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I UNIT 15 DEVELOPING VALID GRADING

PROCEDURES
Structure

15.1 Introduction
15.2 Objectives
15.3 Limitations of Marking System
15.4 What is Grading?
15.5 Direct and Indirect Grading
15.6 Absolute Grading
15.6.1 ~im~tations of Absolute Grading
15.6.2 Utility of Absolute Grading: Criterion Referenced Grading
15.7 Relative Giading
I
15.7.1 Grading on the Curve: Norm Referenced Grading
15.7.2 Merits of Relative Grading
15.7.3 Limitations of Relative Grading
15.8 Grading Students' Performance in Different Types of Questions?
15.8.1 Grading Performance in Objective-type Questions (Fixed Response
Questions)
15.8.2 Grading Performance in Free Response Questions
15.9 Calculating Overall Grades in a Subject
15.10 Comparison of Overall Performance
15.11 LetUsSumUp

~ 15.12
15.13
15.14
Unit-end Exercises
Answers to Check Your Progress
Suggested Readings

15.1 INTRODUCTION

Examination is the most crucial component of the 'teaching learning process'

in educational system at its various levels. In fact all our teaching rotates
around it. The general practice in the existing examinations is that the students
are assessed by assigning marks to their answer scripts.

Assigning numerical marks to students suffers fiom various types of flaws and
need reforms. One of the reforms suggested is to use grading system instead of
marking system. In this unit we will discuss the concept of assigning grades in
place of numerical marks to answer Scripts. You will also be able to understand
the relative advantage of grading system over marking system. The meaning
and types of grading will be explained to you. As a teacher you have to assess
your students for various purposes like for certification or promotion, for
judging their learning achievement in terms of both cognitive and non-
cognitive domains. How can grades be awarded in these situations? The unit
will not only provide an answer to this question but also explain the
mechanism of awarding grades and their interpretations in various situations.
Student Performance:
Interpretation 15.2 OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit, you should be able to:

describe and differentiate various types of grading in terms of their

- purpose, basis, and use,
compare relative merit of marking and grading system,
use grading system for evaluation of students' performance in different
types of questions, ~

differentiate and use the grading system in criterion referenced and norm-

- referenced testing,
compare overall performance of students in different subjects by
calculating GPA.

15.3 LIMITATIONS OF MARKING SYSTEM

The existing practice in examination system is to award marks to the answer

scripts. The range of scores obtained by students in a question paper carrying
100 as maximum marks can be 0 to 100 and thus 101 units of measurement are
theoretically possible. This type of scoring on a continuum is often called as
101 point scale. The marking system is based on the following two
assumptions:

Human qualities can be measured and therefore quantified.

Mathematical precision is required for objective assessment of human
qualities.

If we accept these assumptions, a score of 33 is superior to a score of 32. In

the scheme of examinations, some institutions interpret the score of 33 as a
score which puts a student in the category of 'pass' y d the score of 32 in the
category of 'fail'. But such a type of interpretation cannot be justified due to
the following reasons:

Our natural perception about quality of any thing is qualitative rather than
quantitative and it is often represented in terms of adjectives like good,
bad, excellent etc. rather than 32 and 33.
Many of the human traits cannot and should not be measured in
quantitative terms and therefore all learning outcomes cannot be assessed
by adopting marking system.
Though marks are considered as absolute and precise measure of a
student's performance but in reality they are merely an estimation of a
student's performance because of error of measurement due to variations in
examiners and examinees. Let us elaborate this point further.

