Bring Standards-Based Grading To Your School — SUCCESSFULLY! Part 2
“Too many students walk through the schoolhouse door with one aim in mind: to get good grades. And all too often, the best way to reach this goal is to get with the program, avoid risk and serve up the answers the teacher wants, the way the teacher wants them. Good grades become a reward for compliance – but don’t have much to do with learning.” Daniel Pink — Drive
Congratulations! You’ve successfully navigated the planning and initial information sharing phase of an SBG roll-out. Sure there have been a few teachers and parents voicing their concerns but nothing major. And you’ve been approached by other teachers and parents eager to see the new grading system move along. There may even be a small contingent already exploring SBG principles in their classrooms. However, no substantive changes have happened yet. That is about to change.
Part 2: TRANSITIONING
Separate Academic Proficiencies From Learning Behaviors.
Others may disagree but this change in the process is non-negotiable. My school leaned heavily on Ken O’Connor’s, A Repair Kit For Grading: 15 Fixes For Broken Grades. Gaining widespread acceptance of the separation was a major indicator that the mindset shift from grading to learning was really happening — at least with the faculty. We established cross-grade level baseline agreements and allowed some flexibility by grade level teams as long as our overall agreements were supported. Teachers began reworking rubrics and assessments to reflect the separation and explained common language terminology with students.
Transitional report card.
Back in 2010, our report card was a traditional one-pager. We provided a percentage grade with a brief comment for all subjects. With learning behaviors and academic progress now separated, we needed to change the current report card. A teacher/administration team created a Student Learner Profile to categorize behaviors such as collaboration, integrity, preparation, and active learning. The profile listed four proficiency levels to indicate student progress. The report card now had two sections for each subject area, one for the academic grade (percentage) and another for behaviors (proficiency scale). We also expanded our comments section so teachers could move beyond “canned comment” remarks. Because the school valued behaviors as much as academic progress, we could not reconcile with continuing GPA or honor roll. Parents start to see the value of increased communication beyond a number.
Pushback.
Strongest fears will come from those who believe they have the most to lose. As an example, you may be challenged by emotive and inaccurate opinions in your local newspaper. These letters were published in protest of an Iowa school district’s move to SBG and Rick Wormeli’s work with them. Put Rick’s amazing, articulate response and another response in your back pocket because he has rationally and thoroughly countered every argument against SBG. Facebook will be another space for venting. Right or wrong, I purposefully did not engage in outside forums.
During this phase, I recall one presentation evening when a parent from the audience demanded a guarantee that the “no grade system” was better than traditional grades. My response was to remind them of our mantra, “It’s about the learning, not the grading” and my guarantee that we are preparing students for their future, not our past. In that same session, another parent stood to eloquently share positive changes she was already seeing in her child. An SBG parent presentation in pdf format is located at bottom of the post.
Expect other questions and concerns about children losing motivation (use Dan Pink’s Drive), impact on HS grades and the college admissions process. Sharing your research in a logical, substantive manner will go a long way to assuage fears.
Build Capacity.
If comprehensive changes prove to be challenging, start with individuals, partners, teams, grade levels, or subject areas. Our early adopters shared at faculty meetings. We learned from and with each other. Teacher annual goals related to SBG became part of evaluation process. Hiring practices ensured new teachers were philosophically and enthusiastically aligned with SBG.
Time was the biggest concern with faculty. You can’t create more of it but you can re-allocate. We dedicated many weekly faculty meetings and several PD days each year to SBG. I also granted teacher team release days to do concentrated work on assessment/grading. I was publicly very supportive of teachers progress and commitment.
Don’t expect perfection. Rolling out an SBG initiative is a real-world example of how we all learn. We made some mistakes, learned from them, and improved practice. What a great model of learning to demonstrate in front of students! We’re not perfect! Because we were transparent with parent community and kept learning at the forefront, they gave us time and space to develop SBG proficiency.
A Word On Curriculum.
An assumption around the SBG process is that your school has an established curriculum based on standards.
Big Questions Yet.
What are final steps to an all standards-based assessing and reporting system? We were still giving percentages for academic achievement. Will we add a letter grade and eliminate percentages or go with proficiency scale only? How can we maintain the momentum? Most importantly, what impact was the change having on student learning?
Blog Series
Part 1: Laying The Foundation.
Part 2: Transitioning
Part 3: Implementation.
Presentation for Shanghai American School parents. September 2014. Standards-Based Grading Presentation 2014.