Thread: Need help with grading...

I'd say you're making it too hard on yourself.

If each of those four areas is 25% of the grade, give them a percentage for each area. Average the percentages for the final grade.

The big concern is whether or not they understand the concept, and that you're giving parents an honest measure of how their kid is doing in class. If those two things are covered, you should be pleased.

I'd also check to make sure you're in compliance with school policy. Most schools I've worked in have a uniform grading policy that sometimes stipulates the weight given to homework, midterm exams etc.

Consult your faculty handbook or talk to your team leader or department chair regarding your school's grading policy.

Originally Posted by thekingster

I told the kids my breakdown at the beginning of the year - where homework, tests, notebook, and mid-term are basically weighed equally.
Homework - 265
Tests - 283
Notebook - 20
Midterm - 25
Total 593

Is 265 the maximum possible number of points for homework? If yes, I calculate it like this: (I always use "this" to mean the number of points earned by individual student)
x:this=25:265
x=(25/265)*this
x=0.094*this
If student earned 258 points, for example, x=0.094*258; or x=24.252

So, basically, your final formula is
student's number of points=((25/265)*(points earned for homework))+((25/283)*(points earned for tests))+((25/20)*(points earned for notebook))+(points earned for midterm)

(25/25) is 1 so you just add points for midterm.

using excel, if column A has students' names, and column B is total number of points (the formula above), and for the first student these are A3 and B3, than "points earned for homework" etc would actually be fields C3, D3, E3 and F3. You just input the number of points kids earned. Pull the formula down to include all students' points.

C1 should say: points earned for homework
D1 should say: points earned for tests
E1 should say: points earned for notebook
F1 should say: points earned for midterm
that way you would not be confused.

Originally Posted by thekingster

Am I on track or totally off base?

By the way, you were totally off base; your formula does not equate values of the four numbers, it just shuffles them around and multiplies them all with the same constant. Your 6.25 for midterm was still about ten times smaller than your 66.25 for homework, so kids who got a zero on midterm and everything right on all others would have 142 points, and your kids who got a zero on homework and everything right in all three other things would have only 82 points. 142 and 82 are definitively not equal! which was your original idea. I think I saw the exactly same calculation in a book back in college and they explained why it is wrong.

Originally Posted by Zheljko

Originally Posted by thekingster

Am I on track or totally off base?

By the way, you were totally off base; your formula does not equate values of the four numbers, it just shuffles them around and multiplies them all with the same constant. Your 6.25 for midterm was still about ten times smaller than your 66.25 for homework, so kids who got a zero on midterm and everything right on all others would have 142 points, and your kids who got a zero on homework and everything right in all three other things would have only 82 points. 142 and 82 are definitively not equal! which was your original idea. I think I saw the exactly same calculation in a book back in college and they explained why it is wrong.

I appreciated your directness - but I won't give you points for kindness.
Thank you for your formula.

Originally Posted by robertanke1

I'd say you're making it too hard on yourself.

If each of those four areas is 25% of the grade, give them a percentage for each area. Average the percentages for the final grade.

The big concern is whether or not they understand the concept, and that you're giving parents an honest measure of how their kid is doing in class. If those two things are covered, you should be pleased.

I think you're right. If I were to give a percentage for each area (i.e. points earned/points possible) and then averaged those four percentages...the average would be weighed equally.

I appreciate the candor and the kindess of the post.

Steven King

Assuming your grading policy is in compliance with school policy, I don't see why you can't just subtotal each area i.e. homework, notebooks etc. and then divide each subtotal by the total number of grades within that category.

For example, if you have 5 homework grades - total them and divide by 5.

If you have three quizes, total them and divide by 3.

The midterm is simple because you presumably only have the one midterm.

This will leave you with four averages ... so why not simply add the four averages and divide by 4?

You yourself said that, "homework, tests, notebook, and mid-term are basically weighed equally."

To me, this means equal categories of weighting grades not estimating weight/ratios for each grade.

Originally Posted by David Chin

Assuming your grading policy is in compliance with school policy, I don't see why you can't just subtotal each area i.e. homework, notebooks etc. and then divide each subtotal by the total number of grades within that category.

I checked...basically it's pretty wide open for teachers to determine.

This will leave you with four averages ... so why not simply add the four averages and divide by 4?

You yourself said that, "homework, tests, notebook, and mid-term are basically weighed equally."

To me, this means equal categories of weighting grades not estimating weight/ratios for each grade.

I think this is right. Now, I remember how I figured out grades for the progress report...that's exactly what I did. Sorry. Head's a mess this AM...lots of drama with the four kids who live in my home.

Thanks for the responses.
Steven King
The Kingster

I weight mine on straight up percentages- no curving, no fancy points. For the kids to understand it, it has to be simple.