Making the Grade
Grading Practices for
Students with Disabilities
By
Cathy Sartain Industries
cathysartainindustries@comcast.net
Why Worry About Grading?
• LRE
• Standards based curriculum and
state assessment
• District grading policies
• Litigation
What Makes Grading
Hard?
 lack of regulatory guidance
 “faulty” thinking
Doesn’t Federal Law Tell
Us Everything We Need
To Know?
 IDEA: is silent with respect to
grading issues
 Section 504: prohibits
discrimination in grading procedures
What is Some of the
Faulty Thinking?
 I can’t fail a special education student
 I give all my Life Skills students an 85
• The report card grade does not really
mean anything
 The grade on the report card can’t be
less than the IEP mastery level
 I teach a lot in my classroom, but I can
only grade the things that are on the
IEP
 I don’t do the grades for my sped
students in my classroom, the sped
teacher does
I really want to do things
correctly…
what guidance is there so I
don’t make mistakes?
May I use a different
grading system?
 Only if the IEP team adopts an
alternate system based on specific
disability related needs
Don’t take it upon yourself
to make changes outside of an IEP
Team meeting!
My student is receiving
accommodations in my
classroom, do I modify
the grade?
 Do not reduce a grade merely because
the student receives accommodations,
or is in special education
Since my classroom
is inclusive, I arbitrarily
weight my sped students’
grades, this is OK, right?
 Of course not!!!!
But, what if we take out
the word arbitrary?
It Depends!
 A district may use a weighting system in
which [each] course is analyzed
separately and assigned a degree of
difficulty based on methods of
instruction and material covered(North
East ISD, TX. 1995)
Most of my students are in
general education, can I
identify as a goal, that
they will make a passing
grade?
 Definitely not!
The mastery criteria is tied only to
the skill specified in the goal
Are good grades on my
sped students’ report
cards proof that the
district is providing
FAPE?
• Persuasive, but not definitive
If I send out IEP
Progress Reports, must I
also send out Report
Cards?
 IDEA requires that the IEP describes
how progress toward annual goal will be
measured, and
 When the periodic reports on progress
will be provided to the parents
So, we must look to
Section 504 for guidance!
Section 504 tells us that:
 We can’t discriminate
 We must document in IEP if ARDC
determines alternate grading method
 Grading must be
meaningful and useful
Can the grade be based
solely on effort?
State law (TEC 28.0216):
 requires a teacher to assign a grade that
reflects the student’s mastery of an
assignment, AND
 may not require a teacher to assign a
minimum grade without regard to the
student’s quality of work (not on effort
alone)
 May allow reasonable opportunity to make
up or redo assignments and tests failed
If the IEP Team
recommends a grading
accommodation, will that
affect the graduation
option?
 No, graduation options are determined
by rigor of content and grading is about
mastery of content
Is it OK to identify if a
sped student is working
on a modified curriculum
on his report card?
 Report cards are intended as a communication
to parents and asterisks or other symbols or
codes may be used to indicate a modification or
exception to the generally applicable grading
scale.
Well then, can we identify
if a student is taking sped
classes on their
transcript?
 We can not use a notation for the
purpose of identifying a course for
students with disabilities
 A transcript is generally expected to be
shared with others than just the parent
In other words:
 Grading practices need to be fair and
equitable
 Practices can’t be discriminatory or
exclusionary
 Grades need to be meaningful and useful
What does that look like?
 Consistent framework for making
decisions on determining grades for
report card
 Decisions are documented in IEP
 Grades are true reflection of
student’s progress
What should we base
our decisions on?
 District policies
 Impact of disability on grading policies
and procedures
 Place of instruction
 Curriculum expectations
What are my grading
options?
 District policies
 District policies with accommodations
 Alternate grading system
How is this
documented in the
ARD paperwork?
 Depends on the district’s IEP paperwork
 Most often is addressed in the
accommodations portion of the
paperwork
 May also be addressed in the
deliberations (minutes)
But this sounds like it
could look differently
for each student?
You got it! Must be:
 Specific to the student
 Specific to the content area
 Specific to the impact of the
student’s disability on the grading
policies and procedures
 Discussed, decided and documented
in the IEP meeting
What tools can help
make this happen?
 Guidance for IEP Team decision
making and documentation
 Guidance for IEP Team selection of
grading accommodation
 Guidance for IEP Team development
of alternate grading systems
 Training, training, and training!
Sample ARD Decision-Making Guide
For
Determining Grades
If the instruction is:
Curriculum
Expectations
TEKS
Accoms/
Mods
with or
without
Then the grading may be:
Instruct.
Setting
State
Assessment
Grading Options
General STAAR
and/or
STAAR L
Special STAAR A
STAAR Alt
1.District policies
2.DP with
ARD
Documentation
accommodations
TEKS
Modified
Content
mods with
Or w/o
accoms
General STAAR A
and/or
STAAR Alt
Special
1.District policies
2.DP with accoms
3.Alternate
grading
TEKS
Alternate
Content
Mods
(academic
&
functional)
General STAAR Alt
and/or
Special
2.DP with accoms
3.Alternate
grading
District
Specific
This is a guidance document. The ARD Committee makes all IEP
Decisions based on individual student need.
Sample
Guidance on Selection of Grading Accommodations
Rational
for Accommodation
•
•
Deficits in long-term
retrieval
Type of
accommodation
ARD Documentation
Will take benchmark but will not count
as grade
Assessments
Deficits in acquiring
basic knowledge
Additional points will be given for
corrections on test items
Drop lowest test grade
•
•
Deficits in attention
and concentration
Deficits in ability to
complete tasks
Minimum of ___ daily grades
Assignments
Grades determined from work
completed in class
No grade penalty for classroom
notebook check
Sample Grading Rubric for Student on
Alternate Curriculum in General Education
for Social Skills Development
Criterion
Transitions
Participation
Communication
4
3
2
1
Appropriately
moves between
activities with no
assistance
Appropriately
moves between
activities with
limited assistance
Inconsistently
moves between
activities with
assistance
Refuses to move
between activities
with assistance
Stays in work
area, on task
and participates
in all activities
Mostly stays in
work area, on task
and participates in
all activities
Seldom stays in
work area, on
task and
participates in all
activities
Refuses to stay in
work area, on task
and participate in all
activities
Verbalizes in
appropriate
manner to
express needs
and thoughts
With guidance,
verbalizes in
appropriate
manner to express
needs and
thoughts
Rarely verbalizes
in appropriate
manner to
express needs
and thoughts
Inappropriately
verbalizes to
express needs and
thoughts
Total
Comments:
Raw Score: ________X/12
Converted Score: ________%