Marking System Is Better Than Grading System
Marks into Grades
A Review of the Underlying Issues
The views expressed in the report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of SQA or any other organisation(s) by which the author(s) is/are employed. SQA is making this research report available on-line in order to provide access to its contents for those interested in the subject.
Marks into Grades: A discussion of the underlying issues
Executive summary
Grades and grading
This report was produced by Dr Mike Kingdon, Principal Education Consultant,
Entity Group Ltd, in March 2009.
Given the inevitable annual variations in the standards of individual examination components, most writers concur that marks alone are inadequate for reporting results. Converting marks to grades endows results with greater meanings — across diets, options, subjects, and in many cases across qualification streams — than marks alone can provide.
There is also a consensus that grading (many organisations use the term
‘awarding’) is the process of converting raw marks for components into component and subject grades. In the traditional examination cycle, grading is one step in the qualifications delivery process. In common with other UK regulators and awarding bodies, the principles underpinning SQA grading are founded in case law and informed by developments in psychometrics and ICT. Given its unique national status, SQA and its forerunners have been able to implement quality systems that have been impossible for other UK awarding bodies.
However, despite this immense administrative and intellectual legacy, grading remains a judgemental process.
Efficient grading depends on the design of the assessment regime, the validity of the assessment components, plus the reliability and completeness of marking and marker standardisation. In their turn, the efficiency of grading decisions can be evaluated in terms of the:
♦ Comparability of the grades awarded — whether over time, across all of the routes that lead to the
A Review of the Underlying Issues
The views expressed in the report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of SQA or any other organisation(s) by which the author(s) is/are employed. SQA is making this research report available on-line in order to provide access to its contents for those interested in the subject.
Marks into Grades: A discussion of the underlying issues
Executive summary
Grades and grading
This report was produced by Dr Mike Kingdon, Principal Education Consultant,
Entity Group Ltd, in March 2009.
Given the inevitable annual variations in the standards of individual examination components, most writers concur that marks alone are inadequate for reporting results. Converting marks to grades endows results with greater meanings — across diets, options, subjects, and in many cases across qualification streams — than marks alone can provide.
There is also a consensus that grading (many organisations use the term
‘awarding’) is the process of converting raw marks for components into component and subject grades. In the traditional examination cycle, grading is one step in the qualifications delivery process. In common with other UK regulators and awarding bodies, the principles underpinning SQA grading are founded in case law and informed by developments in psychometrics and ICT. Given its unique national status, SQA and its forerunners have been able to implement quality systems that have been impossible for other UK awarding bodies.
However, despite this immense administrative and intellectual legacy, grading remains a judgemental process.
Efficient grading depends on the design of the assessment regime, the validity of the assessment components, plus the reliability and completeness of marking and marker standardisation. In their turn, the efficiency of grading decisions can be evaluated in terms of the:
♦ Comparability of the grades awarded — whether over time, across all of the routes that lead to the
References: grade boundary marks. Newton (2007) p26 The awarding process is one of weighting the evidence and coming to judgement on where to locate grade boundaries. Robinson (2007) Robinson (2007) also outlined the fundamental grading dilemma facing such