Would you support standards-based grading for all subjects in all MCPS schools?

[Anonymous]

Standards based grading, when done true to the intent, doesn't keep track of the scores along the way, to put it simply -as long as a student shows mastery at some point, they receive the grade of mastery- a student could not turn assignments in, or do them poorly, as long as they show mastery on a set number of assignments.

Elementary theoretically had standards based grading for several years until about 4 years ago. It's really not that "new", more like it was innovative about 10 years ago and never really caught on. Personally, I don't think parents ever fully understood how it was different and many teachers weren't well trained on implementing or communicating with parents.

This page gives a good overview of SBG: https://www.teacherease.com/standards-based-grading.aspx

[Anonymous]

My HS grades AO. AS, AU
FU was lowest grade.

It rated your grade then attitude of outstanding, satisfactory or unsatisfactory

[Anonymous]

Yes,I would absolutely support standards based grading. I would also want Teachers to create rubrics for assignments that aligned with the standards. Also the district to indicate which standards had to be Mastered vs a different level in order to be printed to the next grade.

If we did this the data would clearly indicate where students were in their learning, which is the point of K-12 education(or at the least K-8). Also, if a kid was just passed along we could just look back to see what standards they hadn’t mastered to show where the problem started and how it continued.

ES school has this in some respects as each subject area is broken into content areas.

[Anonymous]

I thought MCPS’s current system was supposedly standards-based, and I haven’t been impressed.

The whole point of grading is to communicate with parents, and other interested parties a rough idea of what a child is learning. No system is perfect, but I think what people understand best is a traditional grading system, where grading was based on a percentage. I want work to actually be graded and not just checked for completion. I want tests without automatic retests for poor scores and finals. I don’t want to give kids a minimum of 50%, but do support the restoration of extra credit, where they can do extra work to bring their grade up, hopefully learning along the way, or even as an incentive to explore the richness of a subject.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought MCPS’s current system was supposedly standards-based, and I haven’t been impressed.

The whole point of grading is to communicate with parents, and other interested parties a rough idea of what a child is learning. No system is perfect, but I think what people understand best is a traditional grading system, where grading was based on a percentage. I want work to actually be graded and not just checked for completion. I want tests without automatic retests for poor scores and finals. I don’t want to give kids a minimum of 50%, but do support the restoration of extra credit, where they can do extra work to bring their grade up, hopefully learning along the way, or even as an incentive to explore the richness of a subject.

And this is why standards based grading will never catch on, even though it better communicates exactly where students are in their learning progression.

MCPS's current system is curriculum that instructs to the standards for each course. But letter grades really have no meaning because ultimately it is teacher dependent on exactly what and how they assess mastery and how they assign grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd rather we don't subject our children to more unproven experiments in education and maybe stick with proven methods like the 50% rule which is working fine.

You forgot the /s.

[Anonymous]

SBG is pointless without flexibility for the student to spend more time where they need to catch up or want to excel.

SBG is extra work compared to evaluating and returning work, and redoing and resubmitting projects.

We already have a basic form of SBG, called : look at all the grades on all the assignments, and allow redos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think the homework is excessive but yes they need to get rid to the 50%.

Which 50% ? The poor kids? That would make for a bette school system but those kids would just fill up the jails later

You don't even know the discussion and want an opinion. It makes it a nightmare as a parent to track assignments as it makes assignments appear turned in when they are not. It has noting to do with "poor" but you'd probably consider us "poor" and your kids would never attend the schools our kids attend.

Better is making sure all kids get a quality education.

Missing work shows up as missing for me, and anyway I don't distinguish between 0-50 and 50-50. Both are failures that need follow-up.

[Anonymous]

It would be very difficult to implement in large classrooms. Many HS core classes are 30+ students per period.
Many problems would be improved if classroom size was limited to 20 students per period. I have too many students (145) to grade effectively

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes,I would absolutely support standards based grading. I would also want Teachers to create rubrics for assignments that aligned with the standards. Also the district to indicate which standards had to be Mastered vs a different level in order to be printed to the next grade.

If we did this the data would clearly indicate where students were in their learning, which is the point of K-12 education(or at the least K-8). Also, if a kid was just passed along we could just look back to see what standards they hadn’t mastered to show where the problem started and how it continued.

ES school has this in some respects as each subject area is broken into content areas.

You are naive. This is just another method to hide disparate outcomes and to reduce our ability to identify and encourage academic achievement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Standards based grading, when done true to the intent, doesn't keep track of the scores along the way, to put it simply -as long as a student shows mastery at some point, they receive the grade of mastery- a student could not turn assignments in, or do them poorly, as long as they show mastery on a set number of assignments.

Elementary theoretically had standards based grading for several years until about 4 years ago. It's really not that "new", more like it was innovative about 10 years ago and never really caught on. Personally, I don't think parents ever fully understood how it was different and many teachers weren't well trained on implementing or communicating with parents.

This page gives a good overview of SBG: https://www.teacherease.com/standards-based-grading.aspx

Similar to restorative justice. Never really caught on and people weren't trained on how to use it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes,I would absolutely support standards based grading. I would also want Teachers to create rubrics for assignments that aligned with the standards. Also the district to indicate which standards had to be Mastered vs a different level in order to be printed to the next grade.

If we did this the data would clearly indicate where students were in their learning, which is the point of K-12 education(or at the least K-8). Also, if a kid was just passed along we could just look back to see what standards they hadn’t mastered to show where the problem started and how it continued.

ES school has this in some respects as each subject area is broken into content areas.

You are naive. This is just another method to hide disparate outcomes and to reduce our ability to identify and encourage academic achievement.

I’ve had the opportunity to observe it in another school (not MCPS). That isn’t how it worked.

For example, each marking period, there might be 5-7 standards in each course. Once a student masters that standard, they no longer have to practice or assess it. They can move on to extra practice of a different standard or do enrichment. If they haven’t mastered a standard by the end of the marking period, that is reflected on the report card.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes,I would absolutely support standards based grading. I would also want Teachers to create rubrics for assignments that aligned with the standards. Also the district to indicate which standards had to be Mastered vs a different level in order to be printed to the next grade.

If we did this the data would clearly indicate where students were in their learning, which is the point of K-12 education(or at the least K-8). Also, if a kid was just passed along we could just look back to see what standards they hadn’t mastered to show where the problem started and how it continued.

ES school has this in some respects as each subject area is broken into content areas.

You are naive. This is just another method to hide disparate outcomes and to reduce our ability to identify and encourage academic achievement.

How exactly?

[Anonymous]

I need my kid to learn. I don't care how he's judged. As long as he learns.

He has some fabulous teachers. And he has some horrible teachers. What are schools doing to help the horrible ones? As far as I can tell, they've just given up on them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought MCPS’s current system was supposedly standards-based, and I haven’t been impressed.

The whole point of grading is to communicate with parents, and other interested parties a rough idea of what a child is learning. No system is perfect, but I think what people understand best is a traditional grading system, where grading was based on a percentage. I want work to actually be graded and not just checked for completion. I want tests without automatic retests for poor scores and finals. I don’t want to give kids a minimum of 50%, but do support the restoration of extra credit, where they can do extra work to bring their grade up, hopefully learning along the way, or even as an incentive to explore the richness of a subject.

And this is why standards based grading will never catch on, even though it better communicates exactly where students are in their learning progression.

MCPS's current system is curriculum that instructs to the standards for each course. But letter grades really have no meaning because ultimately it is teacher dependent on exactly what and how they assess mastery and how they assign grades.

+1. This and MCPS’ inability to implement things well. Though they aren’t alone in this problem as it seems to plague many school districts.