I have been waiting to write this post since August. I'll probably need to revise it at some point. I'll state my opinion at the beginning of this post. That way, if you are no longer interested, you won't end up wasting your time. (Kinyatta, stop reading now.) I think all teachers, K-12, should use standards based report cards. I feel so much better, just having typed that! My voice has been heard! That's all people really want half the time anyways, right? LOL, I digress.
Five years ago, I was on a committee that created a school district's elementary (K-6) Standards Based Report Card. It was technically a "STRANdards Based Report Card," because when read, it only listed strands, not specific standards. To me, a Standards Based Report Card is only such if ALL the standards are listed, at least core standards anyway. The report card committee that I was on lasted two years. Every time the committee met during year two, I would make one request, "Can we please list all core standards on the report card?" It never happened. I was told the document would be too long, parents wouldn't understand it, etc. This type of reasoning doesn't transfer anywhere else in the real world. For example, when I take my car to get serviced, the dealer doesn't tell me, "I just printed out parts of the report because you aren't a mechanic and you wouldn't understand it." Or, "I want to save paper, so I'm only printing out half of the report." Doctors and lawyers don't operate this way with their clients either. I think a lot of the undermining that goes on in the teaching profession is done by ourselves. We are to blame- either directly or indirectly.
The district provided a lot of informative documents for teachers about standards based reporting and education for parents as well. At one meeting, we were deciding if we should have a 3- meets standards and a 4- exceeds standards. We decided to go with the 3 and label it "meets and/or exceeds standards." I thought it was a good choice. It took me about one year to understand that I could not relate letter grades to meeting/exceeding, approaching, or below standard. In other words, a 3 does not equal an A, nor does 2 equal a C, and 1 does not equal an F. What does an "A" tell a parent or a student? In my opinion- nothing!
In a single subject, what does an A, B, C, D, or F mean or even represent? I teach soooooooo many standards that an A means nothing to me. Maybe the A represents that the student turns in his or her homework and classwork consistently. Maybe the A represents that the student tests well. I don't really know how a letter grade associated with each subject is more informative than assessing and reporting out on the specific standard. And what about the student who turns in all their homework, yet fails every type of assessment - they get a B? What have they learned? Where are they at in terms of mastering the standard? What is going on at home during homework?
Here is an example from 6th grade math: "CCSS.Math.6.NS.B.3 Fluently add, subtract, multiply, and divide multi-digit decimals using the standard algorithm for each operation." This is how I would assess the standard: I would look at data from Edusoft and Renaissance Place, as well as work done in class by the student. My definition of fluency is 85% and up. If the data shows the student does all of these operations with decimals with what I have defined as fluency, that student would get a 3. If the student adds decimals fluently, but is not able to fluently subtract, multiply or divide them, the student would get a 2, and consider the student's mastery of that standard as approaching, since the student is at least able to add decimals. If a student is not able to fluently complete any of the operations with decimals, I would give them a 1- below grade level standards. Standards are black and white. It's kind of like deciding if a number is odd or even. It is or it isn't. A student can either do the standard (3), kind of do the standard (2), or can't at all (1).
At this point you might be asking, "Where is this coming from?" To make a long story short, I switched schools. I'm back to letter grades. I miss my standards based report card, dearly.
I see the issue of standards based reporting as a glacier. As Eloise would say, at the "tippy top" of the glacier there exist the letter grades. However, I recommend traveling to the bottom of the glacier, where the glacier itself is colder and bigger than anyone could imagine. Could a high school GPA be calculated using a standards based report card? The answer is yes. What role does secondary grading have in elementary grading? I always asked myself if I was preparing students for the reality of letter grades for their transition to junior high. I don't think I was, but I was able to accurately determine their progress with mastering standards.
If anyone LOVES their letter grades, I'd LOVE to hear from you. I'm interested in your perspective. Why are people sooooooo attached to letter grades? When my last school switched from letter grades to standards, there was a lot of push back from parents, students and teachers. Why? What is the reasoning?
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