APS - Standards Based Grading

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually prefer standards-based grading because it gives more targeted information and feedback. Our current school does traditional letter grades and our former school did standards-based.

What I’ve read is that most SBG policies have “exceeds expectations,” but not APS. And all the comments at our school are largely a copy and paste job. I’d be fine w SBG if it had exceed expectations but middle school should have traditional A, B, C, D, F.

APS middle schools do have traditional letter grades.

Gunston has SBG and the idea is to roll it out to other schools.

Gunston report cards have letter grades

Gunston has letter grades but those translate the SBG into letter grades and the school uses SBG techniques/policies related to things like retests. They consider a "meets" to be an A. The school is incredibly focused on equity. The principal has said it is her top priority and she is a big public supporter of SBC.

How is a "meets" an A? C is supposed to be the average grade, although I know it's used much less now. But, A is supposed to be for above average work, in theory.

PP here. There is nothing above a "meets" so how can it not be an A?

Luckily my kids can divide so they know whether they really got an A on a test/quiz. For now they still have high standards (they want to get a true A - 95% of above) but I do worry the school could make them lower their standards over time. But they are in the bilingual program so I am reluctant to leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually prefer standards-based grading because it gives more targeted information and feedback. Our current school does traditional letter grades and our former school did standards-based.

What I’ve read is that most SBG policies have “exceeds expectations,” but not APS. And all the comments at our school are largely a copy and paste job. I’d be fine w SBG if it had exceed expectations but middle school should have traditional A, B, C, D, F.

APS middle schools do have traditional letter grades.

Gunston has SBG and the idea is to roll it out to other schools.

Gunston report cards have letter grades

Gunston has letter grades but those translate the SBG into letter grades and the school uses SBG techniques/policies related to things like retests. They consider a "meets" to be an A. The school is incredibly focused on equity. The principal has said it is her top priority and she is a big public supporter of SBC.

How is a "meets" an A? C is supposed to be the average grade, although I know it's used much less now. But, A is supposed to be for above average work, in theory.

PP here. There is nothing above a "meets" so how can it not be an A?

Luckily my kids can divide so they know whether they really got an A on a test/quiz. For now they still have high standards (they want to get a true A - 95% of above) but I do worry the school could make them lower their standards over time. But they are in the bilingual program so I am reluctant to leave.

That's a strange system then. Meets should be what you expect all kids to do, so calibrated to a C. Then a kid who exceeds get a B or A, falls short gets a D or F. This system is basically saying C, B, and A all get A. Nuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually prefer standards-based grading because it gives more targeted information and feedback. Our current school does traditional letter grades and our former school did standards-based.

What I’ve read is that most SBG policies have “exceeds expectations,” but not APS. And all the comments at our school are largely a copy and paste job. I’d be fine w SBG if it had exceed expectations but middle school should have traditional A, B, C, D, F.

APS middle schools do have traditional letter grades.

Gunston has SBG and the idea is to roll it out to other schools.

Gunston report cards have letter grades

Gunston has letter grades but those translate the SBG into letter grades and the school uses SBG techniques/policies related to things like retests. They consider a "meets" to be an A. The school is incredibly focused on equity. The principal has said it is her top priority and she is a big public supporter of SBC.

Oh sweet baby Jesus. What does this translate to at gunston? What does equity mean to this principal and how is the school focused on equity? Equity is perfectly fine idea but the way we keep seeing APS implement it (like SBG) seems to undermine all access to opportunity rather than ensuring all
Kids get what they need to access it. Like APS looked at that picture of people looking over a fence and rather than saying “hey the little kid needs a box” decided to break the kneecaps of the adult. Look equity!

LOL it’s so true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s a lot of stupid in this system but why is the highest level “meets standard”???? There is nothing higher? Why does APS hate achievement?

There used to be exceeds expectations, but the requirement is that the teacher had to show that the child consistently exceeded which was nearly impossible to do.

"Exceeds expectations" can be squirrelly. Is it exceeding the expectations for the grade level standard or exceeding the expectations that the teacher has for the student. If the latter, there is no consistency in application.

Better to say "exceeds standards".

Better to just do letter grades so everyone gets what it means!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually prefer standards-based grading because it gives more targeted information and feedback. Our current school does traditional letter grades and our former school did standards-based.

What I’ve read is that most SBG policies have “exceeds expectations,” but not APS. And all the comments at our school are largely a copy and paste job. I’d be fine w SBG if it had exceed expectations but middle school should have traditional A, B, C, D, F.

APS middle schools do have traditional letter grades.

Gunston has SBG and the idea is to roll it out to other schools.

Gunston report cards have letter grades

Gunston has letter grades but those translate the SBG into letter grades and the school uses SBG techniques/policies related to things like retests. They consider a "meets" to be an A. The school is incredibly focused on equity. The principal has said it is her top priority and she is a big public supporter of SBC.

How is a "meets" an A? C is supposed to be the average grade, although I know it's used much less now. But, A is supposed to be for above average work, in theory.

PP here. There is nothing above a "meets" so how can it not be an A?

