Grading and Group Work: How Do I Assess Individual Learning When Students Work Together?

Group work is a growing trend in schools, as educators seek more complex, more authentic assessment tasks and assign projects and presentations for students to work on together. The Common Core State Standards call for increased student collaboration in various subject areas, and collaboration is considered one of the 21st century skills that students need to master in order to succeed in school and beyond. Many teachers, though, are uncomfortable giving group grades, which may or may not actually reflect an individual student's learning. How else to proceed? Assessment expert Susan M. Brookhart offers practical advice, strategies, and examples to help teachers understand the following: ▪ What the differences are between group projects and cooperative learning. ▪ How to assess and report on (but not grade) learning skills and group interaction skills. ▪ How to assess and grade individual achievement of learning goals after group projects. ▪ Why having students work together is a good thing-but group grades are not.