Standard Based Grading

Standard-based grading is a method where students are graded based on their mastery of standards and content. It focuses on learning, provides targeted feedback, promotes student ownership, allows for targeted instruction, builds intrinsic motivation, and accurately measures learning. However, it requires consistency across all grade levels and predetermined assessments to avoid subjectivity. Norm reference tests also need to be considered to ensure success. So the first thing I'm going to talk about is what standard-based grading is. So standard-based grading is where educators grade students based on their mastery of standards and content. The goal of this is to focus on the learning, engage students, increase achievement, and foster a positive environment. This is different from a majority of classrooms today which use traditional grading and traditional grading is where we track a percentage of work successfully completed rather than a demonstration of content mastery. The next thing that I'm going to discuss is some strengths that there are in standard-based grading. So in standard-based grading, one strength is improved feedback. What this means is the teacher is able to provide targeted feedback to students because we are assessing goals rather than completion. So students are able to use this targeted feedback to understand where they need to improve. And it allows them to become engaged in their learning because they have a better understanding of what it is they need to work on. Another strength would be student ownership. This is where the learning becomes student-centered. So students are able to take the learning targets that teachers set and they are able to make them into goals. And they can use, the teacher can create rubrics that allow students to become more directed in their purpose of learning rather than what is right and what is wrong. And students become more influenced by the purpose of learning, which is did I understand the content? Can I do this? Not can I get this right and wrong? If I get it wrong, then I didn't learn anything. It's a goal of can I understand the content? Did I master the content? Another strength is relevant and targeted instruction. So just like with the improved feedback and targeted feedback, targeted instruction is a benefit of the standard-based grading. Teachers are able to arrange activities at different levels of instruction based on the learning target. So a teacher gives a learning target and some students will master it and need to be challenged. Some students will need a little bit more to master the content and this allows the teacher to see which students need that extra boost and which students need to be challenged. This can be beneficial for differentiation. It allows it to be more effective and allows students at a variety of levels to perform their mastery of the learning goals. And another one that is big, and I feel like this is really big in the elementary classroom, is that it is building intrinsic motivation. I feel like as an elementary teacher, we establish this foundation of how students look at their education and their learning. And with standard-based grading, students are able to become intrinsically motivated because standard-based grading limits the competition in the classroom. They're not looking at this person got this grade, this person got this grade. They are all headed towards the same goal. They are all trying to just master the content. And they understand, I just need these things to master the content. And they're focused more on themselves and what they need to do rather than feeling bad about themselves of not being able to get a 100. They're just focused on, I can do this, I figured it out. And this becomes, makes the focus become student-centered. Progress is at the student's discretion, not did the whole class get it? Am I behind everyone else? And the last two strengths I want to talk about are emotional safety with fear of testing. Being a third-grade teacher, I see this a lot in my classroom because this is the year they take the big Etsy ready. With this, the standard-based grading allows students to think about grades where they're not, oh, if I mess up, I'm going to lose. Because with traditional grading, we start at a 100 and their performance allows them to go backwards. But with standard-based grading, they start from the bottom and work their way up. So they are focused on getting better rather than fearing making those mistakes. And this allows a change of their mindset. So many students have a fear of making mistakes and do not realize that learning comes from mistakes. So students with standard-based grading focus more on mastering the content rather than mastering the grades. And the last strength of this standard-based grading is it accurately measures learning. And this is very beneficial for educators because the clear criteria helps measure mastery. It helps to see where students are at in gaining mastery in the content. Are they still at the bottom? Are they headed there? They've gained a little bit, but they still have a little bit to go. Have they mastered it? Do they need to be challenged? And it helps you to see where students are at. And then it also allows grades to be connected to complexity, not grades being connected to, did I do this right? Did I do this wrong? And this takes away the whole fear of getting a zero because all students are starting at zero and working their way up as opposed to, I've gotten a zero and now my grade is going to suffer because I did not understand this one thing. Now, with standard-based grading, there are a few weaknesses that come to mind. One being, if standard-based grading is going to be used, it needs to be consistent throughout all the school years, meaning from kindergarten to 12th grade. The lack of consistency could result in mastery learning becoming subjective. And what I mean by this is a vertical alignment needs to be very clear. What is each success criteria? What is each level? What does a zero look like where they're starting? What does a one look like once they've started to gain knowledge from the content? And what does mastery look like? If this is not consistent from kindergarten to 12th grade, learning becomes subjective and it can be very, it can cause students to lack what they need whenever they go from one grade to the next. Another weakness would be assessments. Assessments would need to be predetermined to show mastery of content. If assessments are not made prior, again, it can become subjective. So, another thing that concerns with assessments is it is inevitable that we will take norm reference tests. From third grade up, that is how students are assessed. Having the right assessments that show true mastery are going to be what shows if standard-based grading is going to be successful or is it going to cause students to fall behind.