Between the Z
An uncountable number of possibilities.
Standards Based Grading
What SBG Does.
What SBG Doesn't Do.
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Increases the students responsibility for learning Minnesota State Standards.
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Requires students to be active participant of their learning.
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Fosters competition with self.
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Allows multiple chances and methods to demostrate standards are being met.
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Accurate description of student academic ability/learning.
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Focus on earning points.
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Assess academic penalties for not meeting non-academic requirements.
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Fosters competition with others.
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Not retake or corrections don't make much of a difference on final score.
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Includes scores such as: class participation, prepared for class, etc., into academic description of ability/learning.
An Introduction to Standards-Based Grading
There is a growing movement in education to abandon traditional percent and letter grading for a new system known as standards-based grading (SBG). The goal of this letter is to help the reader understand the motivations for this change as well as how SBG works in my classroom.
Why should we abandon traditional grading methods?
Research has shown that there are a number of issues with traditional grading practices that negatively affect students. Percent and letter grades attempt to summarize a student’s progress with a single value (ex: B+ or 86%). While simple to understand, single-value grades have been shown to be unhelpful and often harmful to students.
Imagine working hard to prepare for a math test. While taking the test you feel pretty good about most of the questions, though there are a few that you find difficult. A few days later, your teacher returns the test. “87% - Good Work,” is written at the top. You feel good about the grade but want to know how to do better on the next test. Based on the feedback, what would you work on improving for future assessments? Unfortunately, there is no way to know from the feedback you received.
“We give a student a grade to show what they did in the past, but we forget to connect that to what they can do going forward.” ActiveGrade - Standards-Based Grading Video
How do traditional grading methods affect students?
Feedback is provided as a means for helping someone improve. When feedback does not accomplish this goal, it ceases to be beneficial and becomes only judgemental. Because traditional grades do not provide useful feedback, students often see grades as fixed and representative of their intelligence instead of their learning. Moreover, presenting feedback as a single value leads students to compare themselves to their peers. The end result is that students are thinking about how to earn higher grades instead of how to better understand.
“When students are sent a label telling them where they stand compared to other students, rather than where they stand in their learning of mathematics, it offers no helpful information and is harmful to students.” Jo Boaler - What’s Math Got To Do With It?
How is SBG different?
SBG attempts to address the above concerns about traditional grading methods by giving students detailed feedback on every assessment without a letter or percent grade. Research has shown that traditional percent or letter grades, even when accompanied by comments, lead students to develop unhealthy mindsets about learning. Moreover, students who have access to SBG are more confident, learn more, and take greater ownership of their learning than those students graded traditionally.
How does SBG work?
Students are given a set of learning goals called standards, and their progress is monitored in terms of their ability to meet those standards. All standards are content-based. In other words, they do not include things like behavior, attendance, or effort. A sixth grade standard, for example, is “Place fractions, decimals, and percents on a number line according to their value.” This is something we want all of our sixth graders to learn how to do.
Every assessment, whether test, quiz, project, or interview, will cover one or more standards. The feedback each student receives specifically addresses how well they are meeting each of the standards. This presents a clear picture of what learning goals each student has met. When students want to do better in class, they simply try to meet more of their standards. Doing well no longer means getting a high grade, it means learning more of the mathematics that is covered in the course.
“An effective standards-based grading and reporting system should eliminate the overall or “omnibus” grade. In its place, teachers should score specific measurement topics.” Marzano and Heflebower - Grades That Show What Students Know
What does SBG look like in Mrs. Rohman’s classroom?
It can take a bit of time -- especially for parents who are not in class each day-- to become familiar with how a SBG system works. Without a percent or letter grade on each assessment, it is harder to get a quick sense of how your child is doing. You cannot simply ask your child, “How did you do?” Instead, you will need to review the feedback on every graded assessment as well as your child’s progress on Infinite Campus. Students should also be tracking their own progress via trackers that will be distributed during the first week of the school year. Those documents provide a clearer picture of a student’s progress than traditional grades can.
The table, below, is the rubric that will used to assess students' understanding of a standard (borrowed from Hester and Bowdoin).
There are five levels of proficiency for each standard, each indicating how thoroughly the standard was understood. An indicator value of 0 informs that there was no evidence supplied from the student.
Student progress on each standard is not averaged but is determined by their most recent assessment. In other words, it does not matter how many assessments it takes to fully meet a standard. Once a student understands a concept, they get full credit for meeting that standard. Students are not penalized for taking additional time to learn a concept. This lowers the stakes of assessments and encourages students to put in the extra work to master challenging ideas.
How are end-of-term grades determined?
While no assessment will be labeled with a traditional grade, each student still receives an end of trimester letter grade as they do in other classes. This grade is determined by looking at how many of the standards uncovered that term were fully met by the student. If a student meets all of the standards, they earn an A. Translating student progress to a trimester grade is done by averaging the total sum of the indicators. This provides an idea of how a students performed the entire trimester.
For example: A student shows the following progress on a series of standards assessments: 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 4, 3, 4, 2, 4, 3, 4. The average is 42/12 or 3.5/4 which converts to a B+ (42/48 = 87.5% = B+).
If a student chooses to work towards a grade of A, attain 4s on 90% of course standards and have no scores below 3.
If a student chooses to work towards a grade of B, attain 3s (or higher) on 80% of course standards and have no scores below 2.
If a student chooses to work towards a grade of C, attain 2s (or higher) on 80% of course standards.
What if I have additional question?
Please feel free to contact me if you or your child has any questions about their progress in class. Email is most reliable, but I am also happy to schedule a meeting or phone call.
Copied and adapted, with permission, from mathfireworks.com.