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Tomorrow we will continue discussing grading reform at our school. We are making small strides towards grading reform. The chart above is how I envision standards based grading, which is where I hope our journey takes us.
Standards based grading is not easy and difficult to implement. Below are a few of the must-do's to lay the ground work.
- You must decide what students need to know and be able to do when they exit your class.
- Develop the formative assessment of each standard.
- Discussions on how to respond to each student that is not meeting the proficient level.
- What interventions will be used to develop mastery?
- How will the team decide to gather the evidence of learning?
I am not an expert nor have I gone through the entire process. We are learning from mistakes as we go. A few of my PLC teams have completed their powerstandards or essential learnings for each course. These groups will begin developing their methods of assessments. I believe this is the most important part of the whole process.
Please provide some feedback to the graphic above. What are your thoughts on standards based grading?
A good source to spark a grading discussion is Elements of Grading by Doug Reeves
Great goals Mike. I think standards based grading is the future of education and look forward to seeing how you implement it at the high school level. I anticipate some of the biggest hurdles being parent and student reaction to not receiving the typical A, B, etc.
ReplyDeleteDo you plan on using this for class room grading exclusively, or for report cards too? Worthwhile endeavor, please share your successes!
We implemented SBG, K-12, three years ago. It has changed the way teachers and students think, education is much more rigorous, and our student achievement has measurably improved. It is, as you say, difficult to implement, but very worth the effort. Check out our website at www.qcsd.org.
DeleteThis sounds like a really great discussion. One question that may spark some discussion: "What does it mean when a student earns a B?" Does it mean Suzie understands 85% of the course standards? Does it mean she understands 100% of the standards, but didn't turn in some homework? Does it mean she understands 70% of the course standards, but turned in some extra credit? Our district is currently going through this process. I'm happy to help and provide resources we've used, if you're interested. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, what evidence shows us that Suzie knows 85% of the material? That is a discussion that I want my teachers to have in their PLC's.
DeleteI always struggle with the disconnect between formal assessment results and actual grades. We have received several parent questions as to why their child is getting A's and B's and not proficient on state exams. S-based grading is one way of tying all of it together.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with this- we are trying it too! I think one of the keys that our people are struggling with is providing descriptive feedback (in your steps 3 and 4 above). One way to aid this this quality rubrics to go along with the assessments, but obviously that isn't always possible with all formative assessments. But getting away from "8/10" and giving students specific information on what they are missing is key. Thanks for posting this, I'm looking forward to seeing where you go!
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of great research tied to Standards Based grading and most of it is positive. I think K-8 it is totally doable for any district. Where the hesitation exists for me, and maybe its because of a lack of research is when higher education comes asking for scholarship information, state assessment results get no attention. They want GPA's, ACT test results, etc. How do we create a change at the 9-12 level that fits with what higher education wants to see?
ReplyDeleteHi Dave,
DeleteOur high school (and middle school) is embracing a standards-based grading philosophy while continuing to utilize letter grades at each reporting period (quarter, semester, etc.). In other words, students receive feedback based on standards after an assessment and they are offered multiple opportunities to demonstrate their understanding. Here's a video explaining our SBG philosophy and how letter grades fit into it: www.tinyurl.com/scsdsbgvideo