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As teachers, our gradebooks hold most of our power. The fate of our students’ GPAs lies in that sophisticated spreadsheet. And while all of us have the best of intentions, the gradebook divides more teachers more often than it unites them. Consider these questions:
To truly implement standards based grading, you’ll have to accept two simple facts: 1) the gradebook should communicate the degree to which a student has acquired the skills necessary to advance to the next grade level and 2) the gradebook cannot be used as a punishment or reward system for student behavior.
I recognize that what I’ve written is debatable at best and controversial at worst. If you’re a teacher in 2022, it’s likely that your teachers rewarded you for good behavior, participation, and following instructions. As a student, you probably received extra credit for answering bonus questions correctly or impressing your teacher with a project you submitted. On the other hand, it’s likely that students who submitted assignments late were docked points or maybe not allowed to submit the assignment at all, receiving a zero. Students were split into two factions: “good students” and “bad students.” The gradebook reflected the teacher’s opinion of you. Students who were deemed “good” earned As and Bs while students who were deemed “bad” earned Cs, Ds, and maybe even Fs. I’d like for you to acknowledge, at least for the next thousand or so words, that maybe our teachers hadn’t considered a different way of approaching grades, that they, like us, defaulted to how they’d been assessed because “it’s what we’ve always done.” What if there was another way?
What is your district’s grading scale? When I taught in Oklahoma, our grading scale looked like this:
0-59 = F
60-69 = D
70-79 = C
80-89 = B
90-100 = A
The grading scale for my current district in Texas is:
0-69 = F
70-74 = D
75-79 = C
80-89 = B
90-100 = A
Both of these grading scales are typical for the U.S. When I think about the typical grading scale, I can’t help but notice how misaligned. Some states in the U.S. still have students take an end-of-course exam; Texas is one of them. In Texas, we use the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exam. High school students are required to take 5 tests prior to graduation: English I, English II, Biology, Algebra I, and U.S. History. Theoretically, if a student can pass the STAAR test, they have developed the required skills to move to the next course. Unfortunately, since the grading scale and passing scores are misaligned, students are often left retaking the class even after they’ve passed the STAAR test. I’ve outlined the passing percentages for each test in the table below:
| Approaches Grade Level (considered passing) | Meets Grade Level | Masters Grade Level | |
| English I | 57% | 66% | 86% |
| English II | 60% | 71% | 91% |
| Algebra I | 37% | 61% | 78% |
| Biology | 38% | 60% | 84% |
| U.S. History | 41% | 62% | 79% |
According to the state of Texas, a student needs to demonstrate mastery of roughly 65% of the skills for a specific course to be considered on grade level; however, a 65% in the class would be considered a failing grade. And, even if I were to use the grading scale from Oklahoma, which is more forgiving, the student would still earn a D in the class; thus, their GPA would not reflect their level of achievement as deemed by the state.
Perhaps you’re asking yourself “So what?” Consider this: you are a student who is capable of passing the end-of-course exam, but you’re forced to sit in the class because you didn’t earn a passing grade. Since you’ve learned the skills already, it’s likely that you would be bored, manifesting as disruptive behavior or lack of participation. If you’re brave enough, you might even decide to skip the class altogether. A teacher who is using the gradebook to punish undesired behavior will then enter zeros or low grades for your lack of participation. You will likely be deemed a “bad student.” And, while your teachers may recognize that you’ve acquired the necessary skills, they may decide that you are not ready to advance to the next grade level since you, in their opinion, lack responsibility and work ethic. Now, you’re trapped in a cycle of retaking the class even though you’ve demonstrated proficiency on the end-of-course assessment. The misalignment of the grading scale and the scoring scale of end-of-course exams hurts our students.
Standards based grading allowed my PLC and I to realign our grading scale to reflect student progress towards the end-of-course exam. With standards based grading, we can assign a numerical value based on a student’s performance that more closely aligns with our end-of-course exam, allowing us to track a student’s acquisition of skills more accurately.
