomas Jefferson HS in VA. It is really about his quest for National Board Certification, but also includes a lot of his thoughts on assessment, specifically assessing and documenting “real understanding” among his students.

GRADING (assessment special blog)

As I began to think more specifically about grading, I recalled our discussion in class last week about pre-assessment and post-assessment.  In the future art class I imagine teaching, I think pre-assessment would be an essential element in the grading process.  While I can see pre-assessment being fairly informal, I do think it is important to determine each student’s artistic ability and history as best one can at the beginning of a class/semester etc.  In reality, this could happen through sitting down for five minutes with each student, discussing past work, and viewing a few examples if they were available.  Obviously, a focused pre-assessment like this would also depend on the grade level/student audience one is teaching.  I don’t see it being as important with younger students, below middle school, for example.  I also think pre-assessment could become more useful the older and more mature students become.  The older a student is, the more chance there may be for varying artistic backgrounds and experience within a class population.
This idea of pre-assessment precludes a grading philosophy that is based not just on final product, but on progress and improvement over the course of time.  While I think pre-assessment of a student’s level would be valuable to a teacher in general, it could be used to form a concrete course grade based on several factors, specifically including student growth.   Obtaining some knowledge of a student’s ability and past work would also help a teacher form a better idea of how much effort was put forth by the student.  While effort level can also be determined from a teacher’s observation of class work, attendance, and class participation, possessing at least an informal idea of where individual students is valuable information.
All this talk of pre-assessment leads to the idea that I am much more comfortable giving a grade in art class if I know how far a student has progressed.  I would make it clear to students at the beginning of a class that the final grade would not be solely a reflection of a final project/work, but rather a combination of different elements such as effort, craft, thoughtful reflection and response.  As a teacher, I think the things I would be most concerned about achieving in the art room would be related to student growth, creative problem solving, and critical thinking.  A final product will not necessarily be a good indicator of a grade in these areas.  I would try to incorporate my own pre-assessment of student ability/history, as well as have students complete written work at the beginning and end of a project, as appropriate.  I think students should learn to write about art and what they are trying to communicate/achieve with their pieces.  While these written pieces can be short, they should provide a tool to assess both student progress and student understanding.  I would also use critique to assess and help formulate grades, though I also think it is extremely important to always have a clear rubric to accompany a critique that leads to a grade.  If student’s are presenting their work to their teacher and classmates in critique, comments should clearly reflect how a piece was or was not successful in terms of rubric criteria.  I believe this puts a more even responsibility on the student to earn his/her grade rather than to feel like a teacher is the ultimate, subjective decisive power in grading.  In the art class, where questions of subjectivity always have the potential for blurriness, I think clarity from the teacher on what s/he is expecting can help eliminate feelings of unfairness.
I am curious as to what others think about using the student progress or growth factor as part of a final grade.  Do you think this is fair, as it would place less emphasis on final product?  Do you envision is at being too hard to carry out and/or justify to curious students/parents?