How Standards-based Grading Changed My Classroom
I've spent a lot of time the past few years straddling fences and dipping my toes into different pools when it comes to assessment. I was scared to fully jump into standards-based grading. I knew what I grew up with, I knew what I was taught in my teacher's program, and I was still desperately clinging to the pieces of it that once seemed so important, pieces like grading practice work, marking down work turned in late, and focusing my grade book on assignments. I thought I needed them, and I've already found that I couldn't have been more wrong.
Overview:
To give you context for what I'm going to say next, I have to explain a bit about my assessment policies and procedures.
1) 100% of my students' grades are based on summative assessments. I've stopped grading practice work entirely. Students get feedback from me, compare their own formative assessments to exemplars, peer assess each other and have discussions about the results, but not a single piece of formative assessment goes into the grade book.
2) Every unit is clearly organized into learning targets, and students' grades are based on their ability to meet those learning targets. There will not be a single "assignment" in my grade book this semester. Everything in my grade book will reflect what I expect students to know or be able to do, and it will show where the student is in relation to that learning target.
3) Students are not marked down for late work or re-assessments. The balance of convenience is definitely skewed toward doing well the first time, but there is no academic penalty for learning not happening at the rate of my specific timeline. In order to turn in anything late or attempt a re-assessment, students must show me all of their completed practice work from a unit, document their new learning with a page of notes, and then talk to me before I will let them re-assess. This allows me to guarantee that learning has happened before the student is allowed to try again.
4) I report behavior separately from the students' academic grades (well, sort of). There is a category in the grade book called "effort" (because that's the best option I could find out of the pre-selected options) that counts for 0% of the students' grades, and every two weeks I report attendance, classroom citizenship, and progress toward standards.
5) If a student fails to complete a summative assessment and has not met with me to discuss an extension, that students overall grade is automatically changed to an INC (incomplete), and will be changed to an F in the class if that assessment is not completed by the end of the semester.
How My Classroom Has Changed:
1) My students are working harder. I was terrified that the opposite was going to happen when I told them their work in class wasn't going to be graded. I've been very clear with students about the importance of practice, and I've been very intentional about making sure any work done in class results in timely feedback, either from me or other students. As I've watched them work in class, the freedom from a grade seems to go hand-in-hand with the freedom to learn. I've watched a conversation between a pair of students grow into a whole-class debate over whether or not the student had earned a 2 or a 3 on a practice assignment. The day that happened, I knew something was right.
2) I am spending less time grading. Last year, I would be willing to bet that I worked an average of 60-70 hours a week. Last semester, when I was trying some hybrid of traditional grading with standards-based grading, it wasn't much better. So far this semester, I have yet to take any grading home. Granted, my first batch of essays is coming next week, but I finally feel like I am facilitating learning instead of grading. Students and I develop rubrics, and then we use them in class. I walk around and put a mark or score on a student's paper, and that student has to write down why they got that score and how they could improve. The piece that makes me regret the hours I've lost over the past year-and-a-half is that it's working better. I'm seeing growth, much more growth than I've ever seen in my classroom before.
3) I have dealt with fewer behavioral issues in the classroom. The days I have problems with student behavior in class are the days that I fail to communicate the significance of the day's lesson. With standards-based grading, students always know why they are doing something. More importantly, reporting student behavior separately has already opened up the opportunity for a few good conversations with students. A student has already asked me why their classroom citizenship score was lower than they thought it should be, and we talked about how that student made fun of the work of a peer they were supposed to be helping. It has made behavior a real thing, not just some annoying aspect of school. It is much more personal.
4) The level of rigor has increased. To be completely honest, this was a side-effect I did not originally intend, but it has been a nice surprise. As I began breaking down the curriculum standards and sorting through to find the ones that were actually important (sorry Common Core, but some of those standards are idiotic to try to assess), I began to focus my instruction in a way that allow me to go into more depth with students. For example, tomorrow we are finishing The Great Gatsby. It took us three weeks to get through the entire book. Along the way, students have been tracking and discussing only the conflicts, major decisions, and results for the characters so that we can have an informed discussion about theme. Their summative assessment? It's three parts. (1) Using textual evidence, identify and analyze multiple themes in the novel and explain how they work together to develop a complex message. (2) Examine selections of different film adaptions of the novel to compare how different portrayals of characters or events alter specific pieces of those themes. (3) Reflect on the novel to identify how the themes shown in the story can apply to your own life. Last year, with the way I was approaching teaching, I would have never been confident enough to do this with my students. This year, I've been able to check all along the way to make sure students are ready, and I've been able to focus my instruction on the necessary skills the students will need to be successful.
