Standards-Based Grading (SBG) allows parents and students to see an accurate, meaningful, and consistent report of grades. Standards-Based Grading is designed to provide specific feedback on what students are achieving and really know plus show their progress and growth over time.

It will help teachers to understand where students are struggling, so they can provide alternative ways to help students learn and understand what is being taught. It also gives teachers a chance to provide enrichment if students are excelling in a particular standard as well.

SBG provides a picture of the student’s knowledge without outside influences such as behavior or extra credit. Much more "real world," SBG focuses on the summative achievement of students rather than how quickly they learn or how many times it takes them to master essential standards.

In our traditional grading system, we had a chronological collection of points or percentages which may include behavior, completion grades, and other factors that may or may not demonstrate the knowledge of a student. In the old system, parents may not have been given an accurate picture of what his/her child may know.

Beatrice Public School Documents

Behavior Rubric

Formative vs. Summative

Redo - Retake Guidelines

"The problem with making an extrinsic reward the only destination that matters

is that some people will choose the quickest route there,

even if it means taking the low road." Daniel Pink, Drive

Formative assessments are pieces in the classroom that “form” or build your knowledge. Some of the pieces include frequent ongoing practice, assignments, and assessments that are considered “check points” for student progress and the foundation for feedback. These pieces let teachers know whether students are ready for the summative assessment, need more practice, or need to be re-taught.

Because formative assessment is about practice, it does not play a huge part in your grade. HOWEVER, it does play a huge part in the learning. Examples of formative assessments may include daily practice, homework, work in class, quizzes, class discussions, projects, self evaluations, etc.

Importance of Homework - In order for students to excel on the summative assessments, it is critical they complete the formative assessments such as homework. Beatrice Public Schools believes homework is a strong component to learning and is absolutely vital to success.

Homework has three key purposes: to provide opportunities to practice skills, to prepare students for new topics, and to expand on introduced material. First, it provides extra practice. In order to perform at a high level with a skill, students must reach a level where it becomes automatic. Students must complete the material with speed and mastery in their practice to reach the goals on the summative assessment. Second, it prepares students for new topics. This asks students to use their prior knowledge to begin to help them to understand the new topic. Students need to reflect on prior learning to move forward with the new learning. Third, it helps students to elaborate on new material. In order to understand the new material, students need to extend and enrich their learning of the concepts. Homework allows students to really build their understanding of a particular concept.

Homework is only one formative assessment piece; however, it is a crucial piece to student development. Homework provides students with the opportunities to really practice and reflect on their learning.

Summative assessments are completed after the learning experiences which include several formative assessments. Summative assessments “sum up” the learning. They usually require students to demonstrate mastery of all the essential learnings (content, concept, skills).

Examples of summative assessments may include: projects, presentations, unit tests, essays, performances, etc.

1. What is SBG and how does it differ from traditional grading?

A traditional grading system is a chronological collection of points or percentages which may include behavior, completion grades, and other factors that may or may not demonstrate the knowledge of a student. With the traditional grading system the grades are averaged together. Parents are not given an accurate picture of what his/her child may know.

Standards-Based Grading is designed to provide specific feedback on what students are achieving and really know plus show their progress and growth over time. Much more "real world," SBG focuses on the summative achievement of students rather than how quickly they learn or how many times it takes them to master essential standards. With SGB, teachers will look at the overall body of evidence of achievement and determine the score or grade for each grading period.

Another difference is that students will have multiple opportunities to demonstrate mastery of a standard before the grade is final. The score for each assignment will be based on a numerical value: 4=Expert, 3=Proficient, 2=Progressing, 1=Beginner, and INC=Novice. This will allow us to quickly identify students who need intervention or enrichment.

2. Why should we switch to this system?

SBG allows parents to see an accurate, meaningful, and consistent report of their child's grades. It will help teachers to understand where your child is struggling so that they can provide remediation. Also, it will give teachers a chance to provide enrichment if your child is excelling in a particular standard as well. SBG provides a picture of your child's knowledge without outside influences such as behavior or extra credit.

3. When will we see these changes?

We have already implemented components that will help to change this process and will continue to implement small pieces every year. During the 2014-2015 school year, we will change the grading scale at the middle school for the 6th and 7th grade students. Students will be graded on a rubric scale (1 - 4) rather than a percentage scale (1-100). During the following years, the SBG scale will follow these two groups of students until it is implemented K-12.

4. What will the grading scale resemble?

Each numerical representation will be determined through a rubric. A sample is included on the last page of this document. This rubric will be utilized to determine scores for practice, assignments, and assessments. The teachers will utilize the district rubric and then make it applicable for their grading standards. They will first determine what evidence will demonstrate proficiency of learning in a specific standard or several standards. From there, they determine evidence for the other categories.

5. Will students have to be "perfect" to get a 4?

No, students do not have to be perfect. In order to score a 4, a student would have to show learning that goes above and beyond the criteria for the learning target highlighted in the rubric. It would reflect in-depth understanding of content and/or excellence in demonstration or communication of knowledge, process, or skills. Realistically, a small percentage of students will score 4's on summative assessments the first time.

6. Does each assessment and assignment explain how the student met or missed the standard(s) being addressed?

Yes, teachers will provide feedback in a variety of ways: oral, written comments, rubrics, etc. We want to shift from discussing how many points something is worth to what a student is learning and specifically what they might need to work on.

