Standards-based Grading Research Articles

Taking on a New Grading System: The Interconnected Effects of Standards-Based Grading on Teaching, Learning, Assessment, and Student Behavior

This study explored high school teachers’ perceptions of the effects of standards-based grading (SBG) on planning, instruction, assessment, classroom management, and student behaviors. Findings indicated that despite some infidelity and an initial implementation dip, systemic (SBG) changes made teaching clearer, more purposeful, and more conducive to student needs while enhancing student growth mind-set and ownership. The researchers concluded SBG is a viable reform because it makes teaching and learning more focused, effective, and enjoyable. Findings also led to several recommendations for administrators and teachers.

Standards-based Grading in an Introduction to Abstract Mathematics Course

Standards-based grading, in which grading should be designed to communicate to students their current level of mastery with regards to well-articulated standards, is becoming popular at the K-12 level. As yet, the literature addressing standards-based grading at the university level is scarce. In this paper, I document my attempts to put into practice the principles of standards-based grading in a lower-level undergraduate mathematics course that aims to introduce mathematical proof and the basic definitions of sets, logic, and functions.

The grading gradient: Teacher motivations for varied redo and retake policies

Standards-based grading has emerged as a leading progressive mode of classroom assessment. Although standards-based grading has several core components, there is appreciable anecdotal evidence that one component is being frequently implemented in the absence of the others. Namely, by allowing students to redo and revise work without regard to deadlines, some teachers are assessing what students know at the end of the course rather than at pre-specified intervals. Here, we surveyed 429 secondary teachers to quantitatively assess their grading practices and evaluate their connection to standards-based grading. Whether teachers allow redo’s/retakes was affected by school policies, teacher content area, and what the teacher’s personal beliefs were about the importance of deadlines and student ownership of learning and accountability. Additionally, our findings suggest that there is a disconnect between best practices in grading and teacher beliefs. Teachers displayed confusion regarding whether or not their schools had implemented standards-based grading policies.

"Why did I get a C?": Communicating Student Performance Using Standards-Based Grading

"Why did I get a C?": Communicating Student Performance Using Standards-Based Grading

Faculty perception before, during and after implementation of standards-based grading

ABSTRACTAn effective transition to a new grading system requires a process of reflecting on experiences to understand and reframe perceptions of grading. Standards-based grading (SBG), an alternative to the traditional, summative score-based grading, was introduced to higher education engineering faculty either through a workshop or as a direct participant in a larger research project. These faculty were surveyed to better understand the perceptions faculty hold before, during and after implementation of SBG. Perceived student gains, barriers and best practices were solicited using an open-ended survey of faculty who had attended the workshop on SBG, were preparing to implement SBG, had implemented SBG for the first time or had implemented SBG multiple times. Themes among the different groups emerged, providing insights into faculty perceptions at different phases of SBG implementation. The study also demonstrated the necessity of faculty support structures to establish an environment favourable for widespread grading reformation.

Emphasizing Learning: Using Standards-Based Grading in a Large Nonmajors’ General Chemistry Survey Course

Many students associate grades with the completion of course work rather than learning the course content. While research has heavily focused on teaching strategies and instructional tools to improve students’ learning in general chemistry, less focus has been given to assessments as a learning tool to improve students learning. Standards-based grading (SBG) is a nontraditional assessment method that explicitly connects the learning course objectives with assessments and student grades. Provided with more than one opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of course objectives, students are evaluated on their level of achievement of these objectives. This article describes the implementation, outcomes, and challenges of SBG in a large enrollment nonmajors’ general chemistry course. Evidence is presented regarding the use of SBG in chemistry from the evaluation of two semesters of students’ assessment scores and a student opinion survey. Students appeared to use the structure of the SBG to pass the course ...

Student self-reported use of standards-based grading resources and feedback

ABSTRACTStandards-based grading (SBG) tightly links student assessment to course learning objectives, providing students with meaningful feedback. A well-designed SBG system should ease first-year engineering (FYE) students’ transition to tertiary education by setting clear expectations and enabling self-monitoring of learning progress. However, when students fail to access and use resources and feedback to guide their learning, the effort to construct an SBG system is not commensurate with the student learning benefits. FYE students in a course using SBG self-reported their access to and use of SBG resources and feedback to guide their work on assignments and prepare for exams. Access and use was low at the start or the semester but improved mid-semester around exam time. In a subsequent semester, strategies were employed to increase students’ engagement with the SBG system. Students’ access and use was significantly higher in the beginning of the semester. Insights on students’ engagement related to course management decisions are offered.

Standards-Based Grading: an Examination of Assessment Options

Standards-Based Grading: an Examination of Assessment Options

A Learner-Centered Grading Method Focused on Reaching Proficiency with Course Learning Outcomes

Getting students to use grading feedback as a tool for learning is a continual challenge for educators. This work proposes a method for evaluating student performance that provides feedback to students based on standards of learning dictated by clearly delineated course learning outcomes. This method combines elements of standards-based grading into a framework that uses Marzano’s Taxonomy of Learning to guide the writing of clearly defined and scaffolded learning outcomes. By means of this methodology, students are equipped with increased levels of information obtained from assessments, both formative and summative. Students and faculty alike can more accurately diagnose strengths and weaknesses in learning down to the level of the concept(s). Early observations from a first-semester general chemistry course suggest that setting transparent standards for grading can serve as a valuable learning tool for students to allow them to focus on content proficiency rather than grades alone.

