1. The Forest, the Tree, and the Leaves
Welcome to another module of the Health Education Assessment Project’s online professional development series. This course is designed to build your competence and confidence in providing standards-based, skills-based health education instruction to promote your students’ health literacy.
Thinking about Standards, Performance, Rubrics, and Grades

2. Training Objectives
Describe how teaching to standards fits into a school accountability system
Explore the purposes of grades
Examine the various learning criteria for grades
Analyze the dilemmas in converting to performance-based grading
Describe new ways to think about and provide feedback to students
In previous modules you received basic information about the Health Education Assessment Project, also know as HEAP, gained some basic knowledge of the HEAP holistic rubrics, and engaged in a scoring session.
After an initial training, teachers usually ask, “How do I turn the rubric scores into grades?” This module is intended to help teachers understand the purpose of grades and assess the level of student learning that has taken place. The hands-on component of this presentation is designed to help teachers evaluate what they have been doing with grades and challenge them to think and act in new ways that provide students with feedback on their learning progress.
For this module, you will want to have available the following materials from the Materials section of this module
National Health Education Standards Logic Model Poster
Project Options by Skill Area handout

3. State Accountability System
The Forest
State Accountability System
Think of the forest as a metaphor for the state accountability system. This system assesses students’ knowledge and skills in multiple subject areas.
Assessment is based on subject standards.
This is the big picture. Where does health education fit into your state’s big picture?

4. The Tree health education standards a person who has developed
health literacy
The tree represents the health education standards for which teachers are accountable.
The goal, or the intended outcome, is to provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to lead healthy, productive lives—that is, to develop high levels of health literacy.
You also need to understand how your tree fits into the forest. In other words, how does health education fit into the school reform initiatives in your state?
Before we talk about what the leaves represent, let’s take a moment to review health literacy and the National Health Education Standards.

5. Health Literacy
Health literacy is the capacity of an individual to obtain, interpret, and understand basic health information and services and the competence to use such information and services in ways which are health-enhancing.
Joint Committee on Health Education Standards
Let’s review the definition of health literacy. It is the capacity of an individual to obtain, interpret, and understand basic health information and services and the competence to use such information and services in ways which are health-enhancing. It is the goal of health education—to develop a health literate population.
Aligning instruction with the national standards will help health educators reach the goal of fostering individuals who are health literate.

6. National Health Education Standards
Core Concepts (Standard 1)
Analyzing Influences (Standard 2)
Accessing Information (Standard 3)
Interpersonal Communication (Standard 4)
Decision Making (Standard 5)
Goal Setting (Standard 6)
Self-management (Standard 7)
Advocacy (Standard 8)
This slide lists the standards addressed in the National Health Education Standards. To be health literate, students need to comprehend the concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention: Standard One, Core Concepts. And they need to be proficient in the skills the standards address.
For a poster of the standards, download the National Health Education Standards Logic Model poster from the Materials section on the sidebar.

7. Instructional Activities
The Leaves
Instructional Activities
Back to the leaves…
The leaves represent the instructional activities a teacher presents that help students acquire the knowledge and skills in the health education standards.
At the end of a course, teachers need to put all the leaves together and look at the tree. They need to ask themselves if the leaves they put in place made a tree.
Translation - Did the instruction result in teaching to the health standards? Did the instruction result in students becoming more health literate?

8. Standards-based health instruction is skills- and performance-based.
A New Lens
Standards-based health instruction is
skills- and performance-based.
Standards-based health instruction is skills- and performance-based. It provides us with a new lens—a different approach—to teaching and learning. Standards-based health instruction moves the emphasis from learning health facts to acquiring health skills. Now let’s examine the elements of performance-based assessments.

9. What Are Performance-based Tasks?
Performance-based tasks are assessment tasks.
They require students to perform or construct a product that demonstrates their knowledge and skills.
Performance-based tasks are assessment tasks. They require students to perform or construct a product that demonstrates their knowledge and skills.

10. Performance-Based Assessments
can be short answers, extended responses, or performance tasks
align with developing student portfolios
Performance-based assessments can be short answers, extended responses (or essays), or performance tasks.
Performance tasks align with developing student portfolios to assess learning.
Portfolios are a representative collection of student’s work. Portfolios can be used to document a student’s level of achievement or evaluate the progression of work over time.
Now let’s review examples of products that are performance-based.

