In 2024, Strategies for Instruction and Evaluation: Your Action Scheme for Implementation
In a recent webinar, sponsored by Otus, educational leaders from across the United States shared their experiences in implementing standards-based grading (SBG) in their schools. Panelists included Eddie Oakley, Kelly Ronnebeck, Jay Meadows, and Barbara Geibel, who discussed the benefits and challenges of this innovative approach to education.
Barbara Geibel, from a district in the north, revealed that last year, her district started meeting as grade levels to align their assessments and report cards with essential standards. Geibel's district used Otus to ensure accountability and consistency in aligning assessments with state standards.
Oakley's district, on the other hand, created summative assessments based on the standards and built toward them. They also built a portrait of a graduate, featuring six pieces: global citizen, lifelong learner, inspired innovator, critical thinker, responsible collaborators, effective communicators.
Kelly Ronnebeck's school started a learning process for standards-based grading, involving book studies and curriculum committees. Ronnebeck shared that SBG focuses on student learning of core content, not on engagement or student effort.
Jay Meadows, another panelist, stated that traditional grading practices don't ask students to think about 21st-century real-world problems and develop 21st-century skills. Meadows suggested that focusing on math problems beyond procedural fluency increases student engagement.
The key steps for aligning curriculum, assessments, and instruction to standards-based grading include familiarizing with academic standards and learning objectives, breaking down standards into clear, specific learning targets, developing a proficiency-based grading scale, creating rubrics that define mastery levels, aligning assessments with prioritized standards, using ongoing, multiple assessments, and planning instruction based on standards and assessments.
For effective communication with parents about learning expectations and grading policies in a school district, it is essential to provide clear and accessible explanations of grade-level expectations and grading scales at the start of the year, use a combination of report cards, progress reports, and parent-teacher conferences, share detailed information about a student’s abilities, achievements, and challenges, notify parents promptly when academic progress is unsatisfactory, provide ongoing, credible, and useful feedback linked explicitly to identified standards, and use rubrics and examples of student work.
The movement toward standards-based learning has been in motion for over 30 years. Geibel's district is starting the communication process for standards-based grading, with a focus on early grades. Ronnebeck's school uses a slow rollout approach, starting with self-contained classrooms and holding town hall meetings for communication.
Eddie Oakley pointed out that focusing on priority standards and avoiding extra credit helps educators understand where students are and what they can do. Oakley communicated with parents about the shift to standards-based grading, using letters and social media. Oakley stated that assessments and instruction should both be rigorous, with practice being harder than the game.
Meadows emphasized the importance of working backward from expectations to drive conversations in PLCs and PD. By focusing on clear, specific learning targets and aligning curriculum, assessments, and instruction with these targets, schools can foster a shared understanding and support student learning effectively.
- Barbara Geibel's district is communicating the shift to standards-based grading, focusing on early grades, as part of the movement towards standards-based learning that has been in motion for over 30 years.
- Kelly Ronnebeck's school is implementing standards-based grading using a slow rollout approach, starting with self-contained classrooms and holding town hall meetings for communication.
- Eddie Oakley, another panelist, communicates with parents about the shift to standards-based grading, using letters and social media, and emphasizes the importance of focusing on priority standards and avoiding extra credit to better understand where students are and what they can do.
- In aligning curriculum, assessments, and instruction to standards-based grading, it is crucial to work backward from expectations to drive conversations in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and Professional Development (PD), focusing on clear, specific learning targets.
- Effective communication with parents about learning expectations and grading policies in a school district involves providing clear and accessible explanations of grade-level expectations and grading scales, using a combination of report cards, progress reports, and parent-teacher conferences, sharing detailed information about a student’s abilities, achievements, and challenges, and offering ongoing, credible, and useful feedback linked explicitly to identified standards.
