Judgment-Based Grading
Judgment-Based Grading is one of the assessing methods which depends on professional judgement of the teachers to mark the works of students instead of standardized metrics or strict grading scales. This approach attaches great importance to qualitative feedback and toghts a teacher with the unique context of a particular student, thus making it a more personalized way of learning.
The foremost benefit of Employing Judgment-Based Grading is its being able to change according to the individual requirements and the way of each student to learn, and thus, teachers can provide personalized feedback. Imaginatively, a teacher could identify a student who is very imaginative but has a problem with technical skills, thereby allowing him/her to concentrate on the ability to improve instead of simply assigning a grade. This way can increase the students' motivation and engagement because they get more valuable feedback.
Judgment-Based Grading is the new grading system which judges students based on their oral perceptions rather than grading with the usual quantitative scores. Mainly, involvement along with shift of thought and a new procedure is applied to the scenario of a student. Such as, a teacher, who would normally grade a student's work with a 'C', instead, he or she gives supportive details on the possibilities for a project to become stronger and also outlines the points that need to be changed or improved which consequently generates a constructive learning environment.
The primary difficulty in Judgment Based Grading is the subjectivity, which might lead to the occurrence of different evaluations. To overcome this issue, teachers might have to set and communicate the well-defined criteria and standards for the judgments to be fair and transparent. In addition, educating teachers on how to implement this method properly can be time-consuming, as they would have to manage both, the qualitative feedback and the accountability measures which are mandated by the school systems.
Judgment-Based Grading deals especially well with the situations where it is possible to focus on personalized learning such as project-based learning environments, art and design courses, and advanced placement classes. For instance, in a creative writing class, a teacher may evaluate students' work on the criteria of originality and emotional effect instead of grammar accuracy, thus, he/she would promote a more supportive atmosphere to the students for their creative expression. This lack of structure permits multiple types of assessment that can help students with different areas of strength.