Thinking About Switching to Standards-Based Grading?
When students (and their parents and caregivers) look at their grades, what do they see? Traditional grading systems combine student performance information—including proficiency, participation, and assignment completion—into a single letter, number, or percentage. That grade summarizes how a student performed throughout the quarter or school year, but does it give more information about how they can improve, grow, or succeed in the next steps of their education?
Standards-based grading (SBG) can be a clearer way to help students learn not just if they’re proficient in school but in what areas. It showcases strengths and highlights areas of improvement so that when students look at their grades, they better understand what they’ve learned and how to keep improving.
Today, we’re breaking down what standards-based grading is, comparing it to traditional grading, and, if you’re already ready to switch to SBG, giving insight into how you can implement this new system at your school or district.
What is standards-based grading?
Standards-based grading breaks subjects down into measurable learning objectives or targets and evaluates student progress and performance on those specific skills.
Rather than just averaging students’ assignment, assessment, and participation scores, standards-based grading accounts for their individual skills and knowledge mastery. This can give a clearer picture of their learning progress and put the focus on effective instruction rather than a high volume of gradable work.
Standards-based grading aligns teaching methods, lessons, activities, and assessments with specific learning objectives and standards. This makes it more transparent for teachers to see where students are succeeding and where they need more help. Standards-based grading also helps teachers differentiate instruction based on students’ proficiency levels to ensure skill mastery and engaging and meaningful instruction.
What’s the difference between standards-based grading and traditional grading?
Standards-based and traditional grading share a common goal of showing how students perform and progress in different subject areas throughout a quarter, semester, or school year. The way they achieve this goal differs in a few key areas:
Assignment and assessment alignment
Traditional quarter or final grades typically don’t reflect the individual skills or concepts students need to master. That means teachers may be less concerned with aligning all assignments and assessments with standards or objectives.
In standards-based grading, performance on the skill is the grade. That means every quiz, project, homework assignment, or in-class task should ladder up to assessing whether students are learning and mastering specific skills or standards.
Grading scale
Both standards-based and traditional grading use a numerical scale to indicate students’ proficiency. However, the types of scales and how teachers use them differ.
In traditional grading, students earn a letter grade based on an average or weighted average percentage of all their assignments and assessment scores from the quarter or semester. The percentage ranges for each letter grade may differ by school or district. For example, at one school, an “A” might range from 90% to 100%, while at a different school, the range might be 93% to 100%.
With SBG, teachers commonly use a 1-4 scale paired with mastery levels to evaluate students for each standard or skill. A typical SBG scale may look like:
1 (Little to no mastery): Students have limited or no understanding of this skill at their grade level and can’t use it independently.
2 (Limited mastery): Students have some understanding of this skill at their grade level but have trouble using it independently.
3 (Mastery): Students meet the requirements for mastering this skill at their grade level and can use it independently.
4 (Advanced mastery): Students exceed the requirements for mastering this skill at their grade level.
It’s important to know that SBG scales may differ by school or district. Some districts use 0-5 scales, add half points, or pair letters with numerical values. No matter the exact format, the concept that grades reflect mastery of skills is the foundation of any SBG system.
Graded assignments and assessments
In traditional grading, almost every assignment or assessment a student completes counts for a numerical grade. To get more grades on the book, teachers may add “did you do it” points or extra credit assignments, where students get a grade based on task completion, not the quality of their work or skills mastery.
Extra practice is never wrong, but it’s not typically the motivator behind these assignments. Instead, they’re meant to help students balance out low scores that bring down their average. In situations like these, the average doesn’t always tell the whole story.
For example, two students could finish a semester with an 80% average. On the surface, their progress and performance seem comparable. But if you dig into their individual assignments, one student may have consistently received 80% on all the work they completed throughout the quarter.
The other student may have received 100% on some assignments and 60% on others and may have completed some extra credit assignments to help make up for the low-performing scores.
With standards-based grading, teachers don’t offer extra credit or additional assignments to help students reach a sweet-spot threshold. Instead, they grade activities and tests that explicitly reflect students’ performance and standards mastery. Those grades go on the book and count toward an end-of-quarter grade.
In SBG, our first student may receive 3s across the board for all their standards throughout the quarter, showing consistent mastery in all areas. Our second student may receive 4s in some areas and 1s or 2s in others, highlighting areas of success and improvement. With this grading method, it’s easier to see that these two students aren’t as similar in progress and performance as it appeared when the teacher averaged their grades.
SBG also replaces extra credit with reassessment opportunities. Rather than just a chance to accumulate more points, reassessments allow students to demonstrate their skill growth and have their grades reflect that growth. SBG systems can inform reassessment in several ways—by taking an average or weighted average, by taking the most recent score, or in another way that reflects the growth of mastery over time.
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Emphasis on ongoing learning
With traditional grading, students may think that getting a “final grade,” whether it’s on an end-of-unit test or their report card, means they’re done learning. Of course, this is not the case. Students build their knowledge and core skills as they progress from elementary to high school and beyond because there’s always something new they can learn.
Standards-based grading demonstrates students’ progress, not just their final performance. By emphasizing a learning-based mentality rather than a points-based one, it shifts the mindset from “I have to get more points so I don’t fail” to “I have room to learn and improve.” SBG systems can even include language such as “Still working” in rubrics to promote that growth mindset in students.
