A quick note on what is inside. This is the final part of the series, where we step back to the purpose of grading. After the article, you will find the full series gathered in one place for easy access, along with a way to stay connected and go further into grading and assessment.
This is the final article in our four-part series on grading in PE. In the previous article, we stepped back to consider what counts for grading, the decision about which learning a grade is meant to reflect. This week we take one last step back, to the question that sits underneath all of it: why do we grade in the first place?
We saved it for last on purpose. It would have been easy to open the series here, but the question lands differently now. We have worked backwards through determining a grade, organizing and summarizing the evidence, and deciding what counts. Having explored these, the question of what a grade is actually for becomes clearer.
Access the previous articles: Part 1: Determining a Grade, Part 2: Organizing Evidence of Learning, and Part 3: What Counts for Grading.
Why Grading Can Feel Arbitrary
Grading in PE has a history of feeling arbitrary and unfair. It is something we all must do, and yet, if we were all in a room and asked to explain the purpose of grading in PE, we would likely have a wide range of responses. Of course, this is not surprising given that there has been little education and PD on what it means to grade, and many PE teachers are left to go with what is done around them or rely on their best hopes and intentions.
This is part of why grading can feel so inauthentic, because many times it is not grounded in a guiding principle.
Yet there is more common ground than it might seem. Each jurisdiction tends to have its own language about grading, and most policies share the idea that a grade should reflect student learning achievement.
A Principle to Ground Grading
Each of the previous articles in this series highlighted guiding principles that ground practices leading up to and through the grading process. While they are different, they do work together and align to a foundational grading principle:
a grade reflects learning achievement.
To stay true to this foundational principle, a few things have to be in place.
First, we have to be clear about what counts toward a grade in the first place, which is why grades communicate learning achievement, not behaviours (Part 3). We then want to organize and summarize that information clearly to help ensure grades are based on evidence of learning achievement (Part 2). And when it is time to determine an overall grade, we use that evidence with our professional judgment and give more weight to what is more recent and consistent (Part 1).
Each principle helps to create clarity and aligns with the foundational principle, so that the grade we determine reflects student learning achievement.
Before we look at a grade, it is worth remembering that a grade is more than a letter or a number. These 'grades' are mere symbols used to communicate something. Each one carries a qualitative meaning, an overall description of how successful a student was with their learning in that reporting period (or at the end of the course).
While each jurisdiction will have their own meanings, my jurisdiction uses a proficiency scale (see below), and each level has its own meaning. That description is what the determined grade communicates to whoever reads the report.
Putting It All Together
You may recall the gradebook below from earlier in the series (Part 2). In each competency, the bolded number is the level determined to best represent the student's overall proficiency for each competency, not an average of the entries. This is an example of how we can use our professional judgment.
Let's revisit Karan, who was introduced earlier in this series. His grade is a good place to see these principles working together.
We start by considering what counts for his grade, the listed curricular competencies he was learning (some jurisdictions might use learning standards or other terms). Then we summarize the overall evidence of how he did with that learning, which is what feeds into the grade.
From this summary, we look at his overall level for each competency and use our professional judgment to determine a grade of Proficient (mostly 3s, some 4s). This means that overall, he demonstrated a complete understanding of the concepts and competencies, as described by the Proficient grade.
That Proficient level then converts to a letter grade of B and an anchor percentage of 85. For more on how we determine and convert a grade, see Part 1.
What matters here is the order we use to arrive at a grade. It can be tempting to start with one and reason back to it. But if grades are to reflect student learning achievement, they need to work the other way. We start with the learning, summarize the evidence of achievement, and then use this information to determine a grade.
Is it easier to grade with numbers, categories, and averages? Likely. But easier is not the same as meaningful, and a lack of meaning contributes to grades feeling arbitrary. For grades to be clear and meaningful, they need to be grounded in principles and focused on student learning.
The Takeaway
So why do we grade in the first place? At its heart, a grade is meant to reflect and communicate a student's learning achievement. That is the purpose underneath all of it, and it is what the rest of the series has been building toward.
Grading is clearer and more meaningful when the principles behind our practices align with and support one another, rather than pull in different directions. None of this means there is only one way to grade. There are many. But grounding our practices in clear principles is what keeps grading from feeling arbitrary, and what makes it more meaningful for us and our students.
That might be the most useful place to leave this. Not with a new system to adopt, but with a question worth sitting with: what grounds the way you grade?
Going Further: Assessment in PE
This four-part series has been about grading and how we can determine one for a report card. But grading is only part of the picture. What comes before it is everything we do during our PE classes to see how students are doing in their learning: assessment.
Here's the catch: assessment in PE can be as confusing and frustrating as grading, if not more so. And since a grade can only be as accurate as the assessment behind it, making sure assessment works for us and our students is essential.
If you want to keep going and make assessment in PE clearer, more meaningful, and manageable for you and your students, I invite you to join the PE Assessment Blueprint. This is an online membership for PE teachers, diving into monthly topics and practical strategies you can use to make assessment work in your classes.
You can find out more about the membership below.
The Full Series in One Place
A couple of things to leave you with:
I have created a webpage that hosts all 4 articles in one place, so you can return to them whenever it suits you.
Also, in last week's article, I mentioned a resource to help you determine which learning standards to prioritize in your PE class. It is also on this webpage.
Visit the Grading Series Webpage
Thank you for following along with these four articles. I hope the series has made grading in PE feel a little clearer, and if you have any questions or ideas, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Josh
