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Grading to Standards

Bill Connolly – Director for Curriculum & Instruction George Hatziandreou – Supervisor of Mathematics

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GOAL

To provide you with a better understanding of standards based grading.

Why we needed a change?

School in need of improvement

Consistent struggles with math

Lack of consistency among teachers

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Questions we asked ourselves Are we happy with our current

grading practices? (audience/purpose)

Are our grades a good indicator of

student knowledge?

Communicate the achievement status of students to their parents and others

Provide information to students for self-evaluation

Select, identify, or group students for educational programs

Document students’ performance to evaluate the effectiveness of instructional programs

Provide incentives for students to learn

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Purposes of Grading (Guskey)

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Commonly Graded Items Tests Quizzes Reports or projects Portfolios Notebooks or journals Oral presentations Homework completion Homework quality

Class participation Work habits and

neatness Effort Attendance Punctuality of

assignments Behavior and attitude

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Some of the things we tried… New book Revised curriculum Changed assessments Lesson planning - GANAG Sent people to workshops Changed instructional delivery Differentiated instruction Added technology

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Beginning the Process Brought in Jane Pollock The Big Four A well articulated curriculum Planning for delivery Varied assessment (summative vs. formative) Criterion based feedback

Unpack Common Core or state standards to develop a set of “local standards”.

Organize the “local standards” into topics or units. Create a common set of assessments following UbD

that measure depth of knowledge Design a rubric for scoring each assessment to the

“local standards”. Score and use assessments to guide instruction and

learning.

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Creating a Standards-Based System

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Standards Based Courses Phase 1: 2009-2010 and 2010-2011

5 out of 20 teachers Algebra I Geometry Algebra II Honors Pre-Calculus

12 out of 20 teachers Algebra IA Algebra IB

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Standards Based Courses Phase 2: 2013-2014 and 2014-2015

22 out of 23 teachers Honors Algebra I Pre-Calculus Managing Your Personal Finance Foundations of College Math

23 out of 23 teachers Honors Algebra II Honors Geometry Statistics

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The Typical Gradebook Advanced – 100% Proficient – 93% Basic – 85% Not Proficient – 0%

Reