Standards Based Grading

This year, my cooperating teacher decided to implement a standards based grading system for our freshmen English classes.

For me, it has been quite the learning experience since I’ve never seen a standards based grading system in the works, so I was interested to see how to manage it. For my cooperating teacher, it has also been a learning experience, since this is her first year using it.

At the beginning, it was a little rocky. My cooperating teacher had picked out five writing and five reading standards that we were going to focus on this semester, and we asked the students to rate themselves based on their abilities with each standard. Students took this paper home, and asked for parent input on their ratings. Parents then had to sign off on these papers.

Students had the option to pick ratings of 5 or less, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10. Until we had gathered enough data from students, we used these as a gauge to see where they were.

As we gathered data, it became clear that we needed an intensive organizational system since two of us were looking over the work, and it took us awhile to figure out what that would look like, but now, we’ve fallen into a pattern.

However, if there is one thing I have noticed about this grading system, it’s that it is incredibly time consuming.

For every freshmen paper/assignment I grade, I make thorough comments on the document, then I go to a website my cooperating teacher and I use to make notes for each student and I write a detailed paragraph about the student’s progress with the piece and what they should continue to work on, and then I make a record of whether or not their score should change on a chart that I have printed out.

From there, my cooperating teacher and I set up a date to conference about each student and discuss where we both feel their scores are. Conferencing is the fasted part of the process. Typically, we are on the same page when it comes to scores.

When I am no longer student teaching next semester, I’m curious about how my cooperating teacher will manage the workload. Despite me teaching for some time now, my cooperating teacher and I have been splitting the grading because it is so time consuming.

One of the biggest issues I’ve noticed with this grading system is that it doesn’t hold student’s accountable.

If a student doesn’t turn in a paper/assignment, nothing happens. Their grade stays the same.

I’ve had several students throughout this semester neglect to turn things in, and for each paper/assignment that is turned in, at least six students in each class fail to turn it in on time.

Out of these six students, maybe three will turn it in a few days late. One or two may turn it in a week late, but inevitably, at least one student in each of my freshmen classes neglects to turn the assignment in completely. Typically, it is the same student(s) with each paper/assignment.

Because of this, I’ve talked to my cooperating teacher about adding a score for commitment and organization. In our gradebook, each standard is out of ten points, so I’ve suggested that this be made into another “assignment,” in the gradebook so that it is clear whether or not a student is turning in their work. Additionally, this will reward the students that do the work, but are struggling to grasp the concepts.