Exploring the effects of relative marking in Key Stage 3

I had some concerns about the marking system used for Key Stage 3 in my school when I joined two years ago. It followed the general policy that classwork would be marked every two weeks and pieces graded from E* to 3. Approximate proportions were set for each grade, so one or two students might achieve E* or E (excellent) for each task, the remainder of the upper half of the class received a 1, most of the lower half received a 2 and those students at the bottom received a 3 – in other words, a ‘relative’ grading system. However, at the point of transition from primary to secondary, students can experience declines in enthusiasm, motivation, attainment and confidence, in some cases related to changes in assessment approach (McGee et al., 2004). I therefore thought the use of more comment-only marking system might be better than a student receiving a discouraging grade of 3, but it was the relative nature of the system I was particularly keen to explore. There is some debate ar