Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
All of our elementary schools went to standards based grading this year. Homework is not graded (beyond counting towards the effort grade) and there is no extra credit. We don't have unlimited retakes of a particular assessment, but if a student receives a "1" or a "2", the standard does need to be reassessed. If that grade is earned for a quarter, we need to reteach and reassess in a later quarter.
All of our elementary schools went to standards based grading this year. Homework is not graded (beyond counting towards the effort grade) and there is no extra credit. We don't have unlimited retakes of a particular assessment, but if a student receives a "1" or a "2", the standard does need to be reassessed. If that grade is earned for a quarter, we need to reteach and reassess in a later quarter.
Do you like it? What do you think about this type of grading reform at the high school or college level?
Do you like it? What do you think about this type of grading reform at the high school or college level?
It's A LOT more work. I don't know how it would work at the upper levels. I have 53 fourth graders and it is a lot to track. I like how the grades reflect specific standards in each subject. Instead of one overall grade for "reading", the students receive multiple grades for various standards under each subject. The toughest part is keeping track of student performance on various benchmarks each quarter. The grades are not an average for the quarter, but are supposed to reflect the student's performance at the time the grade is given. They are not percentage based.
I have to say I'm a bit envious of the way our upper grades grade. My DS is in middle school. We get grade updates via email. It shows a list of assignments with percentage grades and his current avg/grade. As the quarter progresses, the updates are adjusted. A neighbor of ours teaches at the same MS. She says at the end of the quarter all she has to do is verify the percentage grade and submit it. It's not a long process for her. It took me a couple days to submit my grades at the end of the last quarter.
Even for slackers I see this as a way to motivate them to do just the little bit extra to do a little bit better. For the over-achievers I don't see this as changing the way they do things. If you want good grades, you're going to try for them. It eventually ends up being less work for those who perform well and more work for those who perform poorly.
We have something similar at our school, we are moving to complete standards based grading as well. Basically, can a student actually do what the state believes that the child should be able to do at that grade level.
As far as grading homework, I'm in the boat where it should be graded, but I do understand why schools are getting rid of it. Schools can't track whether the homework is actually completed by the child or the parent (or another person in the home). Schools can't make their improvement plans based on things that happen to the child outside the boundaries of the school walls.
Our high school also got rid of extra credit and their reasoning was that teachers were giving extra credit for silly reasons, bringing a can of soup for the canned food drive, or going out to the car, etc...
I have heard of schools that don't believe in failing a student, they have the student keep on testing a certain area until s/he understands the material. I remember reading about it in a lower socio-economic school where many students were not making the grade. By allowing students to pre-test out of certain subjects and others taking much longer to complete a task, allows the student to gain mastery at their own pace. MUCH more work for the teacher.
Homework does not count at my school. It's more of a refresher. Of course the lowest grade we can give is a 50 which just does not seem fair to me. I have kids who work hard and get a 55, and then one who does nothing and still gets a 50! I would actually like standards based grading, but I'm a SPED teacher.
There are aspects of this I like and aspects I don't. For example, if we did this in my high school I see three things happening. 1) A lot more A's will be given out, 2) Less will be taught because you need time to remediate and retest (so this would lower the bar for the kids at the top.) and 3) SOME kids will learn more (but at the expense of others learning less because of #2). Also, I question how useful grades would be. Colleges will not know, by looking at them, whether the student takes a day to learn new concepts or a month. Both students are equal under this grading scheme, however, this makes a HUGE difference to a potential employer.
Reason #2 has me on the fence on this one. I can't teach my content now. How am I supposed to teach it when I have to remediate so the kids who have B's can get A's and the kids who didn't pass can get A's and what will an A mean when we're done? I think I'd like this better if the grading was pass/fail instead of A/I. In this grading scheme the kids keep on trying until they get a 3 or 4, on each standard, and that is an A. There is no penalty for things like cheating either (behavior issues do not impact the grade). On the flip side, theoretically (assuming this doesn't encourage cheating since there is now no penalty), they know the standards when they're done.
I, definitely, like this better for elementary school than high school. The article is about a middle school with this program. I have no idea how you coordinate 150 kids and standards based grading without hiring more teachers (you know they won't) and giving the teachers more time to grade.
Things I like about this include not grading homework for the reasons stated above. You don't know who did it. I like that students don't get the option to just move on...that they have to finish what they started. I don't like that it will mean even less gets taught than we're teaching now because of the remediation and retesting necessary because this, negatively, impacts the students who got that 3 or 4 the first time. They have to wait for their peers to catch up. I like that it motivates kids to get it the first time though so they don't get the remediation work. This seems like more teach to the bottom of the class, which, if we're honest is the real aim of education in the united states so it would fit.
I'd like this much better if we tracked kids. I think it will be a nightmare in a differentiated class and I have NO IDEA where I'd find time to track data like this for 150 kids at a time...however, I do think this is coming to a high school near you soon.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 02-16-2013 at 03:43 AM..
This is one of those things that sounds great in theory but sounds like a nightmare to actually implement. If schools want to implement this effectively they really do need to track students in similar ability groups. In high school where teachers see so many students each day it might be a full time job to just keeping track of what standard each student has mastered.
On the plus side a system like this would really illuminate which students were not doing what they were supposed to be doing. It would also illuminate where teachers need improvement.
I took a class in college that was graded this way, but it was a small class. I can see this being a real nightmare in a school where you have heterogeneous groupings and many standards to assess.
On the issue of graded homework, I really like the idea that homework is not graded.
This is one of those things that sounds great in theory but sounds like a nightmare to actually implement. If schools want to implement this effectively they really do need to track students in similar ability groups. In high school where teachers see so many students each day it might be a full time job to just keeping track of what standard each student has mastered.
I'm in an elementary school. I have 53 students. Even with 53, record keeping and grading eats up a ton of time.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