Luckily my kids can divide so they know whether they really got an A on a test/quiz. For now they still have high standards (they want to get a true A - 95% of above) but I do worry the school could make them lower their standards over time. But they are in the bilingual program so I am reluctant to leave.

That's a strange system then. Meets should be what you expect all kids to do, so calibrated to a C. Then a kid who exceeds get a B or A, falls short gets a D or F. This system is basically saying C, B, and A all get A. Nuts.

I’m a way it’s just being transparent about grade inflation. Let’s hope SBG gets reversed!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s a lot of stupid in this system but why is the highest level “meets standard”???? There is nothing higher? Why does APS hate achievement?

There used to be exceeds expectations, but the requirement is that the teacher had to show that the child consistently exceeded which was nearly impossible to do.

"Exceeds expectations" can be squirrelly. Is it exceeding the expectations for the grade level standard or exceeding the expectations that the teacher has for the student. If the latter, there is no consistency in application.

Better to say "exceeds standards".

Better to just do letter grades so everyone gets what it means!

PP. Yes, even better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually prefer standards-based grading because it gives more targeted information and feedback. Our current school does traditional letter grades and our former school did standards-based.

What I’ve read is that most SBG policies have “exceeds expectations,” but not APS. And all the comments at our school are largely a copy and paste job. I’d be fine w SBG if it had exceed expectations but middle school should have traditional A, B, C, D, F.

APS middle schools do have traditional letter grades.

Gunston has SBG and the idea is to roll it out to other schools.

Gunston report cards have letter grades

Gunston has letter grades but those translate the SBG into letter grades and the school uses SBG techniques/policies related to things like retests. They consider a "meets" to be an A. The school is incredibly focused on equity. The principal has said it is her top priority and she is a big public supporter of SBC.

Oh sweet baby Jesus. What does this translate to at gunston? What does equity mean to this principal and how is the school focused on equity? Equity is perfectly fine idea but the way we keep seeing APS implement it (like SBG) seems to undermine all access to opportunity rather than ensuring all
Kids get what they need to access it. Like APS looked at that picture of people looking over a fence and rather than saying “hey the little kid needs a box” decided to break the kneecaps of the adult. Look equity!

On the spot! This is an example of the district rolling out a policy without actually training teachers and administrators how to use it, and rolling it out across the board rather than targeting the populations where it makes most sense and seeing how it goes (ES, where kids haven’t been getting letter grades until 4/5 anyway). The SBG report card does provide more information, if done correctly, than a letter-based report card for these early years.

This isn’t what SBG is supposed to be or look like. The Gunston principal is failing kids upwards, rather than doing what would be equitable, which is identifying learning gaps/weaknesses and addressing them ASAP. HS will be a disaster for these kids, and parent will be blindsided because they think all is well with their “A student.” Nope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s a lot of stupid in this system but why is the highest level “meets standard”???? There is nothing higher? Why does APS hate achievement?

There used to be exceeds expectations, but the requirement is that the teacher had to show that the child consistently exceeded which was nearly impossible to do.

"Exceeds expectations" can be squirrelly. Is it exceeding the expectations for the grade level standard or exceeding the expectations that the teacher has for the student. If the latter, there is no consistency in application.

Better to say "exceeds standards".

For the grade levels standard. How the student is doing relative to himself goes in the comments.

[Anonymous]

APS makes a big deal out of saying that they'll "meet kids where they are." How can they do that if they only measure up to the minimum standard?

Meeting grade level standard is the minimum expected by VA state. This means that for the half or two third of APS students who are ahead of grade level in one or more subjects, the school and parents have zero information about whether those students are learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually prefer standards-based grading because it gives more targeted information and feedback. Our current school does traditional letter grades and our former school did standards-based.

What I’ve read is that most SBG policies have “exceeds expectations,” but not APS. And all the comments at our school are largely a copy and paste job. I’d be fine w SBG if it had exceed expectations but middle school should have traditional A, B, C, D, F.

APS middle schools do have traditional letter grades.

Gunston has SBG and the idea is to roll it out to other schools.

Gunston report cards have letter grades

Gunston has letter grades but those translate the SBG into letter grades and the school uses SBG techniques/policies related to things like retests. They consider a "meets" to be an A. The school is incredibly focused on equity. The principal has said it is her top priority and she is a big public supporter of SBC.

How is a "meets" an A? C is supposed to be the average grade, although I know it's used much less now. But, A is supposed to be for above average work, in theory.

PP here. There is nothing above a "meets" so how can it not be an A?

Luckily my kids can divide so they know whether they really got an A on a test/quiz. For now they still have high standards (they want to get a true A - 95% of above) but I do worry the school could make them lower their standards over time. But they are in the bilingual program so I am reluctant to leave.

How does this work exactly? When your child takes a test, what feedback/assessment do they get on it? Do they get a number score (i.e. 8 out of 10) which a student/parent can mentally convert to a 100 point scale, or is each test graded with SBG for multiple standards, capped at meets expectations?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually prefer standards-based grading because it gives more targeted information and feedback. Our current school does traditional letter grades and our former school did standards-based.

What I’ve read is that most SBG policies have “exceeds expectations,” but not APS. And all the comments at our school are largely a copy and paste job. I’d be fine w SBG if it had exceed expectations but middle school should have traditional A, B, C, D, F.

