Grading Practices North Providence School Department

New Parent Portal and Electronic Gradebook

Report Card/Grading Committee A committee was formed last school year to review sample standards based report cards, sample grading policies/practices, as well as to read and discuss grading practices research. The committee also revised the report card comments. The committee was comprised of teachers and administrators K-12. In addition, Central Office administrators from several neighboring districts met to discuss gradebook/report card setup in Skyward. Prior grading practices in NPSD were left to the teacher’s discretion.

What is a Standards-Based Report Card? A standards-based report card lists the most important skills students should learn in each subject at each grade level. NPSD’s new Standards-based report cards are completely aligned with the Common Core State Standards in grades K-5. NPSD’s previous report cards had the same skills for each grade level with a rating scale of outstanding, satisfactory, needs improvement, unsatisfactory.

Report Card Samples

Essential Components: 1.A description of what a student should know and be able to do at a given grade level. 2.A curriculum framework/roadmap a teacher uses to ensure that they teach to the standards. 3.Assessments that a teacher uses is to measure the extent to which a student has met the standards. 4.A reporting tool which communicates accurately a student’s progress towards meeting standards of their given grade level throughout the school year.

Scoring Based on a 4 Point Scale Student scores will be based on a 4 point scale. This represents categories as follows: 4- Exceeding the Standard 3- Meeting the Standard 2- Approaching the Standard 1- Not Meeting the Standard

Grading at the Secondary Level Teachers may only chose from 4 categories to report assignments and grades. Homework Formative Assessment Interim Assessment Summative Assessment Homework can count no more than 10% of the grade.

What is new this year…. All teachers MUST allow one reassessment of Summative Assessments once the students have met the following criteria: The student must meet assignment due dates (unless excused absence from school). The student must make a concerted effort at reaching proficiency on the first attempt. The student must make corrections to the original assignment and any other related work as assigned by the teacher that will support the student to reach proficiency. This may include before and/or afterschool sessions with the teacher to review content.

Students that meet the reassessment criteria may then be reassessed within 2 weeks from the date the grade was posted in the electronic gradebook. The Reassessment is not a retake of the original assignment/assessment. It will be a comparable assessment/assignment to reassess the student’s understanding of the standards. The electronic gradebook will reflect the new mark (elementary score of 3 or secondary score of 70) if the student reaches proficiency.

How do we create vision and assess needs of our schools? CARA cycle from Walkthrough data PD Committee Comprehensive Assessment System Project NPSD’s professional development goal this year is to support the implementation of standards based planning, instruction, assessment, and grading utilizing new technology and resources. What do teachers need? Standards based lesson planning Utilize student data through Skyward and Information Support System Develop grade level assessments and rubrics New Resources: RIDE’s Instructional Support System District provided Math and Science materials Interactive Projectors Discovery Ed EasyTech and Learning.com Who’s involved: District Walkthrough Team Title 1 Coordinator ELL Coordinator Math/Induction Coach Building Administrators Central Office Administrators Department Chairs MS Team Leaders NPSD Skyward trainers Instructional Technology PD trainers

Professional Development to Date Skyward Teacher leader trainers have been holding PD sessions around gradebook, grading, and report cards Elementary administrators have been meeting with grade level teams K-5 to discuss rubrics, scoring, and standards based lessons and grading. These sessions are ongoing and a priority to the district’s PD plan. At Middle School level, Team Leaders will continue facilitating grading and assessment discussions. Content level meetings will begin afterschool, facilitated by MS Administrators. At the High School, CPT and Department meetings are focusing on common assessments and calibration of scoring student work.