DPS Elementary Standards- based Grading and Report Card

Today’s foci… Standards-based grading concept Elementary report card

The Essential Questions How confident are you that the grades students receive are… consistent? accurate? meaningful? supportive of learning?

The Enduring Understanding Nothing really changes until the grade book and the report card both change.

“…(grading) practices are not the result of careful thought or sound evidence,… rather, they are used because teachers [and parents] experienced these practices as students and, having little training or experience with other options, continue their use.” Guskey, Thomas R. (Editor), communicating Student Learning: The 1996 ASCD Yearbook, ASCD, Alexandria VA, 1996, 20

What should be the purpose of grades?

Mary is very smart, but puts in little effort in her classes. She excels on tests without really needing to study. However, Mary often talks in class and rarely does her homework, which has caused her to receive an overall grade of a C. David, on the other hand, always completes his homework and puts forth his best effort in class. However, he seems to struggle on tests because there are parts of the material that he has not yet mastered. He also has an overall grade of a C. Consider Two Students…

If the purpose of grading is… to indicate how many questions a student answered correctly or incorrectly, then percentages or points work best. to indicate what students have learned (mastered) or didn’t learn (master), then standards-based grading is best.

DPS Elementary Report Card Defines clear and specific clusters of standards Uses standards to evaluate student achievement levels Focuses on communication Reports academic and non-academic indicators, separately

Making the Case: 8 Guiding Principles for DPS Ken O’Connor Curriculum, instruction, assessment, and grading must 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 must be separated from behaviors on expanded-format report cards. 4. There should be no grading penalties for late work, missing work, academic dishonesty, or absences. 5. Grades must be determined primarily from summative assessments. 6. Formative assessments should not be graded (comment 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 when in the determination of a grade. 8. Grades must be determined, not calculated: “number crunching” should be limited, and there should be no use of the mean or zeroes.

Academic Grading Scale 3Meets All Standards 2Meets Some Standards 1Does Not Meet Standards

Solve problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division 4.OA.2 Multiply or divide to solve word problems involving multiplicative comparison, e.g., by using drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem, distinguishing multiplicative comparison from additive comparison. 1 Identify factors and multiplies within OA.4 Find all factor pairs for a whole number in the range 1–100. Recognize that a whole number is a multiple of each of its factors. Determine whether a given whole number in the range 1–100 is a multiple of a given one-digit number.

TRADITIONAL mCLASS Reading 3D BOY 1 st Quarter 8/25-10/24 (44 days) 2 nd Quarter 10/28-1/16 (45 days) mCLASS Reading 3D MOY 3 rd Quarter 1/21-3/26 (46 days) 4 th Quarter 4/6-6/9 (46 days) mCLASS Reading 3D EOY Sept. 2-Sept 22 November 3, 2014 (Monday) January 27, 2015 (Tuesday) Jan 22-Feb. 11April 10, 2015 (Friday) June 9, 2015 (Tuesday) May 4-May22 YEAR ROUND mCLASS Reading 3D BOY 1 st Quarter 7/21-9/26 (48 days) 2 nd Quarter 10/20-12/19 (41 days) mCLASS Reading 3D MOY 3 rd Quarter 1/12-3/20 (49 days) 4 th Quarter 4/13-6/11 (43 days) mCLASS Reading 3D EOY July 28-Aug. 15October 24, 2014 (Friday) January 16, 2015 (Friday) Jan 13-Feb 3 or 12/8-12/19; 1/12-1/16 (break for intercession 12/22-1/19 April 17, 2015 (Friday) June 11, 2015 (Thursday) May 4-May22 Report Card Distribution and mCLASS Reading 3D Benchmark Dates

Grade Composition Grading standards within clusters – Analyze the results of summative assessments for all standards within a cluster – Refer to rubric to determine overall cluster grade The results of the most recent summative assessments should be used to determine a student’s mastery of the standards

Nonacademic behaviors Nonacademic behaviors are actions that do not directly reflect students’ mastery of the material, but do affect their academic success. They should be represented separately from the achievement grade.

Reporting Non-academic Factors Scale Demonstrates: (C) Consistently (S) Sometimes (R) Rarely

Summary of a Standards-Based Report Card Report academic achievement and nonacademic factors separately Define the marks in terms of the student’s progress Allow space for free-form comments and feedback from the teacher

Grades that reduce the negative effects of an imperfect grading system keep students in the game. (Marzano)