FOR is the New OF

How standards-based grading moves assessment practices from assessment OF learning to assessment FOR learning

Assessment can and always has been a double edged sword. While absolutely necessary within most realms of life to demonstrate accountability, learning, and growth; assessment can sometimes make or break a learner. In today’s world of high-stakes standardized assessment, it is imperative that policy makers, administrators, and educators are made aware of the best ways to prepare for assessment without completely diminishing student motivation. Rick Stiggins (2005) writes that historically “assessment has served as the great intimidator.” Educators have fallen into the idea that the higher the student anxiety is towards an assessment, the better the motivator they have to perform well. This is a familiar method to most of us. For many of us, we learned how to completely cram for an assessment the night before, brain dump on the actual test, and then never pick up the actual information again. If the idea of learning is viewed as a process that continually builds on previous knowledge, “brain dumping” on an assessment isn’t getting us anywhere. The traditional way of formatively assessing students must evolve, just as everything else in education does.

What is Standards-Based Grading?

Enter-Standards-Based Grading (SBG). “SBG is a way of thinking about grading and assessment that more clearly communicates with parents and students how well learners currently understand the course objectives/standards/competencies” (Townsley, 2014). SBS provides the opportunity for a clear picture to be painted of the actual learning that has taken place. Students are able to see not only what they know, but on what scale they can properly perform the standard. This type of system puts the learning in the hands of students and allows them to become active members in their own process of learning. A standards-based grading system teaches students that what they do matters and that growth is always possible.

In short, a standards-based classroom demonstrates learning goals in student friendly terms early on in the process to the students. Students then practice to monitor their learning until the standards are mastered. In a perfect SBG setting, students are not only able to articulate what standards they mastered, but rather explain to what level the standard is currently mastered to track growth and create target goals, i.e., proficient, mastered, advanced). In a SBG classroom, not all assignments are recorded in a gradebook, but the ones that are have meaning that shows how well the student demonstrated their knowledge of the standard.

Why Prepositions Matter

Within any classroom practice or assessment “the driving forces must be confidence, optimism, and persistence–for all, not just some” (Stiggins, 2005). As educators, we want all of our students to learn and grow, not just the high performing ones who can do well on a written test. By shifting our focus from traditional grading to SBG, we can begin assessing students for their learning, rather than just assessing their assessment of learning. Prepositions are incredibly important here. Stiggins goes on to explain that “assessment FOR learning rests on the understanding that students are data-based instructional decision makers too, a perspective all but ignored in our assessment legacy and in previous approaches to school improvement.”

Standards-Based Grading in the Lower Levels

The majority of reading I did over the topic addressed using SBG in upper level classrooms. I am on the search to know more about how to implement this growth-mindset way of grading into the lower elementary classrooms. I think that it’s not only possible, but imperatively important that our little learners are able to take control of their own learning motivation and success at an early age. Can you imagine the stigmas this could break in how our kids feel about themselves if we started this at an early age? “One of the best ways to assess learning at the elementary level is to involve the students directly in the assessment process” (Passinger, 2022). Elementary students need to know that they do have a say in what they are learning and they do have the POWER to internally motivate themselves to perform well.

Conclusion

Since the idea of SBG is somewhat of a new concept to most schools, there is still much to learn on the best ways to implement the system within classrooms that maximize both student and teacher efficiency. I would like to research more ways that teachers, particularly elementary teachers, can allow learners to take control of their learning and help students know what their next steps are in their grade-level standards. This is a system that will require much professional development and an open-minded approach that puts learners at the center of it all. Understanding the positive student impact standards-based grading impresses on students is incredibly important if we want to create motivated learners that are wired towards a life of life-long learning. While not all academic skills are transferable to the workplace, being intrinsically motivated and eager to learn is a skill anyone can utilize in the real world.

Resources

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/peaks-pits-standards-based-grading-josh-work

References

Passinger, A. (2022, May). How Assessment Should Drive Instruction [Review of How Assessment Should Drive Instruction]. https://www.graduateprogram.org/2022/05/how-assessment-should-drive-instruction/

Stiggins, R. (2005). From Formative Assessment to Assessment for Learning: A Path to Success in Standards-Based Schools [Review of From Formative Assessment to Assessment for Learning: A Path to Success in Standards-Based Schools]. The Phi Delta Kappan, 87(4), 324–328.

Townsley, M. (2014, November 14). What is the Difference between Standards-Based Grading (or Reporting) and Competency-Based Education? [Review of What is the Difference between Standards-Based Grading (or Reporting) and Competency-Based Education?]. CompetencyWorks. https://aurora-institute.org/cw_post/what-is-the-difference-between-standards-based-grading/