Standards Based Grading

Standards-Based Grading System

• Based on learning goals and performance standards.  One grade is given per learning goal.

• Standards are criterion-based.  Criteria and targets are made available to students ahead of time.
• Measures achievement only OR separates achievement from effort and behavior.  No penalties or extra credit given.
• Selected assessments (often only identified summative assessments) are used for grading purposes.
• Emphasize the most recent evidence of learning when grading.

Traditional Grading System

• Based on quizzes, homework, tests, projects, etc.  One grade is given per assessment.

• Assessments based on a percentage system.  Criteria for success may be unclear.
• Uses an uncertain mix of assessment, achievement, effort, and behavior to determine the final grade.  May use late penalties and extra credit.
• Everything goes in the grade book, regardless of purpose.
• Include every score, regardless of when it was collected.  Assessments record the average – not the best – work.

Increases Effectiveness of Work Done for Student and Teacher

• It's about LEARNING.
• Providing specific feedback gives students a sense of where students are in their learning. Homework assignments and other formative assessments help judge the progress of the group as a whole before deciding how to proceed.
• Feedback Cycle
  • Feed-up, Feedback, Feed-forward

Helps Teachers Adjust Instruction

• The standards-based grade book gives a wealth of information to help the teacher adjust instruction. Some standards may require more class instruction and/or some students my need additional instruction or practice.
• Students can also see much more information about their learning. In the traditional grade book, a student would assume she is in solid shape with a letter grade of a “C”, but standards-based grading reveals she has not mastered some crucial concepts and therefore needs to complete additional corrective activities.

It teaches what quality looks like.

• In the adult world, everything is a performance assessment. Quality matters, and the ability to measure the quality of one's own work is a learned skill. We create an environment where standards can and must be met.
• If we base our grades on standards rather than attendance, behavior, or extra credit (which often has nothing to do with course objectives), we can actually help students grapple with the idea of quality and walk away with a higher degree of self-sufficiency. We can and should report information about student performance in areas like attendance and effort, but we can report it separately from academic achievement (O'Connor, 2007; Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006).

If nothing else, grades should have meaning.

• What does each grade indicate to students, parents, and teachers about what students have learned, or not learned, in a course? What does 8/10 really mean? Is 5 out of 10 ever good?  How is an 81% different from a 79%? Should we “curve” grades? When pressed to describe the qualitative difference between an A, B, C, D, or F, could we?
• These questions are simplified in a standards-based grading system. Students are provided with the standards and the criteria on which they will be assessed in every unit and for every assessment.  Students and parents can clearly see which areas students are performing well and where they may need support.  Grades are no longer a mystery.