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Charting a Course to Standards-Based Grading: What to Stop, What to Start, and Why It Matters
What's the best way to ensure that grading policies are fair, accurate, and consistent across classrooms? How can schools transition to a grading system that better reflects what students are actually learning? Tim R. Westerberg makes this journey easier by offering a continuum of options, with four "destinations" on the road to improved grading and assessment.
Destination 1 critically examines such popular grading mechanisms as the zero, extra credit, the "semester killer" project, averaging, mixing academic performance with work ethic, and refusing to accept late work, and explains how they undermine objectivity and instead result in widely divergent grades for comparable work--with major consequences for students.
Destination 2 invites educators to put assessment and grading into the larger context of a districtwide guaranteed and viable curriculum and lays out the organizational conditions and necessary steps to accomplish this goal.
Destination 3 brings parents and others on board with a multiyear implementation plan and community engagement strategies for introducing report cards that indicate student achievement by standards rather than--or in addition to--letter grades.
Destination 4, competency-based education, involves a total rethinking of the nature and structure of school, leading to individualized education for all students.
However far they choose to go, administrators and teacher leaders can turn to Charting a Course to Standards-Based Grading for the quick wins and long-term support and guidance they need to make the trip well worth the effort.
Destination 1 critically examines such popular grading mechanisms as the zero, extra credit, the "semester killer" project, averaging, mixing academic performance with work ethic, and refusing to accept late work, and explains how they undermine objectivity and instead result in widely divergent grades for comparable work--with major consequences for students.
Destination 2 invites educators to put assessment and grading into the larger context of a districtwide guaranteed and viable curriculum and lays out the organizational conditions and necessary steps to accomplish this goal.
Destination 3 brings parents and others on board with a multiyear implementation plan and community engagement strategies for introducing report cards that indicate student achievement by standards rather than--or in addition to--letter grades.
Destination 4, competency-based education, involves a total rethinking of the nature and structure of school, leading to individualized education for all students.
However far they choose to go, administrators and teacher leaders can turn to Charting a Course to Standards-Based Grading for the quick wins and long-term support and guidance they need to make the trip well worth the effort.
191 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 24, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 4, 2017
Practical and good information. But it's such a big topic and undertaking to go down this path, I found even the pragmatic "how-to" steps not enough. I think it's just a topic that you HAVE to discuss/learn about through human conversation. This would be GREAT background to have that conversation.
March 18, 2017
I would love to see effective, individualized instruction that is evaluated on skill attainment for all students.
June 21, 2018
3.5 stars, A good overview of standards based grading.
February 21, 2018
The book is one sided. SBG is put in a relentlessly positive light. No quarter is given - this is the only way forward in education. Much of the content is just regular good practice. A good exam tells you as much about a kids ability as a standards based grade.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews