Standard Based Grading and Report Card Webinar

April 10, 2014

Agenda

• Welcome and Introductions

• Report Card Status• Why Standards Based Grading?

• The Spreadsheet and Course Codes

• Demo of Spreadsheet Import and Gradebook

• Next Steps

Report Cards Options in 2014-15

• Traditional Report Card

• Standards-Based Report Card

The type of report card used will be an LEA decision based on grading practices and how best to communicate academic performance with parents

Status Update for 2014-15 Standards Based Report

January 2014 – Specifications developed and provided to Pearson

April/May 2014 – Preview of the report card available

April 7 – Mid June: Practice with the 2013-14 spreadsheet

Mid June 2014 – 2014-15 Standards Spreadsheet is released

July 1, 2014 – Standards Based Report Card Template is live

What You Will Need to Practice?

• Standards Spreadsheet• Training Site• Powerpoint with Click paths• Decisions Made regarding:

– Conversion Scale– Which levels of standards will show in the

Gradebook– When teachers will be able to provide comments

and/or assignments– Course codes

Standards Based Grading

By: Linda Frederickson

Director of Elementary Education/Title 1

Franklin County Schools

lindafrederickson@fcschools.net

If the purpose of grading…

• Is for students to be able to explain how many questions they missed then percentages or points work best.

• Is for students to be able to explain what they learned or didn’t learn, standards based is best.

Goals…

• Quality assessment- doing it right

• Student involvement-using it well

Research Supports…

1. Curriculum, instruction, assessment, grading should be standards based

2. Performance standards must be descriptions of a limited number of levels based on proficiency, and there should be no percentages in grading.

• 3. Achievement separated from behaviors on expanded-format report cards

• 4. Tough decisions…no mark penalties for late work, missing work, academic dishonesty, or absences.

• 5. Grades must be determined primarily from summative assessments

• 6. Formative assessments should be no mark, comment/feedback only, with

homework having little or no part of grades

7. When learning is cumulative and developmental (as most learning is), the most recent evidence must be emphasized in the determination of a grade.

8. Grades must be determined, not calculated: “number crunching” should be limited, and there should no use of the mean or zeroes

O’Connor, K (2013). The school leaders guide to grading

Select a Scale/RubricStudent Perspective

• 4.0 I know (can do) it well enough to make connections that weren’t taught.

• 3.0 I know (can do) everything that was taught without making mistakes

• 2.0 I know (can do) all the easy parts, but I don’t know (can’t do) the harder parts.

• 1.0 With help, I know (can do) some of what was taught.

• 0.0 I don’t know (can’t do) any of it.

Marzano,2006

Additional Examples

• E Excels-Consistently goes beyond academic expectations

• S Successfully meets academic expectations

• M Making progress in meeting academic expectations

• T Targeted for growth in order to meet academic expectations

• 4 Exceeds Expectations

• 3 Meets Expectations

• 2 Approaches Expectations

• 1 Does Not Meet Expectations

Did You Know………..

• Two common causes of course failures – 1)missing homework; 2)poor performance on a single major assignment. Adjusting your policy would have a huge impact on student failures. (Reeves)

• Assessments are used to provide the ladder for the student to crawl from his/her hole. Whether it is due to immaturity, behavior or cognitive readiness level, great teachers still provide the ladder. (Wormeli)

• Distorted and inaccurate grades are little more than harsh punishment. Students want to throw down the ball and go home. They see no reason to play. Grades that reduce the negative effects of an imperfect grading system keep students in the game. (Marzano)

Better Students, Better School, Better Climate! Douglas B. Reeves, Ph.D

• When grading policies improve, discipline and morale always improves!

• When student failures decrease, student behavior improves, faculty morale is better, resources allocated to remedial courses and course repetitions are reduced, and resources invested in enrichment and other meaningful opportunities increase.

• When was the last time a single change in a school accomplished all of that?

