Grading in a Standards-Based Education System

Teachers have much more information about student knowledge and skills than is provided by the STAR's snapshot data. Your classroom assessment will include homework, in-class performance tasks, exhibits, demonstrations, quizzes and tests, projects, and portfolios gathered over time. All of this information will provide a more accurate picture of each student's knowledge and skills.

Assessment activities conducted throughout the school year, sometimes called "formative" assessment, can be used to check student progress toward your prioritized standards. An assessment chart like the one below will provide a rough idea of the amount of assessment allocated to each standard:

Most teachers use end-of-unit or "summative" assessment as the basis for grading. Today's teacher also uses varied means to assess student learning. The use of multiple or different types of measures will provide a more complete picture of each student.

In a standards-based educational system, it is important for grades to reflect a student's mastery of the standards at his or her grade level. Parents will ask teachers to explain standardized test scores that indicate a different level of academic achievement than letter grades.

You may find it helpful to organize your grade book according to the standards to be addressed, making entries for students' performance on each standard.

In the sample page from a standards-based grade book (following page) , performance for two students on five standards is indicated. At the top of the page is an Assessment Key to record the assessments, activities, and assignments given in a nine-week grading period. Teacher grading is based on the use of a pre-designed rubric. Clearly, this is very labor intensive grading. Creating an electronic spreadsheet may be helpful.

Some grading guidelines

The following guidelines for grading in a standards-based environment are useful:

• Assign individual scores that represent levels of understanding and skill for specific standards as opposed to assigning scores to homework, quizzes, midterms, final tests, and combining these scores. A three-point rubric such as the one below can be used. 

• Develop a written grading policy for each course that clearly describes how scores on standards are to be weighted. Share this policy with students, parents, and administrators.
• Clearly communicate to students and parents which standards are included in the computation of grades and how standards are weighted.