Sixty-five percent of CPS ninth-grade math sections used Gradebook's default Total Points Logic ON setting, aggregating task scores by total points earned over total points possible¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2024: local conditions change quickly

Subclaims¶

q2 i? About 65 percent of sections used the default Total Points ON setting and 35 percent used Total Points Logic OFF, and the report suggests the difference is not well understood by most administrators and teachers. → Diaz 2021

Evidence¶

Diaz 2021¶

Diaz, B., & Easton, J.Q. (2021). CPS Gradebook Technical Report. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/CPS-gradebook-technical-report

q2 · i? · associational · r1

Descriptive analysis of weighting settings across the 1,804-section sample. The report states "About 65 percent of sections in this sample used the default (Total Points ON)" and illustrates with a worked example where ON yields 85.7 percent and OFF yields 87.2 percent.

"About 65 percent of sections in this sample used the default (Total Points ON) and 35 percent used Total Points Logic OFF. There is a subtle difference between the two"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• CPS ninth-grade math final grade distributions show sharp peaks at 60, 70, 80, and 90 points, with students on the cusp between two grades much more likely to receive the higher grade — related
• In 2016-17 CPS ninth-grade math sections, 98 percent of teachers altered or created grading category titles rather than using Gradebook's defaults, producing 709 unique category titles — related
• In CPS ninth-grade math sections using mastery-based or weekly grading, those categories determined nearly all of the final grade; otherwise assessments carried the highest weight, with a median of 60 percent exceeding the CPS/CTU 50 percent recommendation — related
• Most CPS ninth-grade math teachers used two or three grading category families, averaging 2.43 families per section — related
• CPS ninth-grade math category families typically contained many tasks per semester—about 11 in assessments and 28 in assignments—except weekly categories, which typically contained only four tasks — related
• Ninth-grade math teachers on average weighted assessments most heavily (57%), assignments next (36%), and behavior little (7%) — related