(i) There is b t of variation in marking by different examiners. Empirical

studies point out that error in marking of 55 percent of examinees was
between 5 to 7 percent and 'when photocopies of the same answer
scripts were sent to 90 experienced examiners, the average marks
awarded to the 10 scripts ranged fiom 8 to 22 out of 50.
 Developing Valid Grading
(ii) Marks in different subjects are based on different scales. As a teacher Procedures
you are well aware of the fact that some subjects are considered as high
scoring subjects whereas some are not. It is quite possible to award a
score of zero or even 100 in a script of Mathematics while getting 100
marks in a test of a language or social studies is almost impossible and
therefore even if we adopt a 101 point scale in all the subjects, the
actual scoring range for set of one examinees may be 0 to 100 whereas
for others it may be only 20-80 or so. And for all practical purposes it
becimes 50-point scale. Therefore the scores are not equitable and
should not be added up to get an overall index of a student's level of
achievement, otherwise it may lead to various types of physical and
emotional problems/stresses among the examinees.

Marks obtaiced in different years in the same courses of study are also
not the true measure of students' level of achievement or proficiency in
the course because of the varying standard of question papers in
different years. In many of the public examinations there is a provision
of grace marks. Grace marks are arbitrarily decided quantum of marks
which can be distributed to one or more subjects to change the status of
a student with the addition of marks (from fail to compartment, from
compartment to pass and so on). Thus, grace marks benefit the border
line cases by changing their status. This has been called as
'contamination of marks' and this reduces them to the figures, which
are fake, fabricated and false (Srivastava, 1999).

There are some strong reservations to call marks as a true measurement

of the level of performance of students. It is merely an estimation of the
performance and many times it becomes a fabricated and false measure.
Marking cannot be considered as a true and precise measure of the
levels of student's performance.

t
15.4 WHAT IS GRADING?

When we want to report a student performance in terms of a score (generally

represented on a 101 point scale) obtained in a test, it hardly gives a true
measure of the student's performance, and due to mathematical precision, the
reliability of the measure often gets lost. To overcome this shortcoming of
: marking system, it is suggested that students may be placed in ability bands
that represent ranges of scores. Each ability band may be designated w ~ t ha
t letter, which is called a 'grade.' Let us try to understand it with the help of an
example. Suppose in a group of 100 students, 10 of them got scores of 75 and
above, 18 got scores between 60 and 74, 20 obtained scores between 50 and
59, 34 students scored between 30 and 49, and 18 obtained scores between 0
and 29. We may assign grades A, B, C, D and E to these groups as given
below:
Scores No. of Students Grades
75 and above
60-74
50-59
30-49
0-29
 Student Performance:
' Interpretation Here we have classified hundred students into five categories on the basis of a
specific criterion and each category is represented by a specific letter. The first
category may be of those students who are 'outstanding' and obtained
distinction marks. The second category is of those who obtained first division
marks (60 and above). That is why they are 'very good' students. The third
category is of those who scored second division marks (50 and above),
therefore, they are 'good' students. Similarly, the fourth category is of those
who scored a score in a range of 30 and 49. They may be called as 'average'
students. But the students in the last category who obtained scores below 30,
may be called as 'below average' students, belonging to unsatisfactory
category.
Since grades are the means of reporting students' performance, it is necessary
to use the symbols in such a way that it ought to be clearly defined and
uniformly understood by all concerned like students, teachers and parents.
Therefore it is of utmost significance that the meaning of each grading symbol
be clearly spelt out and adhered to the specified system of grading by each
examiner.
In short, grading.& a process of classifying students into different categories on
the basis of pre-defined standard and representing each category by a specific
letter. In the above example, we have developed a very arbitrary standard to
assign grades. More scientific ways of defining standard for assigning grades
are suggested by the experts and you will study about this in the following
section.

Check Your Progress 1

Notes: a) Write your answers in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.
1. The scores of two students in English and Mathematics are
given in the following table:

Student Scores obtained ~gkegate

English Mathematics
X 50 70 120
Y 55 65 120

A. Can you say the overall performance of X and Y are same

in the two subjects?
......................................................................
B. What justification do you have for your answer?
.......................................................................
......................................................................
......................................................................

