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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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

How could it be harder than grading all 145 students on 9-12 assessments each marking period? I have 160 students. If I could mark 100 of them as proficient or higher in one standard after two assignments, and another 40 after two more assignments, I would have much less to grade overall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Standards based grading could eliminate excessive homework and Zs for missing assignments.

Actual standards based grading doesn't focus on specific assignments going into the gradebook and somehow converting that to % or letter grades. We actually had standards based grading in elementary school for many years, and parents hated it. They couldn't handle knowing exactly how much smarter Larla was compared to Larlo, when the feedback they got was their student was meeting standard. Somehow parents think there is some meaningful difference between an A and a B, when the main difference between those grades in ES and MS is usually organizational and attentiveness to details.

I think that any skill based subject could be a great candidate for standards based grading, especially math. Ever use KhanAcademy.org? It has great granularity about math skills, grouped into strands, and organized into courses. Each skill has multiple levels from practice to mastery. And you can see how students are doing in each skill in a couple of ways. I would love for MCPS to actually shift instruction so that kids, teachers, and parents were focused on that level of standards based progress monitoring, rather than thinking completing some homework and taking quizzes and tests that may or may not be strongly aligned to the standards is really a good measure of what students know. But the real issue is that students who only partially know a concept, then get moved to the next grade level and start out behind. Over time, they fall further and further behind because they have gaps in knowledge and don't fully grasp new content.

tl;dr I would support standards based grading in ES and MS for Math and English, if we actually track the standards and not attempt to turn that into a letter grade.

MCPS still uses standards-based grading for ES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Standards based grading could eliminate excessive homework and Zs for missing assignments.

Actual standards based grading doesn't focus on specific assignments going into the gradebook and somehow converting that to % or letter grades. We actually had standards based grading in elementary school for many years, and parents hated it. They couldn't handle knowing exactly how much smarter Larla was compared to Larlo, when the feedback they got was their student was meeting standard. Somehow parents think there is some meaningful difference between an A and a B, when the main difference between those grades in ES and MS is usually organizational and attentiveness to details.

I think that any skill based subject could be a great candidate for standards based grading, especially math. Ever use KhanAcademy.org? It has great granularity about math skills, grouped into strands, and organized into courses. Each skill has multiple levels from practice to mastery. And you can see how students are doing in each skill in a couple of ways. I would love for MCPS to actually shift instruction so that kids, teachers, and parents were focused on that level of standards based progress monitoring, rather than thinking completing some homework and taking quizzes and tests that may or may not be strongly aligned to the standards is really a good measure of what students know. But the real issue is that students who only partially know a concept, then get moved to the next grade level and start out behind. Over time, they fall further and further behind because they have gaps in knowledge and don't fully grasp new content.

tl;dr I would support standards based grading in ES and MS for Math and English, if we actually track the standards and not attempt to turn that into a letter grade.

MCPS still uses standards-based grading for ES.

More info: https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/schools/elementary-schools/h-o/luxmanores/uploadedfiles/staff/grading20and20reporting20parent20information.pdf

[Anonymous]

This grading sounds anything but standard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This grading sounds anything but standard.

If you meet the standard, you get an A (2-5) or P (K-2). That is different from secomdary schppl, wher e meeting the standard is not supposed to be enough to get an A.

[Anonymous]

Isn’t that the grading system used in Baltimore schools. That appears to have worked out well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This grading sounds anything but standard.

If you meet the standard, you get an A (2-5) or P (K-2). That is different from secomdary schppl, wher e meeting the standard is not supposed to be enough to get an A.

Do you have kids in MCPS? Almost everyone gets A's for everything.

[Anonymous]

Standard or Skills Based Grading. The latest educational fad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This grading sounds anything but standard.

If you meet the standard, you get an A (2-5) or P (K-2). That is different from secomdary schppl, wher e meeting the standard is not supposed to be enough to get an A.

Do you have kids in MCPS? Almost everyone gets A's for everything.

That's why I said supposed.

That said, I defimitely kmow kids who are below grade level in ES and get Bs and Cs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Standard or Skills Based Grading. The latest educational fad.

It’s mentioned in federal legislation in 1994, Grandpa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Standard or Skills Based Grading. The latest educational fad.

It’s mentioned in federal legislation in 1994, Grandpa.

Trends usually return after 20-30 years. Still hoping tracking will make a comeback because this honors for all cr4p just doesn't work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This grading sounds anything but standard.

If you meet the standard, you get an A (2-5) or P (K-2). That is different from secomdary schppl, wher e meeting the standard is not supposed to be enough to get an A.

Do you have kids in MCPS? Almost everyone gets A's for everything.

They definitely DO NOT, especially IEP kids, which at my ES makes up about 1/4 of the class

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This grading sounds anything but standard.

If you meet the standard, you get an A (2-5) or P (K-2). That is different from secomdary schppl, wher e meeting the standard is not supposed to be enough to get an A.

Do you have kids in MCPS? Almost everyone gets A's for everything.

They definitely DO NOT, especially IEP kids, which at my ES makes up about 1/4 of the class

At our school any teacher who doesn't get A's gets persecuted as being too hard and crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Standards based grading could eliminate excessive homework and Zs for missing assignments.

Isnt this a K-8 phenomenon? Not k-12

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This grading sounds anything but standard.

If you meet the standard, you get an A (2-5) or P (K-2). That is different from secomdary schppl, wher e meeting the standard is not supposed to be enough to get an A.

Do you have kids in MCPS? Almost everyone gets A's for everything.

They definitely DO NOT, especially IEP kids, which at my ES makes up about 1/4 of the class

At our school any teacher who doesn't get A's gets persecuted as being too hard and crazy.

That is definitely not the case at our ES.