成人抖阴

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Before Thomas Guskey became a leading academic expert on grading and assessments, he was a middle school math teacher. 

One day he was chatting with an 8th-grade student, who he described as a 鈥渟uperstar,鈥� and asked if she had studied for that day鈥檚 exam. He was shocked to hear she hadn鈥檛.

鈥淲ell Mr. Guskey,鈥� he remembers her saying, a quizzical look on her face, 鈥淚 worked it out. I only need a 50.2 to get an A [in the class]. I don鈥檛 need to study for a 50.2.鈥�

This was a moment of realization for him. 鈥淭his 8th grader had worked it out to the tenth decimal place what she needed to do to get an A in my class,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd she was surprised I didn鈥檛 get it. And I thought, 鈥榃ow. What have I done?鈥欌�� 

For this student 鈥� and so many others 鈥� school was not about learning. It was about getting a good grade. And with flawed traditional grading systems, those two outcomes didn鈥檛 always coincide.

Every time Guskey tells this story to other teachers, he said they shake their heads and share similar anecdotes of their own. Other experts in the field echo these sentiments, noting that schools have spent far too long grading students based on whether or not they turned in a pile of work or showed up to class on time, rather than focusing on if a student has learned academic content. This can ultimately lead to final grades that inaccurately reflect and communicate what kids actually know. 

Today, as schools combat post-pandemic learning gaps, it鈥檚 become even clearer that traditional grades are not precise communicators of learning. In some cases, this leads parents to believe their kids are performing at grade level, when in reality they鈥檙e falling behind. 

As educators push for more clarity and transparency, a number of schools and districts are turning to what’s known as standards-based grading, a system and communication tool that separates academic mastery from behavioral factors. When done correctly, it should more accurately reflect what students know and correct for both inflating 鈥� and deflating 鈥� grades. 

But a misunderstanding of standards-based grading’s true principles, a lack of proper training for educators and a rush to quickly adopt a complex new system often leads to messy implementation, various experts told 成人抖阴. And, they warn, districts looking for support are turning to grading consultants, a number of whom aren鈥檛 qualified in the field.

鈥淪o many districts are getting into this and they鈥檙e failing miserably,鈥� said Guskey, the grading and assessment expert and professor emeritus at the University of Kentucky College of Education. 鈥淪chools are jumping into this without a clear notion of what they鈥檙e doing and what the prerequisites are to being standards based,鈥� he continued. 鈥淎nd then when problems arise, they have no recourse except to abandon [it] completely.鈥�

As schools look for an effective fix to learning gaps, 鈥渟tandards-based grading is one that seems like it can be a quickly adopted effort. But it could backfire and does backfire very easily,鈥� said Laura Link, associate professor of teaching and leadership at the University of North Dakota.

In a she and Guskey wrote, 鈥渁lthough many schools today are initiating SBG reforms, there鈥檚 little consensus on what 鈥榮tandards-based grading鈥� actually means. As a result, SBG implementation is widely inconsistent.鈥� This creates uncertainty, confusion, frustration 鈥� and resistance, which can ultimately lead to it being tossed aside, the authors said.

The many meanings of a 鈥淐鈥�

Standards-based grading is not new. While it鈥檚 challenging to pin down just how many schools are currently using it, post-pandemic interest in a system that鈥檚 seen as more accurate and equitable appears to be growing. 

Link is now working with the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania school district on implementation. It can also be found in at least one school district in the San Francisco Bay Area and is particularly prevalent in schools in Wyoming, New Hampshire, Maine and Wisconsin, with more cropping up in Connecticut, New Mexico, and Oregon, in November.

Another expert, Cathy Vatterott, who wrote Rethinking Grading: Meaningful Assessment for Standards-Based Learning and is professor emeritus of education at the University of Missouri鈥揝t. Louis, said: 鈥淎fter we got through COVID, all of a sudden I started getting offers to come and speak to people about standards-based grading.鈥� 

Regardless of what model teachers practice, they typically grade using three different criteria: what academic skills students have learned and are able to do, such as solving for 鈥渪鈥� in an algebraic equation; what behaviors they bring that enable learning, such as attendance and turning in work on time; and how much they鈥檝e grown and improved.