C. Why should the standard (criteria) for assigning grade

symbol be clearly spelt out and defined?
......................................................................
\
......................................................................
 Developing Valid Grading
15.5 DIRECT AND INDIRECT GRADING Procedures

Now you know that grading is also a way of reporting students' achievement.
There are different domains of learning and hence there may be different
purposes of evaluation. Accordingly different methods are adopted for
assigning grades. In this section, you will become familiar with various
methods of grading.

Direct grading: There are some occasions when it is neither desirable nor
feasible to measure learning performance in terms of quantitative measures and
hence assessment is made qualitatively. For example, in many of the
nonscholastic areas, learning outcome in terms of attitudes, values, interests,
etc. may not be assessed precisely in quantitative terms and thus it is desirable
for a teacher to assess these qualitatively using observations and experiences
gathered through interaction with the students. If the assessment is reported by
assigning letter grades, the method is known as direct grading. Thus when a
student's performance (in an activity or in response to a question) is assessed
qualitatively by the evaluator through assigning letter grades like A for
'outstanding', B for 'very good', C for 'good', D for 'satisfactory' and F,for
'unsatisfactory', the method is known as 'direct grading'. This method can be
used for grading both cognitive and noncognitive learning outcomes. But it is
normally used when the number of questions or testing situations are few and
the number of examinees are also few. The method is preferred for assessment
of noncognitive learning outcomes. The merits of direct grading are: (i) it
minimizes the interexaminer variability; and (ii) it is easier to use when
compared with other methods of grading. However, direct grading lacks
objectivity and precision and also diagnostic value.

Indirect grading: At many occasions we assess students' performance in a

test in quantitative terms (i.e. in terms of marks) and then convert it into letter
grades by using different modes. This type of grading is known as 'indirect
grading'. Thus when students' performance is assessed in terms of marks and
later converted into letter grade by adopting different modes keeping in view
the purpose of assessment, it is called indirect grading. It is generally used in.
the following situations

When the number of subjects (examinees) is large.

,* Learning outcomes can be assessed in terms of marks.
Subjects have appeared in a public examination.

Check Your Progress 2

Notes: a) Write your ans+er in the space given below.
b) Compare your answer with that given at the end of the unit.
1. As a school teacher you are interested to assess your students'
attitude toward participation in group activities in the class and
also want to grade them. Which grading technique would you ,.
like to adopt and why?
...........................................................................
...........................................................................
...........................................................................
-
Student Performance:
intbpretation 15.6 ABSOLUTE GRADING
When grades are assigned on the basis of predefined standard (level of
performance) and each grade is associated with a fixed performance regardless
of the distribution of grades ultimately assigned in the class it is known as
absolute grading. Let us try to understand this concept with the help of an
example. Suppose we have divided the examinees into five different groups on
the basis of their performance. An examinee who scores 75% or above will be
assigned A grade, representing a performance of 'distinction'. The other
categories and corresponding grades are:

Score Category Description Letter Grade

75% & above Distinction A

60% to less than 75% First Division B
45% to less than 60% Second Division C
33% to less than 45% Third Division D
Below 33% Unsatisfactory E

Here the categories are made on the basis of the existing conventional standard
which is generally followed in our public examinations and the criterion for
making such categories is arbitrary. In this example five categories are made,
but one can make any desired number of categories provided that each grade is
associated with a predefined standard. This is explained in the followirlg
example in which we have nine categories starting from outstanding to
unsatisfactory using letter grades A,B.. ... ... ....., H, I:

Range of Marks Description Letter Grade

90% to 100% Outstanding
80% to less than 90% Excellent
70% to less than 80% Very Good
60% to less than 70% Good
50% to less than 60% Above Average
. 40% to less than 50% Average
33% to less than 40% Below Average
20% to less than 33% Marginal
Below 20% Unsatisfactory I

In these two examples you might have noted that the categories are predefined
(as given under the heading description) and each grade is associated with
specific predefined standard.

