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Several years ago, two public schools in Michigan became teacher-powered鈥攎eaning, teachers have the autonomy to make decisions about what goes on with school operations. After that transition, one of the main areas the educators reevaluated was grading.
Typically, teachers spend hours outside of school grading assignments. What would happen if that task was outsourced?
According to Sarah and Dan Giddings, two (married) teachers in Ann Arbor, Mich., who teach at two different teacher-powered schools within the , removing grading from teachers鈥� list of responsibilities can free teachers up to focus on designing the curriculum and creating meaningful relationships with students.
The concept is not uncommon in higher education鈥攊n 2011, the Chronicle of Higher Education a handful of institutions that turned over their grading to independent assessors or even computers鈥攂ut it鈥檚 rarely seen in K-12. 澳门跑狗论坛 Teacher spoke to Sarah and Dan about how and why their schools outsource grading.
Dan is the International Baccalaureate coordinator and the lead teacher at (WIHI), an IB diploma program school. His school has about 10 graduate students on staff who help in the classroom, take on substitute duties, and assist with grading. Similar to how teaching assistants help university professors, WIHI grad assistants will grade a stack of math quizzes, for example.
Sarah is the curriculum coordinator, adviser, and instructor at the , an alternative high school (that is not completely virtual). Her school鈥檚 grading system, which the teachers designed and set aside money for, is a bit more unique: Pay non-WAVE teachers in the county an hourly rate to grade WAVE students鈥� work.
鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing how many more teachers are up for grading students鈥� work when they鈥檙e being paid for it,鈥� Sarah said. And, she added, it helps the classroom teachers prioritize student relationships, lesson plans, and curriculum.
Dan and Sarah both taught previously at traditional schools, where they said they would spend hours grading at night. Now, Dan has the option to earn extra money by grading Sarah鈥檚 students, and Sarah can focus on one-on-one tutoring sessions, evening phone calls with students, or even .
鈥淲e鈥檙e still spending the same amount of time [working], but I鈥檓 focusing more on relationships and social-emotional learning,鈥� she said.
WAVE has about 10 online graders who are all certified teachers in Michigan. They teach at other schools in the county or work part-time.
Sarah said some students were initially hesitant with the system, with some saying they didn鈥檛 want to submit their essays or work to someone they didn鈥檛 have a relationship with. But these are not faceless names鈥擶AVE has videos and bios of all the graders, and they鈥檙e willing to video-chat, text, or speak on the phone to students.
The outside graders at both WAVE and WIHI are expected to match the rubric, which is developed by the teachers at the schools. Sarah said outside grading provides a level of quality control.
鈥淚t鈥檚 much more unbiased ... You try really hard to be unbiased when you鈥檙e grading [as a teacher], but there鈥檚 always a measure of familiarity that sinks in,鈥� she said. If you don鈥檛 know the student personally, 鈥渢here鈥檚 a check of 鈥業鈥檓 [an outside] person looking at this, and I really don鈥檛 think this student has mastered this concept.鈥欌��
And if students have a problem with or question about their grades, their classroom teachers can take a second look. Teachers stay abreast of students鈥� progress through periodic check-ins鈥擶AVE also assigns a teacher to monitor students鈥� assessment and feedback.
Sarah and Dan both said that this model of grading has been successful, because it prioritizes the results of student achievement, rather than the work itself. Typically, teaching in an alternative school is rife with high stress and a high turnover rate, Sarah said, but 鈥渨hat we have done has led to a very happy staff.鈥�
Still, Sarah and Dan both stress that their grading models are not one-size-fits-all, and may not work at every school.
鈥淭hese are both systems that we as teachers helped develop and embrace because it frees up our time,鈥� Sarah said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not interested in bottling this up and making it a model that people can buy.鈥�
That鈥檚 the beauty, they said, of working in teacher-powered schools. Teachers are able to make the decisions about what works for them without miles of bureaucratic red tape. For more on that concept, Wendi Pillars wrote an opinion essay for 澳门跑狗论坛 Teacher about five takeaways from the recent Teacher-Powered Schools Conference.
A previous version of this post incorrectly said that WAVE鈥檚 online graders can be retired teachers; they cannot be.
Image via Getty
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