The Students Knowledge and Skill Level - Essay Example

A critical factor in this line is the skill and knowledge level realized by the students in the process of studying and learning. The student’s knowledge and skill level are measured by the various grading methods that individual institutions employ in evaluating the ability, achievement, and performance of the students.

Multiple Grading accounts for both ability and performance in determining the grade earned by the student at the end of the semester (Jung & Guskey, 2011). The student progressively earns points from numerous activities that constitute the grading system under multiple grading. In this respect, the final grade of the student is determined by several activities that sum up the student’s academic performance and efforts in the course work. This grading system goes beyond the normal standardized practice that evaluates the performance of the student based on passed and failed tests.

Multiple grading has numerous advantages that influence students differently. The most outstanding factor in this line is that the abilities, achievements, and performance of outstanding students in certain coursework are rewarded accordingly. As a result, it enhances student relations that enable students to interact in a manner that they can assist one another during the coursework, without necessarily jeopardizing individual grades at the end of the semester. On the other hand, this mode of grading enables teachers and professors to interact with their students, even more, to be in a position to adequately grade a student as the semester advances (Marzano, 2006).

Through multiple grading, points that will constitute the final grade are awarded in numerous areas that assess the overall potential of the student across learning and gaining knowledge and skills. As a result, students do not only depend on tests for their grades but also on the attention and efforts they accord to the coursework and the learning experience.

While multiple grading seems to be a comprehensive mode of grading students, some professors avoid it altogether. The reasons for doing so vary from one professor to another, but the common denominator is that there are measures, policies, and standards to comply with. This form of grading is avoided where knowledge and skills gained through the academic processes are critically based on student performance. Performance variables are not defined the same in every education institution, thus the reason why some professors avoid multiple grading (Benediktsson, Kittler & Roli, 2009).

Whether multiple grading is ethical or unethical is determined by the set policies and standards of student performance regarding passing and failing grades. Students’ abilities and academic performance vary, and so do the efforts accorded to the course throughout the semester by each student. Taking these variations into account is necessary regarding the fact that no single student enrolls in a program for failure. In this respect, multiple grading is an ethical grading practice.