15.6.1 Limitations of Absolute Grading

Absolute grading has the' following limitations: ,

Absolute grading cannot be used to know the comparative performance of

a student in different subjects. For example. the distribution of marks in
 Mathematics may be 0 to 100 where as in English it may be 20 to 70 and Developingvalid Grading
therefore in one subject many students may get very high grade where as Procedures
none may get very high grade in another. Hence, when a student gets same
grades in two subjects they may not be equivalent.
This type of grading should not be used for comparing the performance of
different students.
It is based on face value of measured scores and therefore ignores the error
of measurement.
The cutoffs to define standard for making categories are arbitrarily decided,
therefore, they don't have any scientific basis.

15.6.2 Utility of Absolute Grading: Criterion Referenced Grading

Inspite of the limitations of absolute grading, the system has certain merits
which are described as under:

(i) The procedure of assigning absolute grades is quite simple and straight
forward.
(ii) It reflects the individual performance in a particular subject without any
reference to the group helshe belongs

This characteristic of the system makes it usefbl for criterion referenced

evaluation. As you know, when an examinee's performance on a test is judged
in relation to a set of well defined competencies or domain of content and
without reference to performance of any one else, such a test is known as
'criterion referenced test'. The purpose of this testing is to assess whether the
kxaminee has achieved a mastery level or not. The criterion referenced
evaluation uses the following steps:

Defining and delimiting the domain of learning tasks to be achieved.

Defining the instructional objectives in behavioural terms.
Identifying the standard of performance to be attained.
Measuring the intended outcomes with a criterion referenced instrument.

After following these steps, the students' performance may be assigned letter
I
grades in terms of the degree to which the objectives have been attained as
illustrated below:
t
Letter Grade Specification
i
I
A Outstanding: Student who has mastered all the major
and minor objectives of the course.

B Very Good: Student who has mastered all the major and
most of the minor objectives.

Satisfactory: Student who has mastered all the major

objectives but only a few minor.
Student Performance:
Interpretation Weak: Student who has mastered just a few, major and
minor objectives needed' for next higher level of
instruction.

Undersatisfactory: Student who has failed to achieve any

major instructional objectives.

In the first two illustrations, the categories are made on the basis of a range of
fixed percentage of scores and each category is assigned a specific letter grade.
However these percentages do not necessarily refer to the percent of mastery
and therefore, to adopt absolute grading for criterion referenced evaluation the
categories must be made on the basis of predefined performance standard in
t-s of achievement of learning outcomes as shown in the third illustration.

Check Your Progress 3

Notes: a) Write your answers in the space given below.

b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.

1. What are the characteristics of criterion referenced grading? .

...........................................................................
...........................................................................

2. Mention at least three merits and three limitations of absolute

grading.

15.7 RELATIVE GRADING

By now you have learnt that the purpose of evaluation is manifold. First,
through evaluation we can assess the student's level of performance in terms of
mastery in the content or domain of behaviour as discussed in the preceding
section. Second, the purpose of evaluation is also to provide the relative
performance of a stuclent in a group to which helshe belongs. In this
competitive world most of our decisions are based on the relative position of a
student in terms of hislher level of achievement in relation to others. This type
of evaluation is often known as norm referenced evaluation. In this evaluation,
we rank the student in a group on the basis of hisher relative level of
achievement. The grades, generally kn&n as relative grades or norm
referenced grades may be assigned in such a situation. This grading is very
different from absolute grading. Relative grading or norm referenced grading is
the process of-assigning letter grades to students on the basis of ranking them
on their relative level of achievement in a particular group. For this method of
grading a decision is made in advance about approximately what percentage or
proportion of students would be awarded a particular letter grade on the basis Developing Valid Grading
of their relative performance. Procedures

For example, a decision may be made that top 10% to 20% of the students will
be assigned 'A' grade and so on, as given below:

Grade Relative Performance

A Highest 10% to 20% of students

B Higher 20% to 30% of students
C Next 30% to 50% of students
D Lower 10% to 20% of students
E Lowest 0% to 10% of students

15.7.1 Grading on the Curve: Norm Referenced Grading

The most common method of grading is that of assigning grades on the basis
of a normal curve. That is why this type of grading is often called as grading
on the curve. The normal curve has certain characteristics as follows:

The curve is symmetrical around its vertical axis called ordinate and is
asymptotic (expends from - oo to + oo) .
For the same distance above and below the mean, same percentage of cases
lie and it is always fixed provided that the distance is measured in standard
deviation unit.

