What is Standards-Based Grading?
11/9/2019
This blog is adapted from the Teacherease website and Educational Leadership October 2008 | Volume 66 | Number 2, Expecting Excellence Pages 70-74; Seven Reasons for Standards-Based Grading by Patricia L. Scriffiny For those of you who did not grow up with standards-based grading, this blog post is an attempt to help you understand this system and why PNA has adopted it as its measurement of learning. Instead of a single overall grade, a standards-based classroom breaks down the subject matter into smaller “learning targets.” Each target is a teachable concept that students should master by the end of the course. Throughout the reporting period, student learning on each target is recorded. Teachers track student progress, give appropriate feedback, and adapt instruction to meet student needs. PNA uses a scale of 1-4. 1's indicate that students have little understanding of a concept, and consequently cannot demonstrate any mastery. When starting a new target, many students have no prior knowledge, and begin at 1. As students learn, they can demonstrate partial mastery, and score 2. Once they meet a target, they score 3. 4's are used for students who exceed targets. Standards-based classrooms accelerate learning through better feedback. Instead of simply giving scores like 9/10 or 85%, teachers give feedback about the task performed and skills used. This helps students understand their current areas of improvement, and helps them reach the next level. Student scores go up as students learn. Final grades are reflective of mastery at the end of the course, so there’s little penalty for early mistakes. No event can “ruin” their grade. This helps to foster an emotionally safe environment where students are encouraged to stretch themselves, make mistakes, and learn. Imagine two different grade books for the same set of students, as shown below. Which one of the two better illustrates what students know and what they still need to learn? The standards-based grade book gives a wealth of information to help the teacher adjust instruction. In this example, the two objectives (1 and 3) may require more class instruction. The notations for Objective 2, on the other hand, suggest that the class only needs practice and one student needs some reteaching. Students can also see much more information about their learning. In the traditional grade book, Amanda would assume she is in great shape, but standards-based grading reveals that she has not mastered a crucial concept. Gifted and talented students can be truly challenged in a standards-based classroom because if they show early mastery of fundamental skills and concepts, they can then concentrate on more challenging work that is at higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy or that seeks connections among objectives. Students who struggle can continue to retest and use alternate assessments until they show proficiency, and they are not penalized for needing extended time. Student working styles can be easily accommodated in this system because modified assignments and assessments require no special adjustments in the grade book. The grade book simply shows where they are in meeting the standards, without reference to how they are demonstrating their learning or what modifications needed to be made. In the adult world, everything is a performance assessment. If adults on the job make poor decisions or cannot determine the quality of their own work, the results are generally undesirable. Quality matters, and the ability to measure the quality of one's own work is a learned skill. So how can we teach this essential skill? One way to teach quality is to demand it. We must create an environment where standards can and must be met and where students are not permitted to submit substandard work without being asked to revise. 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). The trimester Progress Reports are right around the corner. We hope to provide you with the most complete academic and social picture of your PNA student through these reports. Comments are closed.
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Sarah Mariner
Ms. Mariner earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Science from Colorado State University, and was awarded a teaching certificate through the University of Alaska, Southeast. Her varied background includes being an environmental education field instructor in Massachusetts, Colorado, and Baja, Mexico. She also served two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. Archives
April 2021
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