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Originally published: 06.25.13 Much ado has been made in recent years about the problem of zeros in grading. Some districts have responded by stipulating that the lowest grade teachers can assign students is 50% rather than a zero. Districts that enact such policies have no...

Educators today struggle in their efforts to change parents' and students' attitudes about grading. They want parents to see grades as a means of communication between teachers and families, and not as the currency students need to advance in school and life. They want students...

Recent social media posts by standards-based advocates extol the virtues of failure: "Failure is success in progress." "Failure is an initial attempt at learning." "Failure is the best way to learn." Statements like these give the impression that failure is a good thing—maybe even an...

Thomas R. Guskey Rubrics have been a part of education for decades. Although the exact origin of rubrics is uncertain, it could be argued their theoretical roots stem from the seminal work of Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues in developing the Taxonomies of Educational Objectives (Bloom,...

Post written by Thomas R. Guskey Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Kentucky Rubrics help educators describe student performance at all levels of education. Recently, however, educators have come under fire for the way they translate rubric scores to grades on report cards. Although many believe...

Today's guest post is written by Thomas Guskey, Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Kentucky. Educators implementing standards-based approaches to grading and reporting often struggle with how to label different levels of students' performance. Four levels of performance is the most common number identified....