Evaluating+a+Historical+Investigation

This page answers the questions: "What are the criteria for a successful historical investigation?", "How will my historical investigation be graded?" and "How should I interpret my historical investigation feedback, and grade(s)?"

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This is the IBO publication setting out the IBO assessment criteria, which are used to award your historical investigation an IB score. For HL students, your Unit 4 historical investigation will count for 20% of your overall IB History HL score. For SL students, your 20th Century World History Topics historical investigation will count for 25% of your overall IB History SL score. And your History performance overall will be summarized on a 1 to 7 grade, which for those of you going for an IB Diploma will then be added with your other grades to give you an overall Diploma score. .======
 * =====[[file:HI-Assessment-fm IB History Guide.pdf]]=====

** The IB evaluation scale **
This assessment can earn a maximum IB score (“mark”) of 25. Here are the most recent grade boundaries published by the IBO with regard to the historical investigation:


 * **Mark, **
 * 1 to 25 **
 * equivalent score ** || **Historical **
 * Investigation **
 * overall score **
 * of 1 to 7 ** || **IB description **
 * of **
 * 1 to 7 **
 * score ** ||
 * 0-2 || 1 || Very Poor ||
 * 3-5 || 2 || Poor ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">6-8 || 3 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Mediocre ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">9-11 || 4 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Satisfactory ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">12-15 || 5 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Good ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">16-18 || 6 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Very Good ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">19-25 || 7 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Excellent ||

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">When you submit your completed historical investigation to me for WFS grading purposes (see more on this below), I will start the evaluation process by giving it an IB score (“mark”, in IB parlance). I will return each student's investigation with my comments and my mark.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">You can choose to make this the mark I submit to the IB. If you do nothing, that is what I will do.

However, I offer my students the option of revising their submitted Historical Investigations for IB purposes. (This revision does not affect the WFS course grade.) I give SL students the option of submitting a revision to me at the end of Spring Break. HL students must submit their revisions at the end of Summer Vacation. These revisions must be submitted on the first day back to school!

** The IB's review of sample papers, and possible "moderation" of teachers' grades **
After I submit my marks to the IB, the IB responds by asking<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> for a sample of submitted historical investigations from each teacher. IB examiners then review the evaluation and score awarded by each teacher to the students in that sample. Based on this evaluation process, my marks and marking process may be “moderated” (adjusted downward or upward) by an IB examiner. Usually, this does not involve more than one or two points. The IB publishes the final marks to students and teachers in July following students' final year of IB history (at the end of the SL year for SL students, at the end of the second HL year for HL students).

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Should you choose to revise your Historical Investigation during Spring Break or Summer Vacation? **
I suggest that there are three strong reasons why many of you should consider revising your historical investigation:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Generally, my students get an excellent start on their historical investigation. Where students lose points is in details of the implementation of what are generally very interesting investigations. From a learning perspective, the best way to learn how to do something well is to work on it until it is good. If you can achieve that the first time around, great. However, if you have not, you should not leave it at that. Educational research strongly indicates that revising a subpar paper is the best thing you can do from the perspective of really learning how to write that kind of paper.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">The historical investigation part of your History score is the portion most under your control: There is no time limit on how much time you take to complete it, and you have the benefit of my one round of feedback to you about what you would need to improve. It can make up for lower performance on the exam part of the IB History score. It might also be an easy place to rack up extra score points in case you don’t do as well as you’d like in other parts of the IB program.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">You cannot take for granted that my evaluation of your historical investigation will be accepted by the IB. For reasons that have nothing to do with your paper (which will probably not be among those selected for moderation) all of the IB scores that I have assessed may be adjusted downward (or upward) one or two or even three points. This depends largely on who does the moderating, and, when we disagree with the results, generally we judge that it is not worth contesting them. So your "5" (Good) score may become a "4" (Adequate) sometime later.

In short, in most cases where students earn below a 16/25 (=6, "Very good"), I strongly recommend you consider revising your historical investigation.

Here are some recent IB History Subject Reports, which summarize what IB Examiners have found in recent historical investigations submitted by candidates.

 * [[file:SRpt 2013-May.pdf]]
 * [[file:SRpt 2014-May.pdf]]
 * [[file:SRpt 2015-May.pdf]]

And here is the required IBO cover sheet.

** Using the IB evaluation scale to generate the WFS grade **
Once I have evaluated your Historical Investigation for IB purposes, I use the table below to generate an equivalent grade for WFS purposes:


 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Mark, **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1 to 25 **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">equivalent score ** || **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Historical **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Investigation **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">overall score **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">of 1 to 7 ** || **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">IB description **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">of **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1 to 7 **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">score ** || **WFS Grade**
 * Equivalency** ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">0-2 || 1 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Very Poor || D ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3-5 || 2 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Poor || C ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">6-8 || 3 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Mediocre || C+ ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">9-11 || 4 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Satisfactory || B- ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">12-15 || 5 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Good || B ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">16-18 || 6 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Very Good || B+ ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">19-25 || 7 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Excellent || A (19-20: A-) ||

** Adjusting the paper grade to account for tardy submissions **
However, that is not the end of the story. For the WFS grade, I take into account not only the quality of the paper, but also the quality of your process for producing it, I think it is important that you learn the importance of working regularly over several weeks when you have a paper of this scope and importance.

I have not yet decided exactly how to implement this part of the grading this year, but be aware that I plan to do so!

Note that, if you have a good reason, and contact me in advance, I am generally willing to grant extensions to posted due dates.