Computerized Gradebooks and the Myth of Objectivity

I F YOU ASK middle school or high school teachers today how they determine their students’ grades, the first thing most of them will do is open a computerized grading program. They’ll show you the vast array of data they keep on each student and explain how they weigh the different pieces of information. At the end of the marking period, they combine these various measures and, with the help of the computer, calculate a summary score to the one-hundred-thousandth of a decimal point. The computer then converts this summary score into the letter grade that is printed on a report card and sent home to parents. Many teachers will also go on to describe the fairness and objectivity of this process, pointing out how the mathematical precision of the computer makes it easy for them to explain and to defend their grading policies to students, to parents, and to administrators. A SPECIAL SECTION ON ASSESSMENT