Skills-Based Grading

[Anonymous]

Can someone explain exactly how it works with an example please?

[Anonymous]

Is this similar to standards based grading that is currently in the ES?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There was a school board work session in the fall where the board was told that a group of school administrators is studying grading policy and will recommend changes later this year. It was so vague - why are they doing this? What is it based on? What is skills based and what is standards based? I am going to pay attention to see what the group recommends and hopefully they will share their research.

God save us from school administrators studying policy reform. They are so out of touch with the realities of the classroom.

We need this like we need a hole in the head.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain exactly how it works with an example please?

I am a high schooler that goes to a school with the skills based graded system. I will use my AP Biology class as an example. The course is broken down into around 5-6 skills (using models, collecting data accurately, lab skills, data analysis, concept analysis, concept readiness). Each unit of biology content tests 2-3 of these skills. For an example in our Cell Structure and Function unit, we were tested on lab skills, data analysis, and concept analysis. Before the assessment (aka test), we complete practices (quizzes) in the skills that we will be tested on. Ultimately, these practices won't count in the long run; the assessment becomes 100% of our grade. In addition, only the 3 most recent grades for a skill counts. So lets say for Unit 1 I got an A in lab skills. Then for Unit 2 I also got an A. Unit 3 I got a B. And Unit 4 I earned a B. The overall grade for that skill would be the average of the A, B, B. The final grade is determined by averaging all the skill grades together.
I would like to point out that the skill based grading system is different almost each class. For my math and science grades, we take the top 3 skills. For English, we average all the assessments together. I know one class where as long as you show an upward trend in a skill grade, then at the end of the year it can be replaced.

I had my kid write the above - she said she did her best to explain, but it's very confusing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain exactly how it works with an example please?

I am a high schooler that goes to a school with the skills based graded system. I will use my AP Biology class as an example. The course is broken down into around 5-6 skills (using models, collecting data accurately, lab skills, data analysis, concept analysis, concept readiness). Each unit of biology content tests 2-3 of these skills. For an example in our Cell Structure and Function unit, we were tested on lab skills, data analysis, and concept analysis. Before the assessment (aka test), we complete practices (quizzes) in the skills that we will be tested on. Ultimately, these practices won't count in the long run; the assessment becomes 100% of our grade. In addition, only the 3 most recent grades for a skill counts. So lets say for Unit 1 I got an A in lab skills. Then for Unit 2 I also got an A. Unit 3 I got a B. And Unit 4 I earned a B. The overall grade for that skill would be the average of the A, B, B. The final grade is determined by averaging all the skill grades together.
I would like to point out that the skill based grading system is different almost each class. For my math and science grades, we take the top 3 skills. For English, we average all the assessments together. I know one class where as long as you show an upward trend in a skill grade, then at the end of the year it can be replaced.

I had my kid write the above - she said she did her best to explain, but it's very confusing.

That is going to be a mess. The administrators who make policy, unfortunately, don’t need to implement policy or see how policy stands up in real world situations. Teachers will be tasked with using their planning time to figure out how to make this crap work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There was a school board work session in the fall where the board was told that a group of school administrators is studying grading policy and will recommend changes later this year. It was so vague - why are they doing this? What is it based on? What is skills based and what is standards based? I am going to pay attention to see what the group recommends and hopefully they will share their research.

Why? They are doing this for racial equity. That’s why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain exactly how it works with an example please?

I wrote about the math test but it’s like that in every subject. Think back to elementary school and the 1-4 scale. That’s what it feels like but this is high school. He completes a project and gets an A, B, C, D or F. No + or - The corresponding number is entered in the gradebook 0-4. Those are averaged and his final grade in the class is out of 4.0.

Math seems the most difficult for me to understand. The tests have a topic per page and there doesn’t seem to be consistency to how many mistakes equal each grade. A math test may have 3 entries, each skill goes in separately. He’s in 9th and not in higher level math yet so maybe that changes later.

There isn’t consistency by teacher. There definitely won’t be by school. This seems like a lot of work and is likely hard for them to understand too.

[Anonymous]

One idea behind this change is to eliminate graded homework, for equity reasons.

[Anonymous]

My daughter was complaining about her math grade last night. She has no idea what is going on with her grade; she said it looks like it's a B. Up until this year, she's been a straight A student with the exception of a B+ in AP Lang. She's a senior, and this has impacted what colleges are seeing. It's completely unfair. I can't believe that after everything these kids went through with Covid, and then having to play catch-up last year, that they are now having to deal with being part of this experiment.

I'm venting here, but my bigger concern is for my kid starting 9th grade next year. He is going to fail under this system. The rolling grade book in middle school has already been a disaster. It leads him to procrastinate and get behind.