My team and I have spent hours laboring over our rubrics to ensure that the numerical value in the gradebook reflects the degree to which our students have acquired specific skills in our course. In doing so, we’ve all but thrown out the grading scale and made our own. I’ve explained in previous posts that my team and I assess our students using a four level scale: foundational, developing, proficient, and advanced. We’ve also assigned numerical values to each level. I’ve outlined the numerical value and reasoning for each level in the table below:
| Numerical Value Recorded in Gradebook | Reasoning for Numerical Value | |
| Foundational | 65% | Students who are at a foundational level of proficiency are performing below grade level. There are likely significant gaps regarding prerequisite skills. There could potentially be a language barrier preventing students from demonstrating proficiency in English. The student will need timely and intentional intervention to close those gaps. The student, at this time, would likely not pass the end-of-course exam; therefore, their grade should reflect that they are not yet ready to advance to the next course. |
| Developing | 75% | Students who are developing their skills need some intervention but will likely gain the skills before the end of the course. Teachers should monitor these students closely. It’s likely that, with intentional instruction, these students will pass the end-of-course exam but will score in the “approaches” range. The numerical value indicates that the student is passing the class but has room for growth. |
| Proficient | 85% | Students who are proficient are performing on grade level and will likely pass the end-of-course exam. An 85% indicates that the student is performing on grade level but that there is still room for extension and growth. |
| Advanced | 95% | Students scoring in the advanced category will likely score in the “masters” range on the end-of-course exam. These students are performing above grade level. The teacher should provide extension and enrichment activities to these students to keep challenging them. |
Until I implemented standards based grading, I entered grades similar to most teachers by assignment rather than by skill. If students took a unit test, I called the assignment “Unit ___ Test” in the gradebook and entered a score between 0-100% depending on the student’s performance. Standards based grading, however, requires that teachers track the skills. Now, I break down the unit test into the different skills. For example, if I have three skills on the unit 3 test, then I enter those three skills in the gradebook. The numerical value I enter for each skill depends on the students’ performance for the individual skill.
Let’s take a multiple choice exam for an example. My team and I build the exam, ensuring alignment to our instruction in class. Then, we code each question on the test with the standard it assesses. We typically use GoFormative for this process. Then, as a team, we determine the amount of questions a student needs to answer correctly for each level of proficiency. We match our expectations to the STAAR test, so essentially, a student needs to answer about 50% of the questions correctly to be considered developing, which is a passing score. For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume that there are 5 questions per skill for a total of 15 multiple choice questions.
Rubric:
| Skill Assessed | Foundational (65%) | Developing (75%) | Proficient (85%) | Advanced (95%) |
| 6A: analyze how plot and characterization reveals the theme of a story. | 0-1 questions correct | 2-3 questions correct | 4 questions correct | 5 questions correct |
| 8A: analyze the author’s purpose | 0-1 questions correct | 2-3 questions correct | 4 questions correct | 5 questions correct |
| 8D: analyze the author’s use of language | 0-1 questions correct | 2-3 questions correct | 4 questions correct | 5 questions correct |
For each skill, a numerical value would be entered into the gradebook. So, let’s say Student A answers 3 questions coded as 6A correctly, 4 questions coded as 8A correctly, and 5 questions coded as 8D correctly, that student would see three grades in the gradebook (below):
| 6A | 8A | 8D | |
| Student A | 75% | 85% | 95% |
If I were to use a traditional grading method for Student A, I would enter an 80% for the exam in the gradebook. By using the standards based grading method above, I’m able to determine with which skill(s) Student A needs more practice and the total average overall is higher since I’m awarding points for the skills where the student has demonstrated mastery. Now, I can use my gradebook to communicate to the student, their parents, and their other teachers that they have mastered analyzing an author’s purpose and use of language, but they still need to practice analyzing how the theme of a story is developed. This data is far more valuable to all stakeholders. Moving forward, I’ll assign that student the pathway that addresses skill 6A. (I discussed pathways in my last blog post. You can find it here.)
The same process is used for performance based assessments such as projects and essays. My PLC and I determine the criteria for each level of proficiency for each standard assessed. Once a student submits the assessment, the individual skills will be entered in the gradebook along with the numerical value that represents the student’s level of proficiency.
I’ve outlined our basic procedure for assigning grades using standards based grading, and while this is a great starting point, there’s more to think about. What happens when a student performs better on the subsequent assessment? How do you handle missing or late assignments? How do you communicate these grading policies to parents? Lucky for you, I’ll address some of these questions in the next blog post. Keep checking back for more blog posts and podcast episodes. Until next time, be bold and be brave!
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