My rationale for changing to Standards-Based grading and assessment:
I have always been a teacher who is incessantly changing and modifying my lessons in order to do what is best for my students. I am a lifelong learner and student, and I am constantly in search of best practices. This is my seventeenth year of teaching. For several years, I was significantly struggling with grading and assessments. I had too many sophomore students failing my class, yet some of those students participated every day in class, had insightful analysis, aced all of their tests, and could write better than many of my "A" students. Come report card time, I felt sick about some of those students who failed because they neglected to do a couple of major assignments, or many of the small assignments. Putting a zero in for an assignment absolutely devastated some grades.
One particular incident that broke my heart and changed me forever as a teacher was when I approached a student for an essay that she did not turn in; she opened her binder, and in the front pocket was a five page handwritten, single-spaced essay that she had on the day it was due but did not turn in because it was not typed. From that moment, I knew I would never make a student feel like they couldn't turn their work in because it wasn't typed. Based on my former policy, that essay could earn a 50% at best because it was two weeks late. The grade that she earned did not reflect the phenomenal narrative that I read. How many students had essays in their binders that they did not turn in because it wasn’t typed? How many students were too afraid to tell me that they had it done, but it didn't meet the qualifications? I have numerous students who work multiple jobs, take care of their siblings, don't have computers, etc. and, ultimately, their grades reflected the fact that they didn't get to a computer lab to type their paper.
The bottom line: I want students’ grades to reflect what they know and can do! Once I had this paradigm shift, I felt guilty about all the years of teaching where I assigned grades based really on how well students "played school" or conformed to rules. I piloted this standards-based grading four years ago with my sophomores, and I couldn't be happier. Because I was on maternity leave for half of the first year of implementation, I knew I could improve it a ton the following year, which I did. In all honesty, I had some anxiety about implementing this with the Advanced Freshman because with standards-based grading, students must EXCEED the benchmarks in order to earn an "A." In a points-based system, students who were merely proficient could often earn an "A" by timely work completion. Please hear me say this: there is absolutely no substitute for hard work!! I still expect all of my students to do their practice (homework); one can't improve without it. At the same time, many students, like TAG students, often think, write and test at a level that exceeds benchmarks, yet they often earn “B’s” or “C’s” in the traditional grading system because they choose not to do many assignments—most likely assignments in which they are already proficient (or they simply forgot the assignment at home, which happens to everyone). I believe standards-based grading is an excellent way to prepare my students for college, as proficiency mirrors the college model: most college classes have 3-4 assessments throughout the semester. Each of those tests, papers, or midterms is roughly a third of the grade. You don't get extra credit opportunities or numerous assignments to make up for a bad midterm score. Ultimately, if I believe this is the best practice for my students, then I have an ethical responsibility to implement this system for all of my students!
Here are some of the things I loved about last year and proficiency grading:
I have always been a teacher who is incessantly changing and modifying my lessons in order to do what is best for my students. I am a lifelong learner and student, and I am constantly in search of best practices. This is my seventeenth year of teaching. For several years, I was significantly struggling with grading and assessments. I had too many sophomore students failing my class, yet some of those students participated every day in class, had insightful analysis, aced all of their tests, and could write better than many of my "A" students. Come report card time, I felt sick about some of those students who failed because they neglected to do a couple of major assignments, or many of the small assignments. Putting a zero in for an assignment absolutely devastated some grades.
One particular incident that broke my heart and changed me forever as a teacher was when I approached a student for an essay that she did not turn in; she opened her binder, and in the front pocket was a five page handwritten, single-spaced essay that she had on the day it was due but did not turn in because it was not typed. From that moment, I knew I would never make a student feel like they couldn't turn their work in because it wasn't typed. Based on my former policy, that essay could earn a 50% at best because it was two weeks late. The grade that she earned did not reflect the phenomenal narrative that I read. How many students had essays in their binders that they did not turn in because it wasn’t typed? How many students were too afraid to tell me that they had it done, but it didn't meet the qualifications? I have numerous students who work multiple jobs, take care of their siblings, don't have computers, etc. and, ultimately, their grades reflected the fact that they didn't get to a computer lab to type their paper.
The bottom line: I want students’ grades to reflect what they know and can do! Once I had this paradigm shift, I felt guilty about all the years of teaching where I assigned grades based really on how well students "played school" or conformed to rules. I piloted this standards-based grading four years ago with my sophomores, and I couldn't be happier. Because I was on maternity leave for half of the first year of implementation, I knew I could improve it a ton the following year, which I did. In all honesty, I had some anxiety about implementing this with the Advanced Freshman because with standards-based grading, students must EXCEED the benchmarks in order to earn an "A." In a points-based system, students who were merely proficient could often earn an "A" by timely work completion. Please hear me say this: there is absolutely no substitute for hard work!! I still expect all of my students to do their practice (homework); one can't improve without it. At the same time, many students, like TAG students, often think, write and test at a level that exceeds benchmarks, yet they often earn “B’s” or “C’s” in the traditional grading system because they choose not to do many assignments—most likely assignments in which they are already proficient (or they simply forgot the assignment at home, which happens to everyone). I believe standards-based grading is an excellent way to prepare my students for college, as proficiency mirrors the college model: most college classes have 3-4 assessments throughout the semester. Each of those tests, papers, or midterms is roughly a third of the grade. You don't get extra credit opportunities or numerous assignments to make up for a bad midterm score. Ultimately, if I believe this is the best practice for my students, then I have an ethical responsibility to implement this system for all of my students!
Here are some of the things I loved about last year and proficiency grading:
- My students took ownership of their LEARNING. They knew exactly what they needed to do to be proficient. I had students talking to me about their learning versus their grade. At conferences, I actually had a student say, “I feel great about my ideas and content, but I really need to work on my sentence fluency.” For those of you who know me, this made my year!
- The rubrics made the feedback much more meaningful for the student and the parents.
- My failure rate dropped A TON! Students who normally would give up halfway through the semester persevered.
- Proficiency allows for growth. If a student grows over the semester, this is reflected in their grade. Why shouldn't their improvement and ability at the end of the class carry more weight than how they performed in the beginning?
- The grades students earned were accurate indicators of what they are able to do.
- Proficiency forced me to get rid of “busy work” (although I tried to rid my class of that years ago), and really focus on the standards. This focused my teaching and everything I did in the classroom. Standards-based grading has made me a better teacher!