Keeping in view the above two characteristics we may divide the curve into a .

desired number of parts each representing a specific category having relative

ranking in terms of level of achievement. For example, we may make the five
categories on the curve as shown below:
Student Performance:
Interpretation We may assign A, B, C, D, and E to these five categories as shown below:

Intervals of the Percentage of Letter grade Grade value

curve cases in the category

Similarly the curve may be divided into seven or nine parts. The grade-wise
distribution of cases for nine point grade system is illustrated below:

Interval of the Percentage of cases Letter grade Grade value

curve in category

1.75 o tom 4%
1.25 o to 1.75 o 7%
0.75 o to 1.25 o 12%
0.25 o to 0.75 o 17%

- 1.750 to- 1 . 2 5 ~ 7% H 1
' - m to- 1.750 4% I 0

You might have understood fiom the above two illustrations that in the method
of grading on the curve, a fixed percentage of subjects depending upon their
relative performance in a test, is awarded a particular grade. For example, on a
9 point grading those 4% of the total students who score highest marks will be
awarded 'A' whereas in case of 5 point grading 7% of students scoring highest
marks will be assigned grade 'A'. It is evident fiom these illustrations that the
grade obtained by a student does net depend on his own performance in
absolute term but it also depends on the relative performance of others who are
in the same groups. Relative grading, like any other grading, has certain.merits
and limitations.
15.7.2 Merits of Relative Grading

Relative grading has many merits. The important merits are is follows:
(i) Relative system is based on the assumption that achievement (true
measure) is normally distributed and a grade assigned to a particular
student reflects hisher position in the group in terms of hidher level of
achievement. In one subject helshe may be wsigned D after obtaining 35
marks where as in other subject helshe may be assigned E for scoring the
same and therefore no grade signifies the hilure of a student. Thus the
 negative effect of pass and fail is completely eliminated by adopting this Developing Valid Grading
grading system. Procedures
(iij As mentioned earlier this grading provides the relative position of different
students in a group, that is why it can be used for comparative judgement
as required in norms referenced testing.
1 (iii)Difficulty level of the test does not effect this type of grading because it is
based on the judgement of comparative performance.
(iv) Since this grading is on the normal curve, comparability across the
cumcular areas is easily possible.
!
(v) Undue emphasis on raw score is minimized.
(vi) Inter examiner variations are also minimized through this grading.

15.7.3 Limitations of Relative Grading

This grading like other gradings also has some limitations. These are:

(i) If the group is small, the assumption about normality of distribution of

achievement is an unrealistic assumption. In such a situation it is better to
evolve other criteria for assigning grades. This may be done by evolving
consensus among teachers in a school or school complex.
(ii) It fails to provide the level of achievement of any student in absolute term.

Check Your Progress 4

Notes: a) Write your answers in the space given below.

b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.

1. Why is relative grading often called as norm referenced

grading?
...........................................................................
............................................................................

2. Why is the assumption of normality of distribution unrealistic

for relative grading of a small number of students?
...........................................................................
...........................................................................

15.8 GRADING STUDENTS' PERFORMANCE IN

DIFFERENT TYPES OF QUESTIONS

As you know, there are varieties of questions. Some are objective type
questions which have fixed response whlle some others are fiee response
questions which can be further classified into essay type questions and short
answer type questions. The performance in these types of questions is graded
Student Performance:
Interpretation directly in different ways. In the following paragraphs you will learn the
procedure of grading the performance in different types of questions.