5) The best way I can phrase this is that "Student X" hasn't given up. Student X represents a number of different students. It may be the student who has a problem with organization, or it could be the student who generally just gives up on the class when they get their first assignment back with an F on it. Maybe it's the student who is having a rough time at home, and getting a low score on a quiz is the piece that just pushes them over the edge. It might be the student who spent last night working a part-time job and watching their younger siblings, so they just didn't have time to get their homework done. That student, whichever version they may be, hasn't given up yet. I remember watching students drop like flies last semester in my class. I'd hand back small assignments with low scores, and you could just see it in their eyes. I don't really know any other way to say this except that my classroom seems to be filled with much more hope now. Students see the potential for success. Their little mistakes in the learning process don't hurt them.
6) The over-achievers are going even further. I wouldn't be honest if I didn't tell you that a weak spot in my teaching is how I push the students who are ahead of the rest. I've tried different strategies, but I'm just not good at it yet. However, I have a student who has a really good head on their shoulders, but they typically don't want to work hard. That same student just began re-reading The Great Gatsby because, in their own words, "I think I can find better themes now that I know how it ends. Is it okay if I just read it again while everyone else listens to the audiobook?" I think it was simply luck that my jaw didn't drop open. While I recognize that I may not be good at pushing students, standards-based grading helps students see how to push themselves, and that I've now realized, is far more valuable.
I don't want to make it sound like changing my assessment practices has turned my classroom into a rainbow full of sunshine and daisies. It's still teaching; it's still really hard some days. Some days I still go home and have to take a few rounds on the punching bag or go for a long run just to let off some steam, but those days are much fewer now. I still have plenty of lessons that get me sweating simply because I know they aren't going well, but again, those are far fewer now.
I wish I could help people see more clearly the benefits of assessment reform. I have spent hours and hours pouring over the research on standards-based grading. Last semester, Amazon probably assumed I was stocking a library for a teacher's education program with how many books on assessment I ordered. Everything made sense. There were theories, research, logic, practices, etc. that convinced me it was time to change, but it wasn't until I saw what standards-based grading could actually do for my classroom that I really understood why this is so much more than just a new way to grade.
Overview:
To give you context for what I'm going to say next, I have to explain a bit about my assessment policies and procedures.
1) 100% of my students' grades are based on summative assessments. I've stopped grading practice work entirely. Students get feedback from me, compare their own formative assessments to exemplars, peer assess each other and have discussions about the results, but not a single piece of formative assessment goes into the grade book.
2) Every unit is clearly organized into learning targets, and students' grades are based on their ability to meet those learning targets. There will not be a single "assignment" in my grade book this semester. Everything in my grade book will reflect what I expect students to know or be able to do, and it will show where the student is in relation to that learning target.
3) Students are not marked down for late work or re-assessments. The balance of convenience is definitely skewed toward doing well the first time, but there is no academic penalty for learning not happening at the rate of my specific timeline. In order to turn in anything late or attempt a re-assessment, students must show me all of their completed practice work from a unit, document their new learning with a page of notes, and then talk to me before I will let them re-assess. This allows me to guarantee that learning has happened before the student is allowed to try again.
4) I report behavior separately from the students' academic grades (well, sort of). There is a category in the grade book called "effort" (because that's the best option I could find out of the pre-selected options) that counts for 0% of the students' grades, and every two weeks I report attendance, classroom citizenship, and progress toward standards.
5) If a student fails to complete a summative assessment and has not met with me to discuss an extension, that students overall grade is automatically changed to an INC (incomplete), and will be changed to an F in the class if that assessment is not completed by the end of the semester.
How My Classroom Has Changed:
1) My students are working harder. I was terrified that the opposite was going to happen when I told them their work in class wasn't going to be graded. I've been very clear with students about the importance of practice, and I've been very intentional about making sure any work done in class results in timely feedback, either from me or other students. As I've watched them work in class, the freedom from a grade seems to go hand-in-hand with the freedom to learn. I've watched a conversation between a pair of students grow into a whole-class debate over whether or not the student had earned a 2 or a 3 on a practice assignment. The day that happened, I knew something was right.
