Let me start by saying this was the best class I’ve ever taught and the students were extra ordinarily dedicated. Many are education majors destined to teach in NYC public schools. I’m deeply impress with them all and I’m also realizing that teaching Roman art (material culture) gives me even more joy than teaching history courses (and let me tell you I love teaching Roman history!!).
As an educator, I’m deeply committed to treating my students fairly and sticking to my word, especially about something so meaningful as grades. This semester was a new prep and thus I had to imagine a new grading structure appropriate to goals of the course and its content. I decided on 54% examination (proof of learning, command of information), and 46% participatory assignment (low and high stakes activities that took meaningful effort and were graded on degree of engagement). I also have a policy of accepting a wide variety of activities and assignments submissions as means of earning additional points or making up missed work. No late penalties.
Yes I’m a big softy. BUT are these policies distorting student grades. I was worried perhaps I’d shifted too far away from grades being a meaningful reflection of learning. So….
As a proxy for ‘what if’ I calculated each student’s grades based on exams alone and then compared that with the real grades they earned according the rules set out in the syllabus.
For exactly 50% of the students the participation gave them no advantage or disadvantage over the grade they would have gotten if I’d just awarded grades based on exams. 95% of these students who experienced no GPA change would have gotten an A or A+ in the course on exams alone. 32% of that 50% (so 16% of the class) did shift from A to A+, an honorary distinction with no effect on GPA. Two students who did A+ work on the exams only earned A- grades because their scores on (lack of engagement with) participation assignments, but I can live with that.
My takeaway is that perhaps for the needs of the top half of the class I may need to refine my exam writing to better differentiate levels of learning.
What my policy did do is shift weaker test-takers into a higher grade position. The average change was .7 GPA points. (when there was a change) That’s a B to an A- for instance. If you take the class average, my policies overall averaged about a .3 GPA point increase, that’s a B to a B+.
| estimated GPA “increase” | % of Students |
| .3 | 11% |
| .4 | 3% |
| .7 | 11% |
| 1 | 16% |
| 1.3 | 3% |
| 1.7 | 3% |
Generally speaking, I feel good about rewarding students for active learning be it in class activities or museum visits. They teach how to look at images, how to take notes, and that it is not enough to ‘know’ — one also has to engage with the material.
So yeah. I gave a LOT of As and may refine my points structure slightly, esp. on exams, but I think I’ll keep my approach to open ended points. Why close the door on learning when it is helping lift up the students who struggle most?
Liv Mariah Yarrow 
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