15.8.1 Grading Performance in Objective Type Question (Fixed Response

Question)

When the question is objective type it has only two types of responses, one is
wholly correct where as all others are completely wrong. Thus it can be graded
only on two point scale: 1 for correct response and 0 (zero) for wrong
response. The combined grade in a test of such questions may be calculated by
using the following formula on a nine-point scale where scale value range from
0 to 8.

Number of questions attempted correctly

Combined Grade : x8
Total number of questions of free response types

Suppose, in a test there are 20 objective type questions. Out of these 15 are
correctly attempted by a student. The combined grade will be:

15
Combined Grade Value (point) :-x 8 = 6
20

The nine-point scale having grade value 0-8 will be as follows

Grade A B C D E F G H I
Grade Value 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Thus, the student will be assigned a grade 'C'

15.8.2 Grading Performance in Free Response Questions

Free response questions may be essay type questions and short answer type
questions. The grading procedure and calculation of combined grade in the two
types of questions are different and therefore explained separately.

Grading performance in essay type questions: Essay type questions require

long answers and therefore in terms of their correctness, comprehensiveness,
clarity, coherence, and cogency, etc. the answers of such questions can be of
varying quality and they can be graded in terms of the extent to its nearness
with the model answers developed in advance either through discussion among
teachers or through classification of students' scripts. Due to possibility of
wide range of variability the easy type questions are generally graded on a
nine-point scale (with a scale value 0 to 8).

The combined grade in essay type questions may be calculated by using the
following formula:

Sum of the numerical values of the grades in different essay type questions
Combined Grade :
The total number of essay type questionss
 Suppose there are five essay type questions and a students gets By C, Developing Valid Grading
D, E, and A, on a nine-point scale (scale value 0-8) in these questions. Then Procedures

I
the grade value for these five grades are 7,6,5,4 and 8 respectively.

7 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 8 30
Combined grade = =-=6
5

i 6 is the grade value for the grade 'C'. So the combined grade will be 'C'

Grading performance in short answer type questions: As you know, the

short answer type question expects a short answer in terms of content
I coverage. The answer of this type of question is limited in scope, shorter in
length, and requires less time to complete. Therefore, as compared to the essay
type, it also has a possibility of shorter range of variations. Keeping this in
view the performance in this type of questions is generally graded on five or
three point scale.

The grade value and grade on a five-point scale may be as

Grade Grade value Description

Outstanding
Very Good
Average
Marginal
Poor

To find out the combined grade in short answer type questions the following
formula may be used. The combined grade is expressed on a nine-point scale
having 0-8 numerical grade value.

Sum of the numerical grade value of short answer questions

Combined Grade : x2
Number of short answer questions

1 Suppose if there are 10 short answer questions and they are graded as ByA, C,
i D, C, E, ByBy C, and E, their corresponding numerical grade value on a five-
I
point scale (0-4) will be 3,4, 2, 1 , 2 , 0 , 3 , 3 , 2 , and 0, respectively.

3+4+2+1+2+0+3+3+2+0 x2
Therefore the combined grade value :
10

You have already seen that 'E' is the grade for the numerical grade value 4 on
a nine-point scale (0-8). Therefore the student will get a grade 'E' on a nine
point scale in the test having 10 short answer type questions.

15.9 CALCULATING OVERALL GRADES IN A SUBJECT

Generally, in school examination a question paper has different types of
questions like essay type, short answer type, and objective type. How can we
Student Performance:
Interpretation get overall grades in a paper having combination of different types of
questions? Suppose we have a question paper having five essay type questions,
ten short answer type questions and 20 objectives type questions. A student
obtained combined grades (as discussed in the previous section) in these three
types of questions as follows:

Type of questions Number of Combined grades Combined

questions obtained by a numerical grade
student value

Essay type
Short answer type 10 E '4
Objective type 20 C 6

The overall grade obtained by the student in the question paper can be
calculated by using the following formula:

Overall grade for a question paper having different types of questions =

Sum of combined numerical grade values of different question types (on the same sca
Combined Grade :
Number of grades to be obtained

In the above example we have three different types of questions and their grade
values are given. Now let us apply the above formula.

