Practical Solutions for Serious Problems in Standards-Based Grading

by Thomas R. Guskey

"The book combines research, critical issues, and creative solutions in a concise and easy-to-read manner. While there is little doubt that educators today face a myriad of critical issues, this book allows educators to believe that they can be agents of change for students and for the profession."—Sammie Novack, Vice PrincipalCurran Middle School Bakersfield, CA

Implement standards-based grading practices that accurately and equitably report student achievement!

Standards-based education poses a variety of challenges for grading and reporting practices, especially for ensuring that the grades assigned to students are honest, meaningful, and fair. Many traditional methods, such as limiting the number of high grades or defining "C" as "average," no longer work in a standards-based environment. This edited volume examines critical issues in standards-based grading and provides specific suggestions for improving grading policies and practices at the school and classroom levels.

With contributions from prominent educators and researchers, this groundbreaking

Describes traditional school practices that inhibit the implementation of standards-based gradingAddresses how teachers can assign fair and accurate grades to English language learners and students with special needsExamines legal issues that influence grading and reporting policiesDiscusses why report card grades and large-scale assessment scores may varyFosters consistency in grading across states and districtsOffers effective strategies for communicating with parentsThis solution-oriented book offers teachers, principals, and administrators practical strategies for implementing grading policies that benefit all students.

Genres: Education, Teaching

187 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2008

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book for school decision-makers, not for teachers implementing standards-based grading on their own. I found it to be both inspiring (all of our focus should be on learning!) and a little confining (uniformity of assessment practices, laser focus on standards).

The problem with traditional grades: what they mean is ambiguous.
- grading on a curve does not accurately reflect learning
- ranking students promotes unhealthy competition
- using grades as punishment does not accurately reflect learning
- different teachers have different methods for calculating a grade

The promise of standards-based grades: they represent an accurate view of a students' progress toward learning standards.

Tasks for successfully implementing standards-based grading:
- find a grade book that lets teachers easily input scores for distinct standards
- train teachers on what/how to assess
- separate product (achievement) grades from process (effort, student skills) and progress (improvement) grades on the report card
- develop a uniform system for computing grades within the school/district (ex: average all scores, only take the final one, weighting more recent scores)

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for continuing ed.....

This was a mixed bag for me. I think standards-based grading is something that is likely coming down the pike, but I think there are many issues that need to be worked out and addressed before I will be gung ho about it. Some of the "practical solutions" the authors suggested didn't seem all that practical or they were only practical after a district figures out how to get over the big hurdle of setting up the system in the first place, which wasn't really addressed here.
Reading this made me realize that I agree with a lot of premises of standards-based grading, but I need to learn much more about implementation, etc.

[Leanna Aker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I was disappointed with this book because it is misnamed. I was under the impression I was going to be reading a book that would give me a number of solutions for problems WITH standards-based grading. Instead, it was a theoretical book that talked about problems with traditional grading and made one suggestion (usually not feasible or practical) for what to do about that problem. This is a very theoretical book, without a whole lot of helpful "down in the trenches" suggestions.

Still a decent read to delve into problems with traditional grading.

[Stuart Macalpine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview of five general difficulties with standards-based assessment. There is an interesting exploration of the conflict with traditional grading. However, many of the arguments here are rehearsed elsewhere in Guskey and Ken O'Connor's work.

[Brigitte · Rating 5 out of 5]

More useful for decision-makers than classroom teachers. The book’s solutions did not take into account opportunity gaps or any other type of issues, instead cementing the idea that someone with an IEP or ELL needs a modified standard (i.e. deviation from the norm).