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How to Grade and Report for Learning - 2023 & beyond With Ken O’Connor

16th & 17th September, 2023

Grading is one of the most difficult things that teachers do, and it is also what many teachers least like doing but, except in relatively few schools, subject grades are required, especially in middle and high schools. A major challenge this school year and beyond is to ensure that grading supports learning, not just the accumulation of points and grade grubbing.

This workshop will address these issues through describing and discussing how using the fifteen fixes for broken grades can make grades consistent, accurate, supportive of learning and meaningful this year and beyond.  Consideration will be given to concerns about the purpose of grades and the impact of country and school culture on expectations about grades and how grading may impact college admission.

For some the workshop will affirm their current approaches, for some it may suggest the need for fine tuning, and for some it may challenge their current methods and suggest the need for significant revisions.

Participants will:

  • recognise the need to critically examine established grading and reporting practices;
  • consider the “why” of grading” (the Seven P’s of grading);
  • understand the what and how of effective grading practices (standards as the base, performance standards as levels, supporting the learning process, separating achievement from behaviour, the quality of assessment, and how grades should be determined);
  • identify the key words in mission statements and the practical implications of those words considering school and country culture;
  • know how to deal with hot button issues (e.g., AI, late and missing “work,” academic dishonesty and homework);
  • consider directions for their school in 2023 and beyond
  • engage in deep conversations for the purposes of networking, sharing of ideas, and actively learning from each other throughout the workshop.

Click here to start your registration now!

  • Open to EARCOS & Non-EARCOS Member Schools.
  • Registration for all participants is $200/- per participant.
  • Limited seats available.

People to contact in case of queries: 

  • Shefali Jhaveri: headoflearning@cisb.org.in
  • J'nelle Bobb-Semple: jnelle@cisb.org.in

Presenter Bio

Ken O’Connor is an independent consultant who specializes in issues relating to communicating student achievement, specifically grading and reporting. He is a strong advocate for standards-based teaching, grading and reporting.

A graduate of the University of Melbourne (B.A. Hon) and the University of Toronto (M. Ed), he has been a staff development presenter and facilitator in 47 states in the USA, 10 provinces and two territories in Canada, and in 35 countries outside North America.

His twenty-three year teaching career included experience as a geography teacher and department head at 6 schools in Toronto and Melbourne (Grades 7-12) starting in 1967.

Ken was a Curriculum Coordinator responsible for Student Assessment and Evaluation and Geography for the Scarborough Board of Education (and then the Toronto District School Board) from March 1990 to June 1999. He also worked (half time) as a consultant on Secondary Assessment at the Ontario Ministry of Education from November 1998 to December 1999.

He is the author of  A Repair Kit for Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken Grades. Third Edition, First Educational Resources, Oshkosh, WI, 2022, How to Grade for Learning: Linking Grades to Standards, Fourth Edition. Corwin, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2018, and Fifteen Fixes for Broken Grades: A Repair Kit, Pearson, Toronto, 2012. Articles written by Ken have appeared in the NASSP Bulletin, Educational Leadership and School Administrator.

Website: oconnorgrading.com
Email: kenoc@aol.com
Twitter: @kenoc7