7. What is the difference between formative and summative assessments?

Formative assessments include frequent, ongoing practice, assignments, and assessments that are considered “check points” for student progress and the foundation for feedback. They inform instruction letting teachers know whether students are ready for the summative assessment. Examples of formative assessments: daily practice/homework, work in class, quizzes, etc.

Summative assessments are completed after the learning experiences which include several formative assessments. They usually require students to demonstrate mastery of all the essential learnings (content, concept, skills). Examples of summative assessments include: projects, presentations, unit tests, essays, performances, etc.

8. Will the teachers encourage each student to redo an assessment if they are below proficient or will it be up to the student to improve their score? Are all students given the opportunity to better scores on assessments or is it only those below proficiency?

For those below proficient, teachers will strongly encourage (require) students to re-do assignments and/or assessments, especially those that are summative in nature or those that demonstrate specific skills. For those students who are proficient and want to score advanced, it is up to the student to request a redo. In both cases, teachers will have specific conditions such as error correction, tutoring time, evidence of study, etc. Assignments that are practice or formative in nature are required to be completed before redo opportunities are allowed. In most instances, practice assignments are on-going, so students will have several opportunities to show growth and improve their scores. Weekly practice for band or orchestra, for example, would be time-bound to each week. We also want to honor and respect teacher’s work load and time. The learning curve is steep for all of us as we figure out how to implement the details of SBG.

9. How are we going to teach our kids that in the real world or on tests such as ACT, SAT, etc that they must do their best the first time or on a continuous basis?

Our goal is student learning. We all know students learn at different rates, and students have issues that may affect their testing ability on a given day. Many real life final tests such as driver’s license, ACT, SAT, bar exam, MCATS, Olympics, etc. offer multiple opportunities for mastery with no penalty for number of attempts. There are still deadlines within units and some of the practice work is time bound. There are indeed cut off times for assignments per teacher discretion when late work will simply not be accepted because the unit is over.

10. What will teachers do to ensure that the learning of those students who learn quickly is not compromised when teachers take extra time so everyone learns it?

Teachers will not hold back an entire class. Instead, there will be different grouping at times, there will be differentiation at times, and students who need extra time and help will be provided that time before or after school, at lunch, and/or in study hall.

11. Will proficient be considered “good enough” resulting in some students feeling bored and not challenged?

Consistent with our mission statement, we are striving to be the best in the country. This requires us to challenge each student to reach their highest potential. We hope parents/guardians are teaming with us in encouraging and motivating students to do their personal best work and not “settle” for being good enough. On the other hand, we don’t want students to feel they have to be perfect in every single subject, every single assignment, and/or assessment.

As one looks at the rubric scale, a 3 or a 4 would require analysis, evaluation, and connection to everyday life. With some assignments where teachers are looking for basic recall of facts and events, our expectation is a 2 since it’s not an assignment where students would be expected to go into depth. Our goal is to provide numerous assignments to build from the recall of information to the analysis of information.

12. Why does homework count so little in the final grade and will that discourage students from completing homework?

Only when homework is practice will it count 10%. Other homework such as essays, projects, assignments, assessments, etc. will count 90%. We are shifting the priority focus to clear and consistent evidence of learning rather than the multiple practice times it may take a student to get to that learning. We believe students will recognize that without practice, they will not be able to perform on the assessments.

13. How are we holding kids accountable by letting them turn in late work or redo work? How does this teach responsibility?

We want time to become the variable rather than the learning. We are now giving specific feedback on work habits and will include this as part of the grade report. The logical consequence in Standards-Based Grading for a student who does not complete the work is that the student needs to do the work and learn the content or skill. By not allowing students to turn in late work or redo work, we deny the growth mindset so vital to student development. We also are declaring to the student the assignment had little educational value – “It’s okay if you don’t do the work. It’s okay if you don’t learn the content or the skill.” These messages are no longer acceptable to us as professional educators preparing students to be successful in the 21st century. Giving a reduced grade or zero didn’t teach responsibility to students who were not intrinsically motivated. It provided an easy way out for students.

14. Where can I learn more information about SBG?

First, we would love to have all stakeholders become a part of our grading committee. We really need to have feedback from everyone so that we can build a system that is sustainable.

Secondly, if you would like to do some reading on your own about SBG, we would encourage it. As you are reading, please realize that all of the authors follow the premise that grading needs to change and standards-based grading is where we need to go. However, each author might have a different view about how to report the grade, when to report the grade, etc. Therefore, with the ideas of the authors guiding us, we are working to create a system that works for the community of Beatrice Public Schools.

Here are some authors you might want to check out:

Marzano, Robert

Guskey, T.R.

Reeves, D. B.

Stiggins, Rick

Wormeli, Rick

O’Connor, K.

Wiggins, G.

• Alfie Kohn - The Cost of Overemphasizing Achievement

• Ken O'Connor - 15 Fixes for a Broken Grading System

• Robert Marzano - 4-Point Scale

• Robert Marzano - Eight Questions about Implementing Standards-Based Education

• Robert Marzano & Mike Schmoker - Realizing the Promise of Standards-Based Education

• Patricia Scriffeny - Seven Reasons for Standards-Based Grading

• Colorado Coalition of Standards-Based Education - The Standards-Based Teaching/Learning Cycle

• National Academy of Education - A History of Standards-Based Education

• Matt Townsley - What is the difference between Standards-Based Grading and Competency-Based Education?

Standards-Based Education in Action - Examples from other schools

• Maine Department of Education

• Liberty Public Schools

• Physics Blog

• SBG Topics Scales - Always Formative Blog