Local School District Automates Grading Processes
The frequency at which U.S. students are being tested within their respective school districts is unprecedented. It has significantly affected the way teachers construct their lesson plans, and more importantly how they divide their time between grading exams and teaching their students.
A local New Jersey school district, with close to 10,000 students spread throughout its 12 schools, had fallen victim to an issue afflicting many school systems throughout the United States: too much grading, which led to not as much learning. The average class size in this school district had reached an average of 21.4 students and now more than ever, teachers were spending more time grading quizzes and exams rather than helping students understand new material. Of course, the teachers were not to blame given the circumstances, but a permanent solution had to be found. In order to reduce the time instructors took grading tests, some form of automated grading needed to be implemented.
A Nationwide Issue Being Addressed Locally
To resolve the issue at hand, we installed our QuickGrade solution, a component of our OMR Bubble Sheet product, on 49 different MFP’s within the school district. QuickGrade allows teachers to create their very own bubble sheets directly from their MFP screen. The bubble sheets would then be printed out, and distributed to every student in the class. An answer key would be filled out by the teacher and scanned into the MFP along with all of the completed bubble sheet exams. Subsequently, the instructor would receive a test report showing all the exam results, in addition to other administrative information such as the instructor’s name, test name, total number of questions, total number of test takers, average grade percentage, and more. At this point, the graded bubble sheets are returned to the each respective test-taker since the name of each student is populated in the appropriate box QuickGrade’s signature block features populates the corresponding student’s name in the appropriate box as it is scanned through your MFP of choice. Karee McAndrews, the Assistant Director of Technology, states, “Teachers love the grading software application. FabSoft replaced the old scantron system format and made it very easy and digital for the staff. Teachers love the reports and diagnostic data they get from the software.
QuickGrade: The Study Partner
In the case of the Bayonne’s School District, the benefits of QuickGrade far exceeded its automated grading capabilities. Not only did QuickGrade reduce the amount of time teachers spend grading exams, but the students themselves were huge benefactors of this solution because they were now able to see which questions they answered incorrectly along with the correct answers. Usually, on returned exams the incorrect answers are clearly marked, but graders don’t always have the time to go over each individual question and provide the correct answers, especially if different versions of an exam were created. Now students can collect each of their QuickGrade exams, and create their own study guide for future tests, especially when it comes to those cumulative tests at the end of the cycles or terms.
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Learning Environment Improved
Teachers now have more time to teach and provide additional support to their students than ever before with the installation of QuickGrade. School systems depend heavily on grading metrics to track the performance of teachers and students alike, but in the midst of all this evaluating the most sacred aspect of a classroom is lost: are the students truly learning? The grader and educator inside every teacher should not have to be in conflict. Now teachers are able to satisfy their administrative requirements while fulfilling their duties as educators. At times, new material needs to be further broken down and taught in a different way so that a student can process and absorb the new information. Of course, there is no perfect teaching method. Each student learns in his/her own way. With our QuickGrade solution, instructors can spend more time getting to know their students and understanding how they learn.
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