11. Examples of Projects personal plan teaching poster
public service announcement
PowerPoint presentation
board presentation
This is just a partial list. Infomercials, photo essays, and skits, to name a few other examples, would all lend themselves to assessing student knowledge and skills.
If you haven’t done so, download the handout entitled “Project Options by Skill Area.” This handout gives you a much more complete—though not definitive—idea of appropriate activities and projects. These learning experiences will offer your students a wide variety of options to develop health literacy skills.
As you learned in previous modules, the HEAP rubrics can help you score student work for health content (core concepts) and skills. The HEAP rubrics use a four-point scale—with four being the highest—that indicate the level of learning that students reach. But how does that translate to grades? The problem is, it’s not an easy translation.

12. Grades Let’s Talk About…
So let’s examine grades. What do they mean? How do we arrive at grades? What kind of grading systems are there?

13. Norm-referenced Grading
Assigns grades based on a bell curve.
Norm-referenced grading assigns grades on a pre-determined distribution—or bell curve. In this approach, a set of scores is forced into a normal distribution, partitioned into groups, and assigned grades.
On the other hand…
Set of scores is forced into a normal distribution, partitioned into groups, and assigned grades.

14. Criterion-referenced Grading
links to a defined set of goals
targets a specific level of learning
Criterion-referenced grading—the kind of assessment used for performance tasks —links grades to an explicitly defined set of instructional goals, the standards.
Criterion-referenced grading also targets a specific level of learning. In other words, the final grade reflects or captures what students can do—the knowledge and skills they’ve gained.

15. Purposes of Grades administrative instructional planning guidance
motivation
feedback about student achievement
This slide outlines five purposes of grades: administrative, instructional planning, guidance, motivation, and feedback about student achievement. Let’s think about each one of these.
Grades can be used for administrative purposes. Grades help school administrators determine grade level advancement or retention. It also helps to determine placement as students transfer from school to school. Grades also support decisions as students apply for college.
Grades are used as a guide to instructional planning. Teachers use grades to make initial decisions about student strengths and weaknesses in planning their instructional program.
Grades can be used as a guide to counselors. Grades can help counselors recommend individual courses and suggest occupations students might consider.
Grades are sometimes used as motivation. Some teachers may use grades to motivate students, although some educators object to, and question the value of, using grades to motivate.
Grades can and should be used to provide feedback to students. Using grades to provide students feedback on their achievement is the primary function of grades. The goal of grading is to report and communicate.

16. Thinking about Grading and Reporting
formal training in grading and reporting
district reporting policies
alignment between performance-based assessment in the classroom and district’s systems
Now that you have clear priorities on the purpose for grades, here are a few issues to think about in regard to grading and reporting.
Surprisingly, few teachers receive formal training in grading and reporting. Wouldn’t you agree? I imagine a lot of heads are nodding. Most teachers must follow district reporting policies they’ve had no part in developing.
In many cases, it’s difficult to align performance-based assessment in the classroom with the district’s reporting and grading systems. Let’s examine a couple of dilemmas regarding alignment.

17. Dilemmas
Scoring criteria may not match district’s purpose or format for reporting.
Without alignment, teachers are on their own to work out dilemmas.
Many schools are asking teachers to use performance-based instruction. But the scoring criteria may not match the purpose or format for district reporting.
Until there is alignment at the district and state level for the fair and equitable translation of student achievement, we are left on our own to work on the grading and reporting dilemmas.
Many school districts are developing task forces to look at their grading and reporting system.

18. Considerations
Base grades on standards, criteria, and levels of achievement.
Individualize feedback and help students monitor their progress in becoming proficient in knowledge and skills
Move from subjective grading to criteria-referenced scoring
Here are some more things to consider as we think about grading and reporting.
Base grades on standards, criteria, and levels of achievement.
Individualize feedback and help students monitor their progress in becoming proficient in knowledge and skills
Move from subjective grading to criteria-referenced scoring.

