Standards Grading

An Introduction
For 4 years our science department has been working on formative assessment. We have read tons of articles, attended countless conferences and tried many approaches in our classrooms. Near the end of 2006 we had come to a point where we knew more about our students than we had ever known before. But we didn't know what to do with all of that knowing. We knew a lot about our students but we were unsure of how to best use all of the information.

In November 2006 I was fortunate to join with seven other educators from our district and attend a grading conference in Princeton, NJ called Beyond A, B, and C. Led by Grant Wiggins it opened my eyes to where to go next with our assessment work. Mr. Wiggins along with Tom Guskey and Ken O'Connor made some eye opening statements but when I thought about them they really made sense.

Based on their work I decided to try a new approach to grading, which would lead to a new approach to instruction. I have called it standards grading for lack of a better term but it mainly entails grading students on what they know, understand and are able to do. It also means not grading students on effort. They may turn in all of their work, they may be incredibly nice but this new system would grade them only on what they could actually do.

A new approach
Here are the changes that I am trying and will continue to try this year:

1. Grading only on what students can do. No effort grades only grades based on the standards for our class.
2. No zeroes for homework. Ken O'Connor detailed many research studies that tell us that giving zeroes for missed work is no motivation for students.
3. Incompletes--I have greatly increased the use of incompletes. My goal is to encourage students to give me work so that I can grade them on their work. Incompletes in this model are a good thing. It means that students still have the chance to complete the work and receive a grade based on what they can actually do.
4. Grades based on the most recent evaluation of a student. If a student shows improvement their grade will reflect it. And their grade will not necessarily be the average of the two grades. Once they know it their grade will be closer to the higher grade.
5. Standards categories in the gradebook rather than assignments. The goals of the class are for students to meet certain standards so they are graded on whether they meet those standards or not. In this way one assignment might include several standards. They might score great on one section and poorly on another. The grade in the book will reflect doing well on one standard and poorly on the other.

What will happen?
The idea is that I will use these standards grades as I go along. I will be able to identify which students need help in which areas and I will be able to get them the help that they need. Students will also not spend as much time working on standards that they have already demonstrated they understand. Skills like graphing using a balance will of course be used over and over but if a student understands balancing equations they will not repeatedly have to fill out balancing equation worksheets. They will continue to need to balance equations from time to time but they will spend their learning time working on areas where they still need help--not on areas where they already know what they are doing.