Questioning Points and Percentages: Standards-Based Grading (SBG) in Higher Education

ABSTRACTDespite its growing use at the K–12 level, standards-based grading (alignment of grading to course standards) has been comparatively neglected in higher education. College students are often confronted with grading practices that reflect subjective, non-standardized formats incorporating a blend of academic and non-academic components. This case study examined student attitudes and experiences regarding standards-based grading (SBG) principles introduced in an educational technology course in a medium-sized, Midwestern university. The authors found that, while students were initially anxious about the paradigm shift and the additional work it would entail, they nevertheless viewed the model as clearer and more fair. As the study progressed, students reported moving beyond “playing the game” of earning points for a grade and actually engaging more substantively with course content. Based on regular formative feedback, students began to take more ownership of their learning. Ultimately, most participants found SBG more beneficial and defensible—and reflective of their knowledge—than traditional grading practices. To supplement these findings, the authors offer some implementation ideas to assist instructors who may want to begin using SBG in their courses, including reflecting on and clarifying their purpose for grading, ensuring that their grades have meaning (by communicating information that is accurate, meaningful, and relevant to student success), and allowing students multiple chances to demonstrate learning (if the purpose of grading and assessment is to encourage and report mastery).

Standards-Based Grading in a Thermodynamics Course

Standards based grading is a formal assessment mechanism that tests for student achievement of specified learning objectives, or standards. Standards-Based-Grading has been gaining in popularity in K-12 education, and also has been seeing increased use in higher education, though it has only recently been used in engineering education. This paper describes how Standards-Based Grading was implemented in a second-semester Thermodynamics course. A total of eleven learning objectives were specified for the course. In this implementation of Standards-Based Grading, all assessments are done on a pass-fail basis. That is to say, there is no partial credit given. Once a student passes an assessment, usually given in the form of a quiz, on a given learning objective, it is assumed the student has mastered that concept and is not tested on it again. Students are allowed to re-test on particular objectives if they do not pass them on the first try. The final exam serves as a last chance for students to pass any objectives they did not complete earlier in the semester. The learning objectives can be mapped to student outcomes such as those required for accreditation without having to generate a separate set of data outside the normal course grading.

Grading for Understanding – Standards-Based Grading

Standards-based grading (SBG), sometimes called learning objectives-based assessment (LOBA), is an assessment model that relies on students demonstrating mastery of learning objectives (sometimes referred to as standards). The goal of this grading system is to focus students on mastering learning objectives rather than on accumulating points. I have used SBG in an introductory physics course for the past five years and worked with several physics faculty members to implement SBG in the first and second semester of algebra-based and calculus-based introductory physics courses at a primarily undergraduate comprehensive public university with class sizes of 48 students. In this article I will discuss methods for implementing SBG in a physics class.

Making grades more meaningful

However, compared to traditional grading, standards-based grading practices demonstrated stronger correlations between grades and standardized test scores, including among minority and economically disadvantaged students. In addition, students who experienced standards-based grading more often earned an A or B and scored higher on the standardized state test. Although we discovered statistical benefits to standards-based grading practices, we wondered how these differences translated into real students, grades, and test results.

Vocal and Vehement: Understanding Parents’ Aversion to Standards-Based Grading

The implementation of a standards based grading (SBG) system has proven to be difficult even in school districts that tend to be progressive in their educational approaches. Parents are often resistant to the change in grading systems and seem to be a significant barrier to a school’s move to SBG. Researchers in this qualitative study went directly to the parents who most vocally and vehemently opposed the new assessment system and sought to understand their perceptions. Data from these interviews produced five themes: Confidence in the known, dislike for the unknown; poor communication leading to disappointment; confusion from lack of clarity; and frustration due to perceived outcomes. Data from this study indicate that school leaders ought to consider reframing grading reform and better align it with Dweck’s growth-mindset model and create a process that is less about enticing students with the currency of grades and more about helping students’ learning dispositions that would enable success in college and career. Further, in addition to vigilant communication, school leaders need to plan high quality professional development to clarify and refine the purpose of grading and align practices with that purpose.

A Century of Grading Research

Grading refers to the symbols assigned to individual pieces of student work or to composite measures of student performance on report cards. This review of over 100 years of research on grading considers five types of studies: (a) early studies of the reliability of grades, (b) quantitative studies of the composition of K–12 report card grades, (c) survey and interview studies of teachers’ perceptions of grades, (d) studies of standards-based grading, and (e) grading in higher education. Early 20th-century studies generally condemned teachers’ grades as unreliable. More recent studies of the relationships of grades to tested achievement and survey studies of teachers’ grading practices and beliefs suggest that grades assess a multidimensional construct containing both cognitive and noncognitive factors reflecting what teachers value in student work. Implications for future research and for grading practices are discussed.

