To Grade or Not to Grade...

Watching the evening news last night, a story came on that really caught my attention. It was a story on one school district that has said sayonara to grading homework. YES! A whole school district that has adopted a viewpoint that I feel is so beneficial to student learning.

When I put a “B” on one of my student’s report card, I want it to illustrate that this child has mastered 85% of the material covered in class. When I send that report card home, I want the parents to get that same message. If I were to start calculating homework completion as part of their grade, that “B” is going to mean something else. It may mean this student mastered 92% of the material that I taught, but just couldn’t find the motivation to complete his or her homework, or it may mean that this student really only mastered 74% of the material, but he or she turned in the assignments on time. This is why when I look back at my grade book at the end of a grading period, I see projects, tests, and quizzes—no homework—and each time, I feel confident that the grade each child earned accurately portrays the amount of material he or she mastered.

I hear a lot of teachers and parents say, “Homework is important, and if you don’t grade it, the students won’t be motivated to complete it.” I say they are right, unless they are provided with some other form of motivation. It was my principal last year who really helped me solidify my viewpoint on this. Homework completion is a behavior problem, not an academic problem. Not completing an assignment by the time it is due is a behavior that shows a lack of responsibility, so that’s why in my classroom, it leads to a behavioral consequence.

Don’t get me wrong, I still score the homework, look it over, mark incorrect answers, and review it with students, but I don’t put any points in the grade book. When the students do their homework without a reward of points, they are building an important point of view that some things need to be done just because it is the right thing to do. And when they don’t complete their work, I provide them with opportunities to adjust their behavior, which in turn sets them on a track towards responsible learning.