2) I am spending less time grading. Last year, I would be willing to bet that I worked an average of 60-70 hours a week. Last semester, when I was trying some hybrid of traditional grading with standards-based grading, it wasn't much better. So far this semester, I have yet to take any grading home. Granted, my first batch of essays is coming next week, but I finally feel like I am facilitating learning instead of grading. Students and I develop rubrics, and then we use them in class. I walk around and put a mark or score on a student's paper, and that student has to write down why they got that score and how they could improve. The piece that makes me regret the hours I've lost over the past year-and-a-half is that it's working better. I'm seeing growth, much more growth than I've ever seen in my classroom before.
3) I have dealt with fewer behavioral issues in the classroom. The days I have problems with student behavior in class are the days that I fail to communicate the significance of the day's lesson. With standards-based grading, students always know why they are doing something. More importantly, reporting student behavior separately has already opened up the opportunity for a few good conversations with students. A student has already asked me why their classroom citizenship score was lower than they thought it should be, and we talked about how that student made fun of the work of a peer they were supposed to be helping. It has made behavior a real thing, not just some annoying aspect of school. It is much more personal.
4) The level of rigor has increased. To be completely honest, this was a side-effect I did not originally intend, but it has been a nice surprise. As I began breaking down the curriculum standards and sorting through to find the ones that were actually important (sorry Common Core, but some of those standards are idiotic to try to assess), I began to focus my instruction in a way that allow me to go into more depth with students. For example, tomorrow we are finishing The Great Gatsby. It took us three weeks to get through the entire book. Along the way, students have been tracking and discussing only the conflicts, major decisions, and results for the characters so that we can have an informed discussion about theme. Their summative assessment? It's three parts. (1) Using textual evidence, identify and analyze multiple themes in the novel and explain how they work together to develop a complex message. (2) Examine selections of different film adaptions of the novel to compare how different portrayals of characters or events alter specific pieces of those themes. (3) Reflect on the novel to identify how the themes shown in the story can apply to your own life. Last year, with the way I was approaching teaching, I would have never been confident enough to do this with my students. This year, I've been able to check all along the way to make sure students are ready, and I've been able to focus my instruction on the necessary skills the students will need to be successful.
5) The best way I can phrase this is that "Student X" hasn't given up. Student X represents a number of different students. It may be the student who has a problem with organization, or it could be the student who generally just gives up on the class when they get their first assignment back with an F on it. Maybe it's the student who is having a rough time at home, and getting a low score on a quiz is the piece that just pushes them over the edge. It might be the student who spent last night working a part-time job and watching their younger siblings, so they just didn't have time to get their homework done. That student, whichever version they may be, hasn't given up yet. I remember watching students drop like flies last semester in my class. I'd hand back small assignments with low scores, and you could just see it in their eyes. I don't really know any other way to say this except that my classroom seems to be filled with much more hope now. Students see the potential for success. Their little mistakes in the learning process don't hurt them.
6) The over-achievers are going even further. I wouldn't be honest if I didn't tell you that a weak spot in my teaching is how I push the students who are ahead of the rest. I've tried different strategies, but I'm just not good at it yet. However, I have a student who has a really good head on their shoulders, but they typically don't want to work hard. That same student just began re-reading The Great Gatsby because, in their own words, "I think I can find better themes now that I know how it ends. Is it okay if I just read it again while everyone else listens to the audiobook?" I think it was simply luck that my jaw didn't drop open. While I recognize that I may not be good at pushing students, standards-based grading helps students see how to push themselves, and that I've now realized, is far more valuable.
I don't want to make it sound like changing my assessment practices has turned my classroom into a rainbow full of sunshine and daisies. It's still teaching; it's still really hard some days. Some days I still go home and have to take a few rounds on the punching bag or go for a long run just to let off some steam, but those days are much fewer now. I still have plenty of lessons that get me sweating simply because I know they aren't going well, but again, those are far fewer now.
I wish I could help people see more clearly the benefits of assessment reform. I have spent hours and hours pouring over the research on standards-based grading. Last semester, Amazon probably assumed I was stocking a library for a teacher's education program with how many books on assessment I ordered. Everything made sense. There were theories, research, logic, practices, etc. that convinced me it was time to change, but it wasn't until I saw what standards-based grading could actually do for my classroom that I really understood why this is so much more than just a new way to grade.