Responsibility and accountability often come up when I talk with teachers, parents, and other stakeholders about standards-based grading and reporting. In the old model, we would often give one shot opportunities for students to learn. It became more important that students knew the material by a certain date or time. Those that took longer or displayed negative approaches to learning (late work, zeroes, etc.) were often left behind. Grades didn’t necessarily depict what the student knew or what they were able to do.
Some schools have called these behaviors employability skills. We have chosen to call them approaches to learning. We know that for students to be successful in their learning they must exhibit certain behaviors. For example, our teachers in grades 4-6 have identified these behaviors to report separately from the grade: responsibility, respectful, stays on task, completes work on time, and work is neat. Our teachers in grades 7-12 have identified work habits, self-reliance, and sound character as their approaches to learning.
In a standards-based system we allow opportunities for second chances. Some may question as to whether we are holding students accountable and preparing them for life when we allow second chances for learning. I am not diminishing the importance of accountability and responsibility. I believe we need to instill these skills during a student's school experience. My response is that when we separate behaviors like late work and zeroes from the grade we become much more accurate. Under this new model we elevate the significance of accountability and responsibility, because we report it separately from the grade.
You can read more about our work
here.
