Standards-Based Grading

The best way to give a concrete example of standards-based grading is to take a look at your elementary child's report card (or even your own, from when you were little!)
It really has not changed much in setup, and you will see that standards-based grading has been used for years, just not at our secondary level.
In glancing at these report cards, you will notice a category (reading, math, social studies, etc...), and then there are several key components underneath.
For example, under math, there may the following listings:

• can differentiate between groupings of one and ten
• can formulate a math sentence (the early term for equation) from a given word problem
• can show with pictures how answers are derived
• can demonstrate multiple addition sets that add up to a given number (ex. 6+3=9, 4+5=9)
• can identify the impact of zero and ten in a math sentence
• can use correct symbols for a math sentence

You get the idea...

These are the standards  by which the student's competency in math will be measured.  Next to each standard, the teacher calculates a representative score, based on data collected about this child through various assignments, in-class observations, tests/quizzes, standardized tests, projects, etc.
Often, in a parent-teacher conference, the teacher will have some samples to use in support of his/her assessment of the child's progress in various skill areas.

So, rather than receiving an overall grade in one subject (ex. math), students and parents are given direct feedback on what particular skill sets they need to work on, or congratulate their student on mastering, at the end of a marking quarter.  This type of grading, in theory, makes it easier for a parent to pinpoint how he/she can help, for a student to understand his/her strengths and weaknesses in a particular subject more efficiently, and for a teacher to be able to individualize, adjust, and differentiate instruction. 

Make no mistake, standards-based grading is a paradigm shift and a game changer.  It requires some organizational framework much like the curriculum mapping unit planners we are currently working on, but, more importantly, it requires an investment on the teachers' part in educating and effectively communicating how grades will be calculated to both students and parents.  In short, it is a good thing we have one another to lean upon and come up with collective approaches to how we will unpack and approach the particulars of teaching to standards, so that we can eventually grade based on the student's mastery of those standards.

At the right are a few helpful articles to reference about this type of grading, and its effectiveness in the classroom preK-12.