A New Approach to Grading
You’re all familiar with how grading works in your classes. You get homework, you take quizzes, you take a test or perform a lab assignment. All those grades get averaged together, some weighing more than others, and that average will be your grade for the grading period.
What if you had a bad day for one of those quizzes, and you know more than you showed? Or what if you simply copied a friend’s homework and know less than you showed? Does grading each task really show us how much you know or how much you’ve grown?
Standards based grading (SBG) is not about how well you perform on tasks, it is about assessing what you know. Here are some key points as to how it works, which I will discuss in detail below.
You are not graded on tasks, like quizzes and homework, you are graded on how well you understand and demonstrate your knowledge of the current material (known as standards).
Grades will be done on a 0 - 4 point scale. (These are converted into a 0 - 100 grade in Skyward)
There is no late work (within reason), the goal is to demonstrate your knowledge, whenever that may be.
You may reassess as many times as you need to, but you must demonstrate that you have put in effort to learn the material before a reassessment.
Homework is optional, but highly recommended.
Your grades on previous standards can change, and will always reflect your current level of knowledge/understanding.
The “Standards” part of SBG is what you are assessed on. Below are links to the standards for the classes that I teach.
On level physics standards
AP Environmental Science standards
The grading scale in SBG is simplified from a 0 - 100 scale down to a 0 - 4 scale.
A 0 is equivalent to a 55, and it means the student has not demonstrated or there is no evidence of learning for that standard.
A 1 is equivalent to a 65, and is an introductory or novice level of understanding for that standard.
A 2 is equivalent to an 80, and this represents a grade level understanding for that standard.
A 3 is equivalent to a 90, at this level the student has attained a good grasp of the content or a proficient understanding of the standard.
A 4 is equivalent to a 100, this is the goal for every student, and it represents mastery over the standard being assessed.
Standards may be assessed multiple times over the course of a grading period.
Homework is not assessed in SBG. Homework is given so students may practice what they’ve learned in preparation for demonstrating their knowledge. We go over homework often in class and students are encouraged to ask questions. Completing and understanding the homework is essential to success.
Students may reassess a standard at any time within the semester that it was taught. In order to qualify for a reassessment of a standard the student must demonstrate that they have practiced or prepared in some fashion for the reassessment. (Like going to tutoring)
Once a student has reassessed then their grade will change to reflect their current level of understanding for that standard.