Overall grade =
6+4+6
- -
16
=-=5.33=5

The corresponding grade for numerical grade value of 5 on a nine-point scale

(0-8) is 'D'. Therefore the overall grade in the test by the student is 'D'

15.10 COMPARISON OF OVERALL PERFORMANCE

You know that comparing students' performance on the basis of their

aggregate of raw scores obtained in different subjects is quite misleading,
because the units of scores in different subjects are not uniform. But if we
grade the students by adopting the relative grading method we can compare the
overall performance of the students in different subjects simply by calculating
a new measure known as 'Grade Point Average' (GPA).

Let us try to understand the method of calculating GPA with the help of
following illustration:

The grades obtained by two students in five different subjects on a nine-pomt

scale (0-8) are shown in the table.

Student Grades awarded in different subjects

Sanskrit Hindi Soc. Studies Science Math
X A A B C E
Y A B A B B
The numerical grade values for A to I on a nine-point scale (0-8) are given Developing Valid Grading
below: Procedures

Grade A B C D E F G H I
Grade Value 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

The GPA can be calculated by using the following formula:

GPA = Sum of the numerical grade values of different subiects

Number of gradeslsubjects

By applying this formula you will get GPA of X and Y students.

8+8+7+6+4 33
GPA of X = = -= 6.6
C C

8+7+8+7+7 37
GPAof Y = - -= 7.4
-
5 5
Since the GPA obtained by Y is greater than that obtained by X, the overall
performance of Y is better than that of X. You can compare this way the
overall performance of any number of students.

Check Your Progress 5

Notes: a) Write your answers in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.

1. A question paper has 25 objective type questions, six short

answer type questions and three essay type questions. Out of
the 25 objective type questions, 20 were correctly responded'
by a student. She was also awarded A,C,B,E,D for six
different short answer questions oh a nine-point scale (0-8)
whereas she got C,E, and D in three essay type question.
What will be her over all grade in the test?

2. The grades obtained by three different students in Physics,

Chemistry, Mathematics and English are given below:
Compare the relative performance of'the three students by
calculating GPA.

Student Grade obtained

Physics I Chemistry I Mathematics I English
Student Performance:
Interpretation 15.11 L ~ US,SUM
T UP
.
We have discussed in this unit that marking system has a number of
limitations. Many times it is based on those assumptions which do not exist in
reality. In the name of precision it loses its reliability. To overcome some of
these limitations of marking system, grading can be one alternative. Grading is
a process of categorizing students' performance on the basis of a predefined
standard and to represent each category by a letter known as 'grade'. This
standard or criterion of making category should be clearly defined so that a
letter (known as grade) representing a category must be uniformly and clearly
understood by all concerned viz, teachers, students and parents. If we increase
the number of categories (scale of grading), its level of precision may be
increased. But if we increase it too much, its reliability gets lost. Similarly a
very few categories fail to precisely discriminate the students performance.
Generally we follow five-point to nine-point scale for all practical purposes.

Grading may be of different types depending upon the purpose of evaluation

and nature of the measuring tool. Mostly 'direct grading' is adopted to report
performance in noncognitive areas provided that the number of students is not
very large. 'Indirect grading' system is adopted when we have student's
performance in quantitative terms and we transform them into grades. This
system of grading is followed to report students' performance in a public
examination or,when the size of the group is very large and performance on a
test may be scored in quantitative terms. Indirect grading can be done in
absolute relative terms. When the purpose is to evaluate the level of student's
performance in absolute terms, that is, in terms of mastery learning, absolute
grading system is followed. To report the performance on a criterion
referenced test this type of grading is practised. But when we want to report
relative performance of students in a group, 'relative grading' is adopted. It is
also known as grading on the curve because it is based on dividing the normal
probability curve into different parts. Norm referenced tools are used for this
grading. If the grades are awarded in relative terms we can find out overall
performance in different subjects by calculating Grade Point Average (GPA).