[Anonymous]

What I'd really like is some advice on how to try to push back on this. Bring it up at a PTA meeting, talk to my school board member, talk at a school board meeting, have my kid talk at a school board meeting, start a petition, start organizing a group of parents willing to be vocal, I'd like to create a road map to fight back on this. Any ideas?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My high-schooler is in a math class with skills-based grading. The way this pilot program was explained during the open house was that students would have multiple chances at re-assessment and the purpose seemed to be to give kids more chances to master the material. In practice, it seems far more stressful on the students than the regular grading system because they've eliminated all A-, B+ grades and each question receives its own individual grade of A, B, C etc. No partial credit is given, so any mistake automatically results in a B. My child with an A- currently appears to have little chance of raising the grade to an A with half the class left, so is a bit frustrated despite doing pretty well on the exams. Perfect on most of them and with minor mistakes on the others (which seemed like they would have merited an A- or B+ under the previous grading system. So my question is--was this really a way to help tackle grade inflation more than giving kids the chance to demonstrate mastery? I don't plan on saying anything to the teacher or school, I'm just internally questioning why this change was made, especially since it is coming for all classes next year.

The SB and many schools see this as a more equitable approach. In other words, equity.

Our school is in the process of implementing skills-based grading as well. My child hates it - states that it has left him feeling unmotivated and even a bit depressed. As my child is a senior, he is just glad to be getting out because he states that FCPS gets worse every year. I'm worried because my other kid starts 9th grade next year and will not do well in a system that does not grade homework. He just won't do it. My understanding of skills based learning is that only 3 grades are on the books, with a rolling replacement throughout the year, and only tests count as grades.

It seems FCPS is constantly trying out gimmicks and implementing something new that has nothing to do with improving academics. I'm really fed up. We were at a private that didn't do this crap, but I shouldn't have to pay 45k for a basic education. I know that I should put my younger kid into private next year, but along with the financial aspect, it would break his heart to leave his friends.

I did reach out to the principal to see if they were going to go forward with this and the answer is yes. Interestingly, this school surveys kids all the time (don't know if it's just FCPS surveys or school created), but there is no interest in surveying parents, kids and teachers about the skills-based grading. It's full steam ahead, until the next "great idea" comes along. I'm venting here, but I don't know what to do. I've thought about complaining to the school board, reaching out to other parents to try to get a small vocal group to push back, I just don't know what to do.

So what you mean to say is you’ve conditioned your kid to believe the grade is the point of the learning and not mastery of the content. He won’t do the homework because if it doesn’t get a grade it lacks value?

[Anonymous]

So what you mean to say is you’ve conditioned your kid to believe the grade is the point of the learning and not mastery of the content. He won’t do the homework because if it doesn’t get a grade it lacks value?

I have yet to meet a teacher, parent or student that thinks skills-based grading is a good idea. I have 2 kids, one is Type A, hard-working, tries her best at everything, the other is Type B, loves sports, loves people, would rather be playing baseball than studying. They both have special gifts. They both are not thriving or becoming better students, better learners under this system for different reasons. In once case, the kid is demoralized and somewhat depressed and frustrated, and the other is never getting the opportunity to have a framework in which to learn good study habits.

Very few kids are doing homework for the joy of learning and mastery of content. They are kids. I used to teach high school, and I told the kids everything was getting graded even if it wasn't true. Almost every kid in my classes learned more material than they ever intended. I taught a science class. A lot of the kids thought they didn't need to know it so wanted to do the bare minimum. I didn't let them. But when it came time to take the test and they saw that they knew it and did well because of all that homework and classwork, they were excited. Kids need to feel that they are being rewarded for their effort. The reward for me was seeing the joy on their faces when they saw the product of all that work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I'd really like is some advice on how to try to push back on this. Bring it up at a PTA meeting, talk to my school board member, talk at a school board meeting, have my kid talk at a school board meeting, start a petition, start organizing a group of parents willing to be vocal, I'd like to create a road map to fight back on this. Any ideas?

You can’t push back.

The school board is behind it, and so is their new superintendent.

They do not care if you disagree. They are doing this for equity.

They will not change their minds about equity. They equity is their number 1, top priority.

Therefore, the implementation of these changes cannot be stopped.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think this coming from the school board. They seemed surprised by it at the work session. I think fcps staff is pushing this. Dr. reid needs to stop it if for no other reason than teachers don’t need yet abother new initiative on their plates right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I'd really like is some advice on how to try to push back on this. Bring it up at a PTA meeting, talk to my school board member, talk at a school board meeting, have my kid talk at a school board meeting, start a petition, start organizing a group of parents willing to be vocal, I'd like to create a road map to fight back on this. Any ideas?

The best way to push back is to vote out the school board members in the election this year.