Whether physically in New York State at ASCD's 2005 Summer Conference or merely in a New York state of mind (and logging in via the Web), educators had plenty to talk about long after the closing session thanks to the ASCD Summer Conference Blog. In fact, a discussion on matching standards-based education with grading practices offered no shortage of opinions as bloggers, in response to a post on "Differentiating Standards-Based Grading and Reporting," shared their approaches to reporting student progress. "In a clearly designed, standards-based program with appropriate rubrics, ‘grades’ as we have known them are inappropriate," asserted one blogger. Another offered that ". . . teachers often confuse assessments with grading—my gradebook has few grades but my assessment portfolio for each student is jammed." And another explained that his school no longer includes homework, effort, or behavior in determining course grades.
This topic got people typing because "grading is so emotional, so important, and so private," says education consultant Ken O'Connor, who contributed to the blog thread and also presented at the conference. He adds that "teachers [generally] have not had much training about grading, so they do it the way it was done to them, according to fiercely held beliefs that come more from the heart than the head." For these reasons, O'Connor claims, "Grading is a topic that cries out for professional dialogue."
By offering blogs as a forum for this dialogue, ASCD is able to reach beyond the conference itself and tap into the educational community at large.
ASCD blogs allow conversations that were started at a conference to continue over time, spawning new exchanges in the process. Through blogs, conferences are not "a singular event in time, but an ongoing communication in the broader ASCD community," says Franklin Bradley, online associate editor at ASCD. Such a dialogue is essential to the grading debate, observes O'Connor, because "the only way we are going to get more effective and collaborative approaches to grading—grades that are accurate, meaningful, consistent, and supportive of learning—is through discussion about our beliefs and practices."
We need you to blog on to keep this conversation going. "Every organization I know says it wants to develop community—a sense of connecting with others who share common interests," notes Michelle Terry, ASCD's deputy executive director. "A blog, and a community," she observes, "won't thrive without active contributors. Inviting people into a conversation can be risky, but it's always interesting to hear what others are thinking."