Models for early prediction of at-risk students in a course using standards-based grading

Using predictive modeling methods, it is possible to identify at-risk students early and inform both the instructors and the students. While some universities have started to use standards-based grading, which has educational advantages over common score-based grading, at–risk prediction models have not been adapted to reap the benefits of standards-based grading in courses that utilize this grading. In this paper, we compare predictive methods to identify at-risk students in a course that used standards-based grading. Only in-semester performance data that were available to the course instructors were used in the prediction methods. When identifying at-risk students, it is important to minimize false negative (i.e., type II) error while not increasing false positive (i.e., type I) error significantly. To increase the generalizability of the models and accuracy of the predictions, we used a feature selection method to reduce the number of variables used in each model. The Naive Bayes Classifier model and an Ensemble model using a sequence of models (i.e., Support Vector Machine, K-Nearest Neighbors, and Naive Bayes Classifier) had the best results among the seven tested modeling methods.

Standards-Based Grading Practices Among Practicing Music Educators

This study sought to describe the prevalence of Standards-based grading (SBG) among practicing music teachers and report the rationale teachers provided for or against its use. Participants were music educators ( N = 96) responsible for grading students. Most participants (52.08%, n = 50) indicated that they were not familiar with SBG. Many participants (46.86%, n = 45) reported familiarity and reported using SBG completely or partially in practice. These participants provided definitions of SBG to validate their self-reports. Definitions were scored using a 4-point rubric. Some of the participants ( n = 7) who said they were using SBG in their teaching provided definitions demonstrating no understanding of SBG. Therefore, these results indicate that 39.58% ( n = 38) of the total participants ( N = 96) were using SBG. Overwhelmingly, when asked to provide the reason(s) why they did not use SBG, teachers described lack of knowledge about SBG as the reason. The most prevalent rationale the teachers gave for using SBG was that teachers were required to do so.

The Association between Standards-Based Grading and Standardized Test Scores as an Element of a High School Reform Model

Background/ContextFrom two decades of research on the grading practices of teachers in secondary schools, researchers discovered that teachers evaluated students on numerous factors that do not validly assess a student's achievement level in a specific content area. These consistent findings suggested that traditional grading practices evolved to meet the variety of educational stakeholder expectations for schools, teachers, and students.Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of StudyThe purpose of this study was to examine the role of standards-based grading in a high school reform by assessing the relationships between differing grading approaches and standardized test achievement.SettingThe study examined student performance from 11 high schools operating in a large metropolitan school district.Population/Participants/SubjectsThe sample of students included two cohorts of 1,163 and 1,256 11th grade students who completed an Algebra 2 course and the state standardized test.Intervention/Program/PracticeEach of the high schools implemented a locally designed reform known as Project Proficiency. A key component of the reform included utilizing standards-based grading to assess student proficiency of the content.Research DesignThis study utilized a non-equivalent control group design and quantitative analyses to compare the association between classroom grades and standardized test scores.Data Collection and AnalysisThe data for the study included the students’ final grades, standardized test scores, and basic demographic information.Findings/ResultsResults indicated that the rate of students earning an A or B in a course and passing the state test approximately doubled when utilizing standards-based grading practices. In addition, results indicated that standards-based grading practices identified more predictive and valid assessment of at-risk students’ attainment of subject knowledge.Conclusions/RecommendationsThe article demonstrates the benefits of using standards-based grading in reforms attempting to improve the academic performance of secondary schools, but also notes how restriction of grades to mastery of standards will challenge educators’ perception of their abilities and students’ efforts. The article also notes the methodological limitations of prior grading research and suggests the need for more robust studies assessing grading practices, student achievement, and school performance.

Standards-based assessment and reporting in introductory acoustics courses

Standards-based assessment and reporting (SBAR), also referred to as standards-based grading and other names, is a system for tracking student learning in a course and assigning a grade. SBAR replaces traditional grading systems by eschewing points-based assignments and evaluations. Instead, students are assessed over specific learning objectives called standards. SBAR has several advantages including: emphasis on topic mastery, development of intrinsic motivation for learning, and simplifying the grading process. I have implemented SBAR in an introductory acoustics course for music technology, sonography, and general education students. In order to change from a traditional grading system to SBAR several steps were taken. Standards were developed, assessments were written, and course policies were drafted. I will discuss the system as implemented, some of the challenges faced, and suggest ways in which the acoustics education community might provide support for others wanting to implement SBAR in their courses.

Standards-based grading and reporting will improve education

Grading and reporting are foundational elements in nearly every educational system. Grading represents teachers’ evaluations, formative or summative, of students’ performance. Reporting is how the results of those evaluations are communicated to students, parents, or others. Because of their fundamental nature, educators must ensure that grading and reporting always meet the criteria for validity and reliability. And because of their primary communication purpose, educators must also ensure that grading and reporting are meaningful, accurate, and fair.