Improving Instruction and Student Scores Through Standards-Based Grading. Presented by Sarah McPartland, President, Benchmark Grading

1. Improving Instruction
and Student Scores
Through Standards-
Based Grading
Sarah McPartland
President and Co-Founder, Benchmark Grading
Former Educator, Vancouver Public Schools

2. Are your teachers’
grading practices
moving students
towards success?

3. “If our grading systems don’t
guide students towards excellence,
it's time for something
completely different.”
-Patricia L. Scriffiny

4. Teacher’s Role in Grading
To decide what information provides the most accurate
depiction of students’ learning at this time.
To decide what information goes into calculating a grade.
To determine the weight that will be attached to each source
of information.
To decide what method will be used to tally and summarize
information.
To determine which method provides the most accurate
summary of student achievements and level of performance.

5. Purpose of Grading
To assign grades that fairly and
accurately reflect students’
achievements and level of performance
on specific standards/skills.

6. Averaging
Is this method fair?
Does averaging provide the most accurate
summary of each student’s achievements
and level of performance?
Does averaging meet the purpose of
grading?

7. Student Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3 Unit 4 Unit 5 Avera Grade Deleting Grade
ge Lowest
All units are of equal Score Score
weight.
1 59 69 79 89 99 79% C 84% B
2 99 89 79 69 59 79% C 84% B
3 77 80 80 78 80 79% C 79.5% C
4 49 49 98 99 100 79% C 86.5% B
5 100 99 98 49 49 79% C 86.5% B
6 0 98 98 99 100 79% C 98.8% A
7 100 99 98 98 0 79% C 98.8% A
Guskey, R. Thomas & Jane M. Bailey: Developing grading and reporting systems for student learning. California:
Corwin Press, 2001

8. » Which method provides the most accurate
summary of each student’s achievement
and level of performance?
Do all seven students deserve the same
» grade?
Would it make a difference if we knew the
» content of each unit assessment was
cumulative? (Unit 5 includes material from
all five previous units.) Would that make
grading easier?

9. 146/200
73%
1. Alex 5 F 5 F 14 C 14 C 12 D+ 16 B 80 B C
167/200
83%
2. Anna 4 F 4 F 15 C+ 13 D+ 13 D+ 18 A 100 A+ B
156/200
78%
3. Fred 5 F 5 F 13 D 15 C+ 14 C 16 B+ 88 B+ C+
170/200
85%
4. Mya 5 F 1 F 16 C+ 16 C+ 13 D 19 A 95 A B
186/200
93%
5. Zeek 8 B+ 7 C+ 17 B+ 18 A 16 B+ 20 A+ 100 A+ A

10. Notice the grades at the end show different results
than from the beginning...
Should the first attempts be
averaged in to the final grade?
How many times should we
teach a concept?

11. Averaging
Pros: Cons:
Good for identifying kids for Lumps multiple skills together
selected groups or programs Motivation to learn decreases –
Individual honor once students calculate that they
Easy to calculate for teachers can’t get an A, “Why try?” attitude
and professors kicks in
Doesn’t communicate
understanding of specific skills
Lumps past assessments together
– if students increase their score,
the average doesn’t show their
improvement

12. Standards-Based
Grading

13. Standards-Based Grades are:
Grades or marks that are
directly connected to
a set of identified
standards.

14. Screen Shot from Benchmark Grading
Grade Book

15. Screen Shot from Benchmark Grading
Grade Book

16. Standards-Based Grading
» Grades are connected to a specific standard,
allowing the teacher to view student
progress over time.
» The teacher now has the benefit of identifying
learning trends on specific skills within their
student population and adjust their
instruction based on the results they
see from their grades.

17. The four step process
of Standards-Based
Grading according to
Guskey & Bailey.

18. Step One
Team of educators identify the major
learning goals or standards*
students are expected to achieve at each
grade level or in each course of study.
* The state has done this for us, and
districts that are forming PLCs are
continuing this process.
Guskey, R. Thomas & Jane M. Bailey: Developing grading and reporting systems for
student learning. California: Corwin Press, 2001

19. Step Two
Performance indicators* of those
standards or learning goals are
established.
* Teachers decide what evidence best
illustrates students’ attainment of each
goal or standard.
Guskey, R. Thomas & Jane M. Bailey: Developing grading and reporting systems for
student learning. California: Corwin Press, 2001

20. Step Three
Developing incremental levels of
attainment.
Identify benchmarks or increments that
show the students are on their way to
meeting the goal or not meeting the goal.
Decide what evidence best illustrates
students attainment of the goal or
standard. (e.g., tests and projects that are
standard specific)
Guskey, R. Thomas & Jane M. Bailey: Developing grading and reporting systems for
student learning. California: Corwin Press, 2001

21. 1.3.2 Understand and apply content/academic vocabulary critical to the meaning of
the text.
2.1.5 Apply comprehension monitoring strategies before, during, and after reading:
predict and infer from grade-level informational/expository text and/or
literary/narrative text.

22. 2.1.7 Apply comprehension strategies during and after reading: summarize grade-
level informational/expository text and literary/narrative text.