15.12 UNIT-END EXERCISES

- -
7 -

1. Take the scores obtained by all the students of class IX in last year annual
examination in the subject you are teaching and convert them in grades by
taking nine-point scale on the curve.
2. Prepqre an observation schedule to asses the disciplinary behaviours or
good manner of students in a class. Grade the students' performance and
prepare a report.
3. Discuss the limitations of adopting grading on the curve for reporting
students' performance.
4. Why do we often prefer five-point grading scale over nine-point scale to
report performance in noncognitive area?
 Developing Valid Grading
15.13 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS Procedures

Answers to Check Your Progress 1

1. A. Though aggregate scores of both the students are same, yet their
performance in the two subjects is not the same.

i B. Student Y has obtained more scores in English and less scores in

Mathematics than the scores obtained by student X. Thus, the level of

I
!
,
their performance is not the same in the two subjects.
C. Grades are the means of reporting a student's performance1
achievement. It is neckssary that grading symbols used should be
clearly spelt out and defined so that they are uniformly understood by
I all concerned - teachers, students, parents, etc. and are adhered to by
I
each examiner.

Answer to Check Your Progress 2

1. To assess the attitude of students towards participation in group activities in

the class in qualitative terms and report the assessment in letter grades,
direct grading system should be used.

It is preferred for assessment of noncognitive learning outcomes provided

the number of students and questions is not very large. It minimizes the
interexaminer variability. Besides, it is easier to use.

Answers to Check Your Progress 3

1. Characteristics of criterion referenced grading are:

(i) It enables the student to know hisher strengths and weaknesses, thus
serving the diagnostic purpose.

(ii) It reflects an individual statuslperformance in a particular subject with

reference to predetermined criterialclearly defined learning outcomes
without any reference to the group helshe belongs.

(iii) It assesses whether an individual has achieved mastery level or not.

(iv) Student performance may be assigned letter grades in terms of the

degree to which the objectives have been attained.

2. Merits of absolute grading method are:

(i) simple and straightforward to use,

(ii) meaning,of each grade is distinctly understandable,

(iii) it reflects the individual performance in a subject without any

reference to the group helshe belongs.
Student Performance:
Interpretation Limitations of absolute grading are:

(i) It does not indicate a student's performance with reference to different

subjects and other individuals in the group.

(ii) It is based on face value of measured scores and therefore ignores the
errors of measurement creeping in due to various types of subjectivity.

(iii) Cutoffs for different categories are arbitrarily decided and are not
based on any scientific procedure.

Answers to Check Your Progress 4

1. For relative grading a decision is made in advance about approximately

what percentage of students can be expected to receive different grades
such as A,B,C,D, etc. with reference to a specific group on the basis of
their relative performance. In norm referenced evaluation students are
ranked in a group o n the basis of their relative'level of achievement. It is
for this reason that relative grading is also known as norm referenced
grading.

2. Consult sub-section 15.7.3.

Answers to Check Your Progress 5

1. Overall grade = D

2. Grades obtained by three students are

Student GPA

15.14 SUGGESTED READINGS

1. Ebel, R.L. and Frisble, D.A., (1991): Essentials of Educational

Measurement, Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi (Chapter 15).
2. Grounlund, Norman, E., (1974): Measurement and Evaluation, Macmillan:
New York.
3. NCERT (2000): Grading in Schools, NCERT: New Delhi.
. .
4. Oosterhof, Albert, (1994): Classroom Applications of Educational
Measurement, Macmillan, NJ (Chapter 19).
5. Srivastava, H.S., (1999): Challenges in Educational Evaluation, Vikas Pub.
House, New Delhi (Chapter 8).