APS middle schools do have traditional letter grades.

Gunston has SBG and the idea is to roll it out to other schools.

Gunston report cards have letter grades

Gunston has letter grades but those translate the SBG into letter grades and the school uses SBG techniques/policies related to things like retests. They consider a "meets" to be an A. The school is incredibly focused on equity. The principal has said it is her top priority and she is a big public supporter of SBC.

How is a "meets" an A? C is supposed to be the average grade, although I know it's used much less now. But, A is supposed to be for above average work, in theory.

PP here. There is nothing above a "meets" so how can it not be an A?

Luckily my kids can divide so they know whether they really got an A on a test/quiz. For now they still have high standards (they want to get a true A - 95% of above) but I do worry the school could make them lower their standards over time. But they are in the bilingual program so I am reluctant to leave.

Your kid can get 8/10 and meet a standard, but we know thats an 80% borderline C. Kids get to middle school with Bs/Cs and parents freak b/c they were doing "so well" in elementary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually prefer standards-based grading because it gives more targeted information and feedback. Our current school does traditional letter grades and our former school did standards-based.

What I’ve read is that most SBG policies have “exceeds expectations,” but not APS. And all the comments at our school are largely a copy and paste job. I’d be fine w SBG if it had exceed expectations but middle school should have traditional A, B, C, D, F.

APS middle schools do have traditional letter grades.

Gunston has SBG and the idea is to roll it out to other schools.

Gunston report cards have letter grades

Gunston has letter grades but those translate the SBG into letter grades and the school uses SBG techniques/policies related to things like retests. They consider a "meets" to be an A. The school is incredibly focused on equity. The principal has said it is her top priority and she is a big public supporter of SBC.

How is a "meets" an A? C is supposed to be the average grade, although I know it's used much less now. But, A is supposed to be for above average work, in theory.

PP here. There is nothing above a "meets" so how can it not be an A?

Luckily my kids can divide so they know whether they really got an A on a test/quiz. For now they still have high standards (they want to get a true A - 95% of above) but I do worry the school could make them lower their standards over time. But they are in the bilingual program so I am reluctant to leave.

Your kid can get 8/10 and meet a standard, but we know thats an 80% borderline C. Kids get to middle school with Bs/Cs and parents freak b/c they were doing "so well" in elementary.

Thanks. How does it work for middle school? What do middle school kids see handed back to them on their test if their school uses SBG like Gunston? Do they see & know that they got 8 out of 10? Also, how does ParentVue Gradebook handle it? By default, Gradebook shows the 8 out of 10 scoring approach for secondary grades, which it converts to a letter grade. Does this still happen at SBG middle schools or do they change Gradebook's default presentation in SBG schools to avoid letter grades/numeric scoring?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually prefer standards-based grading because it gives more targeted information and feedback. Our current school does traditional letter grades and our former school did standards-based.

What I’ve read is that most SBG policies have “exceeds expectations,” but not APS. And all the comments at our school are largely a copy and paste job. I’d be fine w SBG if it had exceed expectations but middle school should have traditional A, B, C, D, F.

APS middle schools do have traditional letter grades.

Gunston has SBG and the idea is to roll it out to other schools.

Gunston report cards have letter grades

Gunston has letter grades but those translate the SBG into letter grades and the school uses SBG techniques/policies related to things like retests. They consider a "meets" to be an A. The school is incredibly focused on equity. The principal has said it is her top priority and she is a big public supporter of SBC.

How is a "meets" an A? C is supposed to be the average grade, although I know it's used much less now. But, A is supposed to be for above average work, in theory.

PP here. There is nothing above a "meets" so how can it not be an A?

Luckily my kids can divide so they know whether they really got an A on a test/quiz. For now they still have high standards (they want to get a true A - 95% of above) but I do worry the school could make them lower their standards over time. But they are in the bilingual program so I am reluctant to leave.

Your kid can get 8/10 and meet a standard, but we know thats an 80% borderline C. Kids get to middle school with Bs/Cs and parents freak b/c they were doing "so well" in elementary.

What about 7/10? Does that meet standards too? What is the cut-off for meets standard?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know if this will be rolling out at different schools Next year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually prefer standards-based grading because it gives more targeted information and feedback. Our current school does traditional letter grades and our former school did standards-based.

What I’ve read is that most SBG policies have “exceeds expectations,” but not APS. And all the comments at our school are largely a copy and paste job. I’d be fine w SBG if it had exceed expectations but middle school should have traditional A, B, C, D, F.

APS middle schools do have traditional letter grades.

Gunston has SBG and the idea is to roll it out to other schools.

Gunston report cards have letter grades

The APS version of SBG is providing no quantitative feedback during the quarter and then producing a grade at the end of the marking period. And no deadlines, so teachers have to take endless late work and write as many tests as students want for remakes.

I would probably be considered an "equity warrior on AEM," but this is garbage

That dig at the AEM equity warriors was totally unfounded and uninformed. I'm pro equity and I hate SBG. It hides the failures, so APS doesn't have to do anything about them.