STANDARDS BASED GRADING
We will be implementing standards based grading this year in 5th grade. Standards-based grading communicates how students are performing on a set of clearly defined learning targets called standards. The purpose of standards-based grading is to identify what a student knows, or is able to do, in relation to pre-establish learning targets, as opposed to simply averaging grades/scores over the course of a grading period.
Grades
Why STANDARDS BASED grading?
Standards Based Grading provides students, parents and staff specific information about student performance after they have been taught the content and practiced their learning. This grading strategy will allow us to gain a better understanding every student’s actual learning toward specific learning targets. Instead of just getting feedback on an assessment that says 74%, students will now be given more specific and detailed feedback indicating their level of understanding for a specific learning target or standard such as “I can fluently divide multi-digit numbers using long division” or “I can identify upper and lower case letters.” This system of grading helps prepare our students for the Upper School Mastery process which will require them to take control of their learning and show mastery of content at a higher level. These same types of educational processes are mirrored at the college and post-secondary levels of education. We want our students to be successful and independent learners, and the best way for them to achieve this is through feedback that clearly identifies their areas of opportunity and success.
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M
I understand the learning standard and I can discuss and apply it with accuracy.
(A score of 80% or higher)
P
I understand some of the learning target, but I need more practice and support to avoid making errors.
(A score of 70-79%)
NM
I don’t understand enough of the learning target to discuss it or use what I know correctly.
(A score of 69% or lower)
I
Standard has been introduced but not yet assessed.
(No score)