In traditional models, teachers combine these three, muddling them together and assigning a single mark for an assignment 鈥� often a letter grade or a percentage. At the end of a semester, these assignment scores get averaged into a final grade that goes onto a transcript or report card. Proponents of standards-based grading argue that this presents an unclear and inaccurate picture to parents, students and colleges. 

鈥淚t makes the grade impossible to interpret,鈥� according to Guskey. For example, a 鈥淐鈥� on a paper could mean the student really only understood the material at a 鈥淐鈥� level or it could mean they turned in an excellent paper but two weeks late. Further adding to the confusion: what goes into a grade is inconsistent from teacher to teacher and school to school.

Traditional grading not only presents accuracy concerns but also equity ones, according to Matt Townsley, assistant professor of educational leadership at the University of Northern Iowa. 鈥淔or example, if we award points for assignments that are completed on a daily basis 鈥� called homework 鈥� outside of class, you can imagine a scenario where some families are more privileged in their ability to do it,鈥� he said. 

Some students have access to a quiet place to work, tutors, parents who can help them with assignments, and other key resources, while others work after-school jobs or take care of younger siblings. When teachers grade homework, experts like Townsley argue, they are grading for these factors, rather than what students have actually learned. 

To combat this, standards-based grading does it differently. Rather than lumping together academic, behavioral and improvement grades, it separates them and reports them out individually in what Link calls a 鈥渄ashboard of information.鈥� 

Too often, she said, consultants and other self-proclaimed experts, who are not researchers, will push to throw away behavioral grades altogether. But she warned 鈥渢hat becomes problematic very, very quickly. We shouldn’t be using our gradebooks to punish and control. But those factors 鈥� those behavioral factors 鈥� are academic enablers, and we know that to be true as well.鈥�

Reporting it out separately makes students recognize that these other components still count and, in some ways, it makes them each count more because they can no longer be disguised by other factors, like extra credit, according to Guskey.

It鈥檚 important for schools to decide upfront what behaviors they want to prioritize 鈥� whether that鈥檚 attendance, work ethic, responsibility鈥� and then build a guide on how teachers will score for them. 鈥淏y giving these kinds of dashboards of information, it helps colleges, trade schools, etc. have a deeper understanding of what kind of students they鈥檙e accepting into the programs and what kind of support they will need in college,鈥� Link said. 

The academic grades should be based on grade-level standards and learning objectives, like the ability to find strong evidence to support a claim if a student is writing a paper or answering a test question.

A second key criteria is moving away from handing out percentage grades based on 100 to using a much smaller measurement scale, like 0 to 4. On each standard, students could also be graded as “exceeding,”, “meeting,” “almost” or “not yet.” Guskey noted that while this all may sound novel and unusual, other countries around the world, including Canada, have been using these practices for decades.

A third component 鈥� providing students multiple opportunities to demonstrate their understanding and mastery of a standard 鈥� is often where the greatest controversy crops up and things are most likely to go awry. Some educators argue that students should receive limitless opportunities to redo specific assignments. Researchers such as Link, though, argue that while students need multiple opportunities to demonstrate their understanding, that does not necessarily mean redoing the same assignment. 

鈥淭his is where a lot of non-academic proponents encourage that standards-based grading means you give as many retakes as it takes for mastery. Not true. Not true. That鈥檚 an assessment issue. That鈥檚 not a grading issue.鈥�

So, while a second chance at one assignment is perhaps the fair thing to do, it is not inherent to the ethos of standards-based grading. She emphasized that if schools do implement retake policies, the process needs to be purposeful: If a student doesn鈥檛 get it the first time, they need to get corrective feedback and instruction. But 鈥渋f they don鈥檛 get it on the second chance, you鈥檙e going to record their grade and move on,鈥� she said. 

There is no empirical evidence supporting the benefits of endless retakes and, she added, such practices can be a time-consuming and unrealistic ask of teachers. 

