Concept-Based Grading

I'm trying a new (to me) grading scheme in all of my classes this semester. Concept-based grading. The short summary of the scheme is this: traditional grading schemes have grades given per item turned in, and each item may cover 1-to-several concepts. Then the items are categorized, and each category is given some weight. For example, a typical grading breakdown for my courses in the past might look something like

10% Quizzes

10% Homework

60% Exams (4 exams at 15% each)

20% Final Exam

Concept-based grading, on the other hand, has the entire course content broken into individual concepts that need to be mastered. Each concept is tested, frequently, and new scores replace old scores rather than averaging in. Here's Dan Meyer's blog post about it, for more extensive reference.

So, my current classes are like this: Something like 1-2 concept-based quizzes per week, covering the concepts we've discussed. The concepts count for about 60-70% of the total course grade, and the rest is made of exam scores and homework. I got this model from another Community College instructor. I'm halfway through my first semester using it.

Right now, I hate it. I'm wondering if there's something I can do to ditch it for the rest of the semester, without causing total chaos.

Here are the changes I've observed based on this new grading system.

• My Elementary Algebra classes used to be boisterous and talkative. I always present most material via worksheets, which we work on in groups, and students are invited to bring their solutions to the board. Whereas in previous semesters I would get about 40-60% of the students regularly volunteering, now the number is more like 30%. Also, they don't want to talk to each other during the sharing part.
• At the beginning of the semester I saw students working to improve their 1's and 2's. Now I see them just giving up. I see scores go from 2 to 3 to 1 to 0.
• These quizzes take a good 30 min each, which is time-costly at 1-2 per week. I'm behind-schedule in every one of my classes, to a degree that I have never been before.
• I feel like students are more afraid of taking risks now, rather than less afraid.
• I enjoy my teaching much less this semester. I feel like it's constant assessment through judgment, and not enough assessment through constructive comment. I try to write useful comments on quizzes, but it's just so hard at 1-2 quizzes per week, for 4 classes. I rely on those numbers to provide most of the commentary, which I think is probably pretty demoralizing to anyone who isn't getting 4's.

There are many many possibilities for what I may be feeling this way. It might be because I didn't plan this change well enough. It may be that I always feel this way around this time in the semester (in fact I know this to be true; I have no way of figuring out how severe my current dissatisfaction is relative to my typical mid-semester dissatisfaction). Right now my thoughts on the matter are not all that complete; I just wanted to get something written down because it's been stewing in me for weeks. Hopefully more comprehensive reflection to come...



UPDATE
I don't hate it anymore. Right after I posted this, I took a survey of my students to see how they felt about it. Overall they liked it. Overall I like it, too, but I am still totally baffled by how I can stay on top of it. It's an ongoing process, I suppose, and I probably took on too much change all at once without proper preparation.

Anyway, here are two questions from the survey, which I found interesting.

Overall students like the Concept Based Grading, yet more than half of those students are either totally in the dark about their grade or think they're earning a C or D. I'm particularly interested in the students who say they have no clue what their grade is yet they like the CBG. I wish I could figure out who those students are and have a conversation with them.