Narrative

Narrative

·         This blog explores the question: To what extent is standards-based grading beneficial?

·            In this blog there are various websites, journals, articles, insights, personal perspectives, and books about what standards-based grading is, why teachers and administrators are pushing for it, why teachers and administrators are against it, and some parent and student opinions.  When teachers are asking the question of, “How is John doing in math class?” and their response is, “He has a 70% average,” we (as teachers) are failing our students.  Too many teachers are just administering assessments and entering them in their grade books without giving parent or student feedback.  With standards-based grading, this allows for students, parents, and administrators to clearly see what specific skills a particular student is excelling in or struggling with.

·             In addition, with knowing exactly which standards a student is/is not proficient in, the teacher is now able to form small groups even easier.  As Scriffiny (2008) states “their work styles can be easily accommodated in this system because modified assignments and assessments require no special adjustments in the grade book” (p.73).  As an educator reading this, I can already feel myself less stressed in helping my struggling students without creating an overwhelming workload for myself.  Furthermore, if teachers are blessed enough to have an aid in their classroom, we now have specific information to pull out at anytime for him/her to work with students to increase their proficiency.

One hard aspect to accept/get used to is not grading homework, attendance, participation, extra credit, or missing/late work.  When we take these out “we can actually help students grapple with the idea of quality and walk away with a higher degree of self-sufficiency (Scriffiny, 2008, p. 73).  This is a powerful and thought-provoking idea that challenged me and forced me to do personal reflection.  After a long period of time and many arguments in my head, I too agreed that we as educators need to remove these aspects from our grade book.

With the wonderful benefits and insights into standards-based grading comes the negative side also.  In my research I came across three different trends that steered educators away from standards-based grades and back into their comfort zone of traditional grades.  The first was the process of changing the report card and the confusion it could cause in communicating a child’s progress with the parents.  For example, Guskey (2008) reported that “both parents and teachers perceive the change as a newfangled fad that presents no real advantage over more traditional reporting methods.  The majority of these efforts end up being short-lived experiments that are abandoned after a few troubled years of implementation” (p.1).

The second motive for not adopting standards-based grades is that parents could be resistant to accepting the change from traditional letter grades to standards-based grades.  “Letter grades make sense to parents because that’s what they received when they were in school. And since most high schools still use letter grades, they want their children to know how to navigate and succeed within that type of grading system” (Guskey & Jung, 2006, p.2).

The third reason is because of the difficulty grading students with special needs.  Guskey (2008) says “to fail students with disabilities who have shown tremendous effort and progress clearly seems unfair” (p.4).  However, I still agree with O’Connor and Scriffiny in that “standards-based grading can and should replace traditional point-based grades” (Scriffiny, 2008, p.70).  I believe a strong teacher/administrator/school staff should be able to explain to their parents and families the shift in grading with the research behind it.

As a result of completing this research and paper, I am currently in the process of organizing and restructuring my own grading system.  In addition to my grading system, I have also begun to take a closer look at my curriculum and turn the state standards into student-friendly standards.  After I have myself organized, I am going to present this information to my principal to see if I can get her behind me and supporting me in this positive change.  In addition, another goal I have is to get the majority of (or entire if possible) my staff to read O’Connor’s book.  I believe it is inspiring and full of knowledge.  I also strongly feel that if our whole staff was able to come together and take this large step together, it would be more successful for us as a staff as well as parents. 

                                                                     References                       

Guskey, T. R., & Jung, L. A. (2006) The challenges of standards-based grading.    Leadership Compass, 4(2), 1-4.

O’Connor, K. (2011). A repair kit for grading. 15 fixes for broken grades. Boston, MA:     Pearson      Education Inc.

Scriffiny, P. L. (2008) Seven reasons for standards-based grading. Educational      Leadership, 66(2), 70-74.