26. Step Four
Educators develop reporting tools* to
communicate teachers’ judgment of
students’ learning progress and
culminating achievement in relation to the
learning goal or standard.
* e.g., report cards, progress reports,
teacher-created documents
Guskey, R. Thomas & Jane M. Bailey: Developing grading and reporting systems for
student learning. California: Corwin Press, 2001

27. Screen Shot from Benchmark Grading
Grade Book

28. Graph shows progress on standards
Benchmark Status Graph from
Benchmark Grading Grade Book

29. Standards-Based Grading
Pros Cons
Skill-specific, which allows Can be too specific, making
data to be used for diagnostic/ report forms too cumbersome
prescriptive purposes Can be too complex for
Illustrates students’ attainment parents to understand
of goal or standard If standards are too broad, it
Meaningful information on is difficult to identify
student achievements students’ unique strengths
Grades are referenced to A lot of work initially
specific criteria or learning
standards, identifying students’
specific strengths as well as
where improvement is needed
to occur

30. What we can do to support
teachers who are interested
in standards-based
grading?

31. Have teachers start with one
content area and do the following:
»Identify the key standards.
»Identify the prerequisite skills needed to
understand the standard.
»Decide what evidence best illustrates
students’ attainment of the goal or
standard.

32. What you can do:
» Start discussions with your teachers about the
purpose of their grades.
» Talk with your teachers about a student’s
first attempts at a skill. Should the first
attempts be calculated in the final grade?
Create definitions for each grade that is
» given in a class so the teacher, student, and
parent have an understanding of what the
earned marks mean.

33. Sample Grade Definitions
4 –Advanced (Consistently Meets or Exceeds Standard)
Student demonstrates superior performance. Student shows in-depth understanding of complex
concepts and skills and is able to apply their knowledge and skills to develop new understanding and
solutions.
3-Proficient (Meets Standard)
Student shows consistent understanding of the subject matter and is able to apply this knowledge to real
world situations. Student can extend their understanding by making meaningful connections among
important ideas or concepts and is able to provide evidence to support inferences and justifications of
solutions.
2-Basic (Making Progress but Not Meeting Standard)
Student shows partial mastery of essential knowledge and skills and partial success in tasks using this
knowledge. Student is approaching acceptable performance, but has not yet achieved it. This student
makes simple connections among ideas and provides limited support for their solutions and inferences.
1-Developing(No Progress or Very Little Progress)
Student shows limited mastery of essential knowledge and skills. This student may require assistance in
applying the knowledge and skills. This level indicates unacceptable academic performance.

34. Sample Grade Definitions
Advanced: The student can perform the skill/standard with no
significant errors on a continual basis and can apply the
skill/standard to above grade level work.
Proficient: The student can perform the skill/standard with no
significant errors on grade level work and on a continual basis.
Basic: The student makes some significant errors when
performing the skill/standard but shows some evidence of
understanding of the standard/skill.
Developing: The student makes significant errors when
applying the skill/standard that they can not complete the work.

35. Sample Grade Definitions
A: Showed consistent evidence of understanding the grade level
standard.
B: Showed evidence of understanding the standard on an almost
consistent basis.
C: Showed some evidence of understanding the standard but not
on a consistent basis.
D: Showed little evidence of understanding the grade level
standard.
F: Showed no evidence of understanding the grade level standard.

36. Sample Grade Definitions
An A means the student has completed proficient work on all course objectives
and advanced work on some objectives.
A B means the student has completed proficient work on all course objectives.
A C means the student has completed proficient work on the most important
objectives, although not on all objectives. The student can continue to the next
course.
A D means the student has completed proficient work on at least one-half of the
course objectives but is missing some important objectives and is at significant
risk of failing the next course in the sequence. The student should repeat the
course if it is a prerequisite for another course.
An F means the student has completed proficient work on fewer than one-half of
the course objectives and cannot successfully complete the next course in
sequence.
www.ascd.org, Seven Reasons for Standards Based Grading,Patricia Scriffiny, October 2008, Volume 66 #2 Pgs:70-74,www.
ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership?=/Oct08/Vol66/num2/Seven_Reasons_For_Standards-Based_Grading.aspx

37. Strategies to help teachers grade:
Use the most recent evidence.
Give priority or greater weight to most comprehensive
evidence.
Rank order the evidence gathered in terms of importance
to the course learning standards and goals. (e.g., projects
that synthesize and apply what the students has learned
instead of assessments that tap basic knowledge.)
Look at progressive data.
Make sure there is a standard-specific connection to
assignments.

38. Remember, a teacher’s
professional judgment will
always play a role
in grading.
Guskey, R. Thomas & Jane M. Bailey: Developing grading and reporting systems for student learning. California:
Corwin Press, 2001
O’Connor, Ken: How to grade for learning: Linking Grades to Standards 2nd Edition. Illinois: Skylight Press, 2002

39. Resources
Free online Standards-Based grade book:
http://www.benchmarkgrading.com
Books:
How to Grade for Learning: Linking Grades to Standards by Ken
O’Connor
Developing Grading and Reporting Systems For Student Learning
by Thomas R. Guskey and Jane M. Bailey
This presentation will be available online and linked
from the BenchmarkGrading Facebook page.
Sarah McPartland: sarah@benchmarkgrading.com