7th Grade Science

A Pedagogical Consideration for Raising Student Achievement

A study was conducted to examine the effects of different methods of reporting grades to students on overall student achievement, partly to help counter the academic apathy commonly found in inner city schools.  Students in five groups were subjected to one of five conditions in regards to the reporting of their grades: (1) privately as individual percentages, (2) publicly as ranked, individual percentages, (3) publicly as ranked, group percentages, (4) privately as pass or fail, and (5) no reporting of grades.  Data was collected for four weeks through the use of a series of teacher-generated assessments.  While scores modestly improved for groups 2, 3, and 4, it was found that fostering competition between interdependent groups of students (group 3) elicited the most significant gains in scores.  Continued research to further isolate the treatment variable is needed to verify its positive effect on overall student achievement.

This study made three conclusive findings: (1) reporting grades to students raised overall student achievement more than not reporting grades to students, (2) the more traditional, competitive methods of reporting grades to students privately as individual percentages or publicly as ranked, individual percentages, while raising overall student achievement more than not reporting them at all, were actually less effective than the less traditional, less competitive method of reporting grades to students privately as pass or fail, and (3) the method of reporting grades to students publicly as ranked, group percentages, when combined with allowing them to work collaboratively in groups of four, increased overall student achievement the most.