Standards based grading

Purpose of a Grade
To show student achievement of learning goals.
Requires that grades are:
Accurate
Meaningful
Supportive
Consistent

Goal is to show what the student is able to do.

Not - attendance, effort, behavior, participation
What is a standards based report card?
Standards based report cards list
the most important skills students
should learn in each subject at a
particular grade level. Instead of
letter grades, students receive
marks that show how well they
master the skills.
Why change to standards based?
Students will be informed of the grading process
Very specific, list of standards on the report card

Gives students a chance to remediate and consult

Take the most recent grade that a student completes
What does a standards based report card
look like?

Report Card Example

Advantages of standards based
Make sure that all students learn every standard and
every element of the standard
No discrepancies between basic, proficient, exceeding,
or not meeting – more consistency among grading
Focus on individual academic skills
No curve in grading
Uses median and mode to take away the emphasis of
outlier scores
Grades are not given for compliance, but for mastery
Grading Procedures
No room for questions on what they do not know
Strengths and weaknesses graphically displayed

Fair and manageable practices are used

Required procedures are well defined, used consistently

and explained clearly to students and parents at the
beginning of the year

Replace previous evidence with new evidence

What does the research say?
Black and William find value in showing a purpose for
every assignment rather than giving every assignment
a point value. That just leads to point accumulation,
not mastery.
Guskey says that grading on a curve is that you don’t
know if anyone learned anything.
Higher level achievement occurs when students are
involved in their learning – Black and William
O’Connor – standards based education goes hand in
hand with standards based education, can’t have one
without the other