19. Researchers Agree Grading and reporting are not essential to learning.
No single method of grading and reporting serves all purposes well.
Grading and reporting will always involve some degree of subjectivity.
Grades have value as rewards, no value as punishment.
Grading and reporting should be done in reference to learning criteria, never “on the curve.”
Researchers agree that:
Grading and reporting are not essential to learning.
No single method of grading and reporting serves all purposes well.
Grading and reporting will always involve some degree of subjectivity.
Grades have value as rewards, no value as punishment.
Grading and reporting should be done in reference to learning criteria, never “on the curve.”

20. Learning Criteria product criteria process criteria progress criteria
The last bullet in the previous slide noted that grading and reporting should be done in reference to learning criteria. We can look at learning criteria in three ways:
Product criteria
Process criteria
Progress criteria

21. Product Criteria Process Criteria Progress Criteria
Communicate summative evaluation
Process Criteria
Reflect process of learning
Progress Criteria
Advocates of performance-based approaches to teaching use product criteria to communicate summative evaluation.
Those who believe grades should reflect the process of learning—quizzes, homework, class participation, etc.—use process criteria.
Progress criteria reflect “improvement scoring” and indicate learning gained over a scoring period.
Indicate learning gained over the scoring period

22. Dilemma
If we intertwine product, process, and progress criteria into one grade, it is difficult to interpret the grade’s meaning.
Therefore, most researchers recommend using product criteria only.
BUT, using product criteria can dampen the motivation of students with less ability who work hard.
The dilemma is
If we intertwine product, process, and progress criteria into one grade, it is difficult to interpret the grade’s meaning.
Therefore, most researchers recommend using product criteria only.
BUT, using product criteria can dampen the motivation of students with less ability who work hard.

23. Grading Outside of Academics: Non-achievement Factors
effort: participation, work completion
behavior: conduct, teamwork
attendance: absenteeism, tardiness
We call areas that are outside of, but related to, academic learning—such as effort, behavior, and attendance—non-achievement factors.
Grading for effort looks at participation and work completion. Participation is the extent to which a student responds in class and engages in instructional activities. Work completion is the extent to which a student meets expectations about a course’s tasks. For example: Does the student turn assignments in on time? Are the assignments typed or neatly written?
Grading for behavior reflects how well a student follows rules of conduct—both school rules and rules of social behavior. Grading for behavior also reflects the extent to which a student actively participates in group-defined goals.
Grading attendance provides information on how often a student is absent from—or late to—class.

24. Pros for Grading Non-achievement Factors
supports youth development
fosters development of personal responsibility and self-management
separate marks for non-achievement factors and assessment of skills and knowledge
Providing feedback to students on non-achievement factors is important and supports youth development. In particular, such feedback can play an important role in helping students develop a sense of personal responsibility and self-management skills.
However, marks for effort, work habits, or behavior should be separated from assessments of achievement.

25. References
Marzano, R. J. (2000). Transforming classroom grading. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. (1996). Communicating student learning: 1996 ASCD yearbook. Alexandria, VA: Author.
ASCD Web site –
CCSSO Website –
If you would like to read more about grading and reporting student learning, the references shown are a good place to start. The ASCD website – has many of the most current references on assessment as well as the CCSSO website –
It is now time for the homework assignment.

26. Homework Activity
After reading through this module, post your thoughts and comments in response to the following questions according to the course instructions provided.
What do the grades you give to students mean?
What can you do to develop a grading system that will communicate what you intend?
Based on what you have learned during this module, what changes might you consider in the way you set up your grading system?
Please note copies of the homework assignments are available for downloading from the Homework Activity link on the sidebar.
Here’s the homework activity for this module:
After reading through this module , post your thoughts and comments in response to the following questions according to the course instructions provided:
What do the grades you give to students mean?
What can you do to develop a grading system that will communicate what you intend?
Based on what you have learned during this module, what changes might you consider in the way you set up your grading system?

27. Final Wish
We hope this module has been instrumental in supporting your efforts to adopt a skills-based, standards-based approach to teaching health education.
That’s it for this session.
I hope this presentation has provided you with an understanding of the purpose of grades and helped you evaluate what you’ve been doing with grades. We also hope this presentation has challenged you to think and act in new ways to provide students with feedback on their learning progress.
We hope this module has been instrumental in supporting your efforts to adopt a skills-based, standards-based approach to teaching health education.