The Grade Book

• Concepts NOT assignments!• “Page 33” tells us nothing!• If concepts are listed in the grade book:

– Teachers can easily tell parents, students, and administrators what concepts are mastered.

– IEP goals and objectives are easily written.– Incomplete grades can be given to individual

concepts- helping to identify areas that need more instruction.

What do you think???

Traditional grading:

•students and parents who are hooked on grades (and honor rolls, class rank, and bumper stickers boasting that their child is a high- achieving student),

OR

•students and parents understand school is about learning not grades!

Important Decisions

• Most essential standards to be on report card

• Rubric/Scale must be determined

• Are grades going to be reported in relation to how a student is doing for a certain period of time (six weeks/nine weeks) or for what is expected at the end of the year.

Teaching with Standards-Based Grading

• Compares the student to the standard, not to other students.

• Not based on averages.

• Homework, behavior, and effort are not involved in grades.

• Focuses on what students know.

Teaching with Standards-Based Grading

• Observation of standardsCould be as simple as reading a response over their shoulder or as structured as a short response test. This gave us flexibility in our teaching but we were always accountable for the standards.

• Final GradesStandards based grades are not cumulative. We do not take the average of the grades. If a student had a level 1 or 2 on early observations of standards, then after further instruction is showing proficiency- level 3, the students final grade for that standard is a 3.

• Our goal is to see level 3 proficiency on the final summative assessment. That shows understanding of the standard.

• There isn’t just one overall grade for Reading anymore. Parents and students can see the components of reading by knowing the standards.

The Spreadsheet

The Spreadsheet Columns

Column Title Description

A Name Text of Standard (80 character limit)

B Identifier Unique Dot Notation of Standard

C List Parent Identifies the “owning” standard

D Level The level of the standards

E Type Choose “4” for School

F Sort Order Tells the display order within the level

G Courses Aligns standards to a course number

H Subject Area Subject

I Conversion Scale ID # of the conversion scale

J Allow Assignments “True” or “False”

K Include Comments “True” or “False”

L Description Full text of standard

M Max Comment Length Maximum Comment Length

Course Codes 2014-2015

• The course coding system was studied to determine how best to meet the needs of LEAs and the state for enrolling students, tracking progress, analyzing records and reporting to local, state, and federal stakeholders.8 9 101 2 3 4 5 6 7

Course Codes 2014-20158 9 101 2 3 4 5 6 7

• 1-2-3-4=Four character course codeIdentifies content

• K-8 codes for content areas articulated by grade rather than a K-8 code for all grades

– 20042Z0 Math Grade 4 • 5=Academic Level

– For 2013-2014 and prior years, 0/2/5/6/7/8 – For 2014-2015 2/5/7/8/A/B

• 6=Grade Level– X (high school)/Y (middle school)/Z (elementary)

• 7=0 or A; B for courses that are split. A receives 0 credit; B receives 1 credit – 11612YA German I (Part A) 0 – 11612YB German I (Part B) 1

• 4I068X0 IB Philosophy SL – IB courses have I in second digit• 0U145X0 CRI3200-Criminology – University has U in second digit• 2C055X0 MAT 263 - Brief Calculus – Community College has C in second

digit• 8-9-10=local codes

Importing Standards for your Standards Based Report Card

Dawn RamseurHoke County Schools

Determine Standards Conversion Scale

• Determine Conversion Scale– How the program will calculate standard

scores

• Important to involve Curriculum

How the conversion scale works

Let’s get logged in to PowerSchool

Calculating Final Scores

In PowerTeacher Administrator

Next Steps

• Engage in Conversation about:– The standards scale that will be used (numeric,

alphanumeric, etc) (The values or labels)– Determine what will be reported -- just academics or

both academics and behavior.– Determine what standard levels will appear on the

report card.– What will show in the teachers gradebooks?– Calculation for final standard grades– Policy for final standard grades (What is the district's

view on how this should be determined)– Calculations for the conversion scale– Conversion scale vs scale to determine mastery

Questions?