Unfortunately, I think a lot of parents look at grades as a way to rank and compare their child with others rather than using them to understand their child's strengths and weaknesses. I guess this is one of those instances where teachers must act as change agents if we believe that the change is in the best interest of kids and learning.
Sunday, March 19, 2017
Standards-based Grading
I read an interesting blog post about a parent's reaction to standards-based grading. She was upset that standards-based grading made her "A" child "just average" rather than "above average." This made me wonder what kind of push back we would get at my high school if we would make a complete change to a standards grading system. It would be important to inform parents and educate them on how to read the new grades well before making the switch. We would also need to have clear information about how colleges use this information for admission.
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Hi Julie,
ReplyDeleteThis is such a hot button topic right now. Our district moved to standards based grading report cards last year before teachers had an opportunity to understand standards based grading fully and before the report cards were truly ready to go home to be viewed by parents. Needless to say, it has kind of been a nightmare. Even some of the teachers equate a 4 with an "A", when in reality they aren't even comparable. Many of us did not want to go with a 1,2,3,4 rating scale for the very reason that people would assume a "4" was the same thing as an "A". After a year of frustration on both the part of teachers and parents, we are now looking at a 1/2 day release in April and a full day in March to reflect and re-adjust the report cards. I'm in favor of standards based grading, but definitely not in favor of pushing it through just for the sake of having it. It takes time and lots of conversations with teachers and parents to ensure everyone has the same understanding.
I just started this and did my scale 3, 2.5, 2, 1.5. This aligns with an A. B. C. D percentage wise. Otherwise full number scores just don't make sense or fit in a proper grading system.
DeleteI agree. There many benefits to standards based grading, but it needs to be implemented correctly so that the teachers are using it properly and the students and parents understand what they are seeing on their report cards. One of the things I most like about standards based grading is that it focuses on each of the standards individually and not just English or math as a whole.
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