Standards-based grading reorients students to the fact that learning is ongoing. Even when they master one skill, more work must be done to improve in any subject and across the curriculum.
Furthermore, SBG grades don’t just reflect a single point in time, like the end of a unit, quarter, or school year. Instead, they look at specific mastery areas and highlight areas for improvement. This may help students feel less like they’re being penalized for the process of learning. The focus isn’t on a poor number or letter grade but on certain areas that students can master with more practice.
Frequently asked questions about standards-based grading
Still want to learn more? Get answers to some frequently asked questions about SBG:
What are some challenges of standards-based grading?
As with any system change, schools and districts transitioning to standards-based grading may face challenges as they implement the new system. Some common hurdles include:
Resistance to change
Students, teachers, and even parents or caregivers could initially reject SBG because it’s new and different. Change and fear of the unknown can be unnerving. It’s often easier to go along with “the way we’ve always done it,” so there’s no discomfort, adjustment, or unlearning period. Plus, if after-school programs like sports or merit-based groups like the honor roll rely on traditional grades as a marker for entry, educators may be wary of finding other ways to decide eligibility.
To get buy-in for this kind of change, get your educators, parents, and even students involved early on. Create working groups or tasking teams to help build the new system and develop its rationale. Providing as much support as possible after you make the change for everyone affected is also helpful.
Provide professional development (PD) for teachers and give them channels to ask questions about the change. For example, you may provide a session on how to use achievement factors to grade their students. Equip them with ways to talk with students and parents about the change so they feel confident and comfortable having those conversations.
For parents and caregivers, supply school- or district-wide support through parent information sessions, handouts, explainer videos, or other materials to orient them to standards-based grading before they see their students’ first grades in the new system.
Timeline
Switching an entire school or district to a new grading system won’t happen overnight. Changing to standards-based grading requires updates to the grading edtech tools you use. Teachers may have to adjust their lessons, resources, materials, and assessments. They also have to shift their mindset of what grading looks like and be more fluid in the ways they allow students to demonstrate mastery. Finally, the training and PD component may require planning and scheduling, too.
The best way to overcome this hurdle is to pace the work and be patient. Do as much prep work as possible during the current school year to make the big switch over the summer. Continue to offer ongoing PD and parent or caregiver support throughout the school year to help with the transition. You may also need to phase the work over multiple school years.
Grading confusion
Teachers, students, and parents or caregivers used to a traditional system may get confused by a new way of grading. Seeing the number “1” on a report card may feel negative when that’s not the case. Everyone involved has to shift to a progress-to-mastery mentality. Providing additional PD and informational parent sessions can help.
Can you use standards-based grading for all grade levels?
Yes, you can use SBG for students at all grade levels. The specific standards and the depth or complexity of what they master may change by grade. The core concept of SBG, defining what mastery looks like and how to evaluate it, doesn’t change, no matter which grade level you’re assessing.
Can you use standards-based grading for any subject?
Yes, you can use standards-based grading to evaluate progress and performance in any subject area. This includes core subjects like ELA, social studies, math, and science and supplementary subjects like music, art, or physical education.
How can you get teachers to buy into standards-based grading?
It’s important to remember that standards-based grading isn’t just about changing how the grade book or report cards look. Making the switch is a pedagogical shift that requires support, conversation, and accountability as the school community shifts mindsets.
Tom Schimmer, assessment and grading expert and former district-level leader, says using the term “standards-based mindset” rather than standards-based grading helps teachers consider the entire fundamental shift rather than a cosmetic change in evaluating assignments and assessments. The mindset requires teachers and students to replace the idea of perfection with progress by documenting successes on individual standards rather than one class as a whole.
The best way to get buy-in for this new mindset is to involve teachers early. Ask them to consider what works and doesn't work with your current grading system. Use their expertise and guidance to decide how a mastery-based approach could impact the school community and work together to create a roadmap for change.
Formative helps implement standards-based grading
Switching to standards-based grading can be easy when you have the right tools to support your educators. Formative has various features that make the transition from traditional grading to standards-based grading simpler on every assessment.
Real-time feedback lets teachers give students guidance in the moment to correct misconceptions, learn from their mistakes, and document progress as they work toward standards mastery.
Question tagging allows educators to assign and align standards to each question in an activity, pairing it with learning objectives for standards mastery.
Rubrics also help set clear expectations about learning objectives and align with the standards students aim to master with each activity or assessment.
Partial credit match allows you to give students some points for close answers and highlight what they know and need more practice on within an individual concept.
The standards progress over time (SPOT) report lets administrators analyze student and teacher responses to specific standards and track progress throughout the school year.
20+ question and content types help assess students in flexible and diverse ways, providing multiple modalities for students to show mastery.
Auto-grading answer keys streamline the evaluation process when responding to assessments.
Differentiation and acceleration support, such as text-to-speech features or audio and video responses, help meet the needs of all students as they progress towards skills mastery.
Student practice sets help learners monitor their progress and work to improve their skills.
Common assessment supports at the school or district levels ensure consistent grading scales and evaluations.
Want to see what else Formative can do for you to support a standards-based grading system? Get in touch with our team today!