Because many of the people who write about and consult on testing don鈥檛 fully understand what鈥檚 behind assessing students more than once, Guskey said, their recommendations on how best to do it are often untested and can鈥檛 be supported in practice. Their inconsistent advice, he said, can lead teachers and administrators to forsake efforts to reform grading. 

While it鈥檚 important to understand what standards-based grading is, it鈥檚 also essential to debunk what it鈥檚 not. At its core, experts say, it鈥檚 purely a communication tool. It doesn鈥檛 tell educators how to create assessments, build curriculum or manage behavior. It can make space for teachers to provide more individualized feedback and for students to move through the skills and knowledge they need to master at their own pace. But these things aren鈥檛 inherently a part of it. 

鈥淏asically everything is just to pass.鈥�

When Kenny Rodrequez became superintendent of the Grandview school district a decade ago, he knew the grading system needed to change. He was concerned that as it stood, the traditional grading model they relied on wasn鈥檛 communicating students鈥� progress to their parents accurately. Leaders in the district, located just outside of Kansas City, ultimately decided to shift to standards-based grading for kindergarten through 6th grade. 

Now, in his eighth year as superintendent and ninth year overseeing the transition, he feels good about what they鈥檝e accomplished. One key factor of the successful implementation, he said, was 鈥渘ot trying to do it all at once.鈥� It can be tempting to 鈥渏ust say, 鈥楲et’s bite the bullet and let’s just roll it all out at the same time,鈥欌�� he added. It was important, though, to fight this urge and instead find a balance that allowed for deliberate policy shifts that still didn鈥檛 take an inordinate amount of time to implement.

Another key factor: making sure there was strong teacher and parent buy-in. The first year in particular, staff was nervous to explain this new system to parents before they even fully understood it themselves. Rodrequez said they created talking points for teachers and gave them the resources they needed. 

In the future, the district plans to bring standards-based grading to 7th-12th grade classrooms, but he anticipates at the high school level this will be trickier. 鈥淥ur challenge 鈥� is nationally we still have a system that’s still pretty based upon our letter grades. And that system鈥檚 been around for so long and never was designed to do what we’re trying to get it to do right now.鈥� Demands for GPAs and class rankings, in particular, are incongruous with the standards-based model but often necessary for college applications.

These very challenges have played out in one New York City high school, according to parent Talia Matz. When her stepson started 9th grade at Future High School in Manhattan, the school had orientation sessions to explain to parents how their standards-based grading system works. Still, she and her husband were skeptical. And over the past three years, they鈥檝e only become more concerned, she told 成人抖阴. 

Some of the major assignments that the school uses instead of statewide Regents exams 鈥渁re a bit of a joke,鈥� she said, and students are not held accountable. 鈥淏asically everything is just to pass. It doesn’t matter how well you do,鈥� she said, adding, 鈥渋t doesn’t seem like there’s any love of learning. It’s just kind of to get it done.鈥� 

Contrary to best practices, on his report card there are no separated out comments or grades about behaviors. All standards are scored on a 0-4 scale, and parents and students can see grades on an online platform called JumpRope. But, the school then converts this scale into a traditional percentage grade, which is ultimately sent to colleges 鈥� another big no-no, according to experts. (According to the , schools may choose from a number of grading scales, including A-F, but it appears that regardless of what they select, all grades are ultimately converted into percentages.)

Students have a number of opportunities to redo assignments and no clear consequences for late work, Matz said. Rather than getting grades on daily assignments, he gets a 鈥淲ork Habits/Independent Practice鈥� score, which his stepmom said never appears on a transcript. This, she said, provides no incentive to turn assignments in on time or get them right the first time.

School administrators did not respond to requests for comment. The school鈥檚 website contests this point: Their official policy states that the 鈥淲ork Habits/Independent Practice鈥� score becomes 10% of a student鈥檚 final grade. Never reporting the behavior grade or averaging it into a single final grade would both go against standards-based grading best practices. 

Matz fears all this lends itself to lowered standards, which will leave her son unprepared for college. In the fall, he鈥檒l enroll at SUNY Buffalo, 鈥渂ut we’re concerned because there’s going to be different expectations 鈥� You have to study on your own, you don’t necessarily get second or third chances.鈥�

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