Previous research has shown that teachers do not follow recommended grading practices when they assign grades (Stiggins and Conklin 1992). Teachers` grading practices reflect their considerations of the uses and consequences of grades, sometimes at the expense of considering the interpretability of grades (Brookhart 1991, 1993). Additional, educators without training draw primarily from their own experiences as students when they are to determine the grading practices they employ (Guskey 2006). Governmental awareness of this internationally has led to introduction of different measures; like standards, criterions, tests or other forms of external audits, both to help and/or control that teachers` assignment of final grades is in accordance with current policy.

In this paper special attention is paid to what is emphasised by teachers as important when assigning final grades to students. The starting point of the inquiry is that assigning final grades is ultimately concerned with the ideal of valuing student performance through equal and fair assessment practices. If teachers use different methods of assigning final grades and values performance differently this brings forward questions of the validity of the grades given. If there is a discrepancy between recommended and actual grading practices there is a validity problem (Brookhart 1993). How do teachers ensure equal and fair grading? And what measures are used to safeguard the validity of final grading at school level? In a time where learning outcomes are high on the agenda in many countries and grades are used as indicators of learning outcomes for accountability purposes this is also an important question of how learning outcome is defined through procedures and practices of assessment. Differences in assessment procedures and in grading practices may result in indicators of learning outcomes based on a variety of evidence – as well as lack of such.

Brookhart, S. M. (1993) Teachers` Grading Practices: Meanings and Values. Journal of Educational Measurement. Vol. 30, No. 2, pp 123-142 Brookhart, S. M. (1991) Letter: Grading practices and validity. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 10(1), pp. 35-36 Stiggins, R. J., & Conclin, N. F. (1992) In teachers` hands: Investigating the practices of classroom assessment. Albany: SUNY Press Guskey, T. R. (2006) “It Wasn`t Fair!” Educators` Recollection of Their Experiences as Students with Grading. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA