Assessment and Grading

Abstract

This chapter considers assessment and grading. It argues that assessment is not grading, and grading is not assessment—though the two are often conflated and sometimes confused. Instead of seeing these two forms of evaluation as the same, this chapter argues for the need to distinguish between them, related though they may be. When students' work is being graded, teachers evaluate their performance against a standard that can be clarified and explained with a rubric, or evaluative tool. When a student's work is being assessed, teachers evaluate its level of proficiency as a work in progress. Grades are final in a way that assessments are not.