Understanding Standards Based Grading

[okinawama]

We moved from one state to another over the summer. Our old district used standard percentages and alphabetical grades entered into an online program that I could check in with regularly to observe DS's academic performance in class. We've moved do a district that uses Standards based grading, and I understand the philosophy behind, as well as the scores (1= no progress...4= consistently performs above grade level expectations). What I don't understand is how I get a gauge how they are performing. The online "gradebook" now just lists standards, rather than any type of score. There isn't even a 1,2,3 or 4 listed next to the standard. It's just the standard. What does your online gradebook look like for you child if your district uses standards based grading? How are you kept informed of how they are performing? It seems that you only see a score on a report card, and never in the weeks leading up to the report card. Is that how it is in your district?

[klwa]

What grade level are you dealing with?

Our schools use a similar system for elementary. (M-mastery, P-proficient, A-Approaching (Don't get me started on that one), N- Needs Improvement) Then each class is divided into pieces. So, there may be 10 grades on the report card for Math, 7 for Science, etc., but no single Math grade, if that makes sense. These are not reported in the Powerschool online grade book.

By middle school, they go back to the old system of A-F (once again, don't get me started on using A for Approaching in elementary when an A means an A in older grades!) and each assignment is shown in Powerschool, along with a total score for that class.

[okinawama]

What grade level are you dealing with?

Our schools use a similar system for elementary. (M-mastery, P-proficient, A-Approaching (Don't get me started on that one), N- Needs Improvement) Then each class is divided into pieces. So, there may be 10 grades on the report card for Math, 7 for Science, etc., but no single Math grade, if that makes sense. These are not reported in the Powerschool online grade book.

By middle school, they go back to the old system of A-F (once again, don't get me started on using A for Approaching in elementary when an A means an A in older grades!) and each assignment is shown in Powerschool, along with a total score for that class.

My sons are in 3rd and 5th. I believe that 6th grade they go back to the percentage system.

So how do you know how your children are performing on a day to day basis. It seems I'm only getting feedback every 9 weeks at report card time. Is that what you see in your district as well?

[ett]

Our school district uses standard based grading until 5th grade. Letter grades start in 6th grade and that's also when they start recording quizzes, tests, etc. grades online. Does your kids bring home their tests and corrected homework? You should be able to get a sense of how they're doing from those. Otherwise, I would just email the teacher to get an update on your kid's progress. For day to day, I would just ask them how they feel about the work, are there any difficulties, etc.

We get report cards twice a year in elementary school. Every 9 weeks is pretty frequent.

[scrooks]

Our district uses standards based grading only in K-2. In 3-4 we get percents plus the standards and 5 and up (middle school in our district) is the regular A, B etc scale. We don’t have online access to grades until middle school so in primary I just look at the work coming home. My kids bring lots and lots of work home so it’s pretty easy to keep track of what is going on in class. We get report cards every 9 weeks for all grades.

[georgiegirl]

We have standards based grading though 8th grade! (Though in 8th they also have percentiles and letter grades, but they don’t “count.” I love it. This way I know exactly what my child needs help with.


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[Snow mom]

We have standard based grading in elementary school. I don't know what grade it goes through because my kids aren't there yet ;-). We don't have any online grading system. Sometimes I get assignments home but mainly I wait for the report card. My kids are both bright but I expect mainly 3s (meeting expectations). We work on any 2s--there have never been more than a couple but those are clearly what they are struggling with. Typically they have a few 4s that we use to balance any talking about 2s we need to do. Honestly, I don't worry too much about grades in elementary school.

What gets me is when individual assignments come home with 1-4 grading. The district explanation for the scores uses words like "consistently meets expectations" which doesn't make any sense for a single assignment.

[doberbrat]

My sons are in 3rd and 5th. I believe that 6th grade they go back to the percentage system.

So how do you know how your children are performing on a day to day basis. It seems I'm only getting feedback every 9 weeks at report card time. Is that what you see in your district as well?

Standards based till 6th then letter grades. Report cards 2x a year. I know how they're doing bc I briefly check the mounds of papers that come back and I ask them. We also have conferences 1-2x a year.

progress notes every 9w is pretty often. In middle school, they get 3 report cards a year w/1 progress note in the middle of each term.

Ask the teacher to let you know if they have any concerns. I think most teachers WANT to catch problems early on so they dont snowball.

[smilequeen]

We have this in K-6, private school, so I'm sure it's a little different, but...

He gets work sent home. I look at this and it gives me a pretty good idea. Teachers are good about emailing updates. My kids have always been on track, so I just never worried about it. If something was up, the teachers would have let me know.

I liked this so much. My older boys (7th and 9th) get percentages and I get an email every.single.time a score is uploaded. It's information overload. I'm really glad I learned over their younger years not to micromanage. I feel like this constant updating could be detrimental with some parental personality types. Even for me, I have to make an effort to just not check every.single.score and just check in regularly. Both of the older 2 adjusted amazingly to the different style though.

[JBaxter]

I learn something new all the time here. Ive never heard of using that scoring system other than for GPA. Every school my 4 have attended have either used letter grades for elementary 2 schools used E S U for K-2 but our current school uses letter for elementary but I can see the percentages that make up that grade on the parent portal. I like the fact every grade is listed and they put in a 0 if they miss an assignment or test ( shows up red) I have 2 that are known for "forgetting" to turn in things. This district uses letter grades starting in K.

[Dayzy]

My sons are in 3rd and 5th. I believe that 6th grade they go back to the percentage system.

So how do you know how your children are performing on a day to day basis. It seems I'm only getting feedback every 9 weeks at report card time. Is that what you see in your district as well?

We don't have a parent portal. Every Friday we get a stack of papers sent home - tests, homework sheets, classwork, etc. I can see how my kids are doing from that. Halfway through each quarter we get a progress report with numerical grades. Then we have report cards 4 times per year with standards based grading and numerical grades together.

[lmwbasye]

We are experiencing this frustration with my 6th grader. It is not about the grades...it is more that I have no idea what is going on and/or how he is doing. They aren't even sending work home. Again...I'm not a huge fan of constant worksheets but I also feel like I just don't know what is going on at his school. It's driving me bananas.

[okinawama]

We are experiencing this frustration with my 6th grader. It is not about the grades...it is more that I have no idea what is going on and/or how he is doing. They aren't even sending work home. Again...I'm not a huge fan of constant worksheets but I also feel like I just don't know what is going on at his school. It's driving me bananas.

This is our experience. Work doesn't come home. It stays in their workbooks for them to review when working on reviews or other independent work. Tests come home, but only once an entire standard has been taught, which can be weeks. It seems that many of you get the information from papers coming home, and while I think it's informative, I guess I feel having scores entered all in one place, with regularity, help me determine how my child is doing as a whole.

[ellies mom]

Both my girls (6th and 10th) go to project based schools that use standards based grading. Definitely a learning curve to how it all works and different schools handle it differently. Our high school converts the standards based grade to a traditional GPA. Part of the problem for parents is that there aren’t many parent/grading portals that handle standards based grading. They managed to make Skyward work last year but they switched to a new one this year that is supposed to be easier to use. I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet. It is a big change and there is a lot to wrap your head around. But after four years, I like it. I’m out but I can explain more when I’m home.


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