An Aargau school breaks new ground without grades
Around ten years ago, planning began for a new school building in Rütihof AG. How should the interior design be to support and stimulate children's learning and teaching? How should children learn in the future? In class groups or even year groups?
The deeper we looked into teaching in heterogeneous classes, the clearer it became to us that assessment with grades did not fit into our concept, indeed it prevented us from being able to assess the children in a varied way and with a focus on their development. The new assessment concept of the Canton of Aargau gave us so much room for manoeuvre that we were able to embark on the path of competence-oriented assessment.
The aim is for pupils to stop learning for a good grade.
We started by no longer giving pupils grades for examinations and performance records and increasingly using competency grids. We were unable to avoid the cantonal requirement that the annual report must be issued with grades, but the way in which these grades were assessed changed.
But how does support-orientated assessment work without grades? The aim is that pupils no longer learn for a good grade. They learn because they receive targeted, differentiated and individualised feedback on their performance and are thus motivated to constantly improve and discover new things. The teacher conducts regular learning dialogues with the children. The tasks, achievements and work are discussed together.
These meetings deal with questions such as:
How did I fare when solving the task? Where did it go well, where did difficulties arise? Was I able to concentrate on my work, was I distracted? What helped me, what supported me? Where did difficulties arise?
What learning progress have I made? Where and in which competences have I improved? What have I not yet understood? What do I need to practise more?
Which goals have I achieved? Which goals do I need to work towards again? Which goals do I want to achieve in the next step? How do I plan the realisation?
Through these discussions, the children learn to assess themselves correctly. In order to document learning progress, all relevant work, discussion notes, performance records, examinations, photos of work, audio recordings of texts and so on are collected in the assessment dossier. Pupils and teachers decide together what goes into the assessment dossier. Each child is supported on their individual learning path. The individualised support gives the children security and self-confidence. Comparison with other children is largely eliminated. Goodbye competition!
Smileys instead of 1 to 6
How does this go down with the children? «We get smileys for our work. Our teacher gives us either a sad, a neutral, a laughing or a happy smiley,» says ten-year-old Max*, and: «I think it's good because it's not so absolute. A sad smiley isn't as bad as a bad mark.» Emily, twelve, says: «If I don't get any marks, I'm not stressed!»
As the children do not come into contact with notes, they do not have any great significance for them.
Eleven-year-old Joana is optimistic about the future: «When I get grades later in secondary school, it will be more serious and more stressful, but I'm also looking forward to the new experience.» Marie, eleven: «When I talk to colleagues who attend a school with grades, I realise that they are happier about an F than I am about a beaming smiley face. A bad grade is worse for them and less so for me!»
As pupils do not come into contact with grades during the school year, they do not know what they mean. And so they don't play such a big role for them in the annual report.
Parents no longer receive weekly grades at home, which they sign and then lull them into the (perhaps false) sense of security that they know where their child stands. Instead, they are regularly informed about their child's current learning progress by their child themselves. After completing a learning unit or at least once a month, the child brings their work home and explains to their parents what they have learnt, where they stand and what goals they are pursuing. The majority of parents confirm that they are more comprehensively informed as a result of these learning status discussions with their children.
This feedback to parents is part of the new form of assessment at Rütihof School. As the children talk a lot about their performance in class, there is a good chance that they will also be able to do this at home. Of course, this does not work equally well everywhere. Parents confirm with their signature that they have looked at the assessment dossier and discussed it with their child.
From their own school days, parents are only familiar with assessment by grades. It is understandable that it is not easy to find your way around the new system. However, after almost eight years since its introduction, there are hardly any critical questions or objections. The many advantages of the new form of assessment outweigh the disadvantages and are appreciated. Your children hardly know any more exam anxiety, because there is no longer any fear of showing what they have learnt and what they can do. This also creates less stress for the parents.
Assessment with grades does less justice to the curriculum
It is pleasing that Rütihof has remained on the path of child-orientated assessment to this day. Teachers want to assess children in a more differentiated, holistic and constructive (positive) way. This also fits in with the new competence-orientated Curriculum 21, which is less or not at all suited to assessment with grades.
«The children are motivated. They want to show what they have learnt,» says one teacher about her pupils. Another teacher is surprised that the children don't always choose the path with the least effort when solving open-ended tasks.
Other colleagues notice how well schoolchildren are able to assess themselves and how well they are able to conduct meaningful learning progress discussions. This observation is all the more pleasing as studies by the New Zealand educational scientist John Hattie show that pupils' self-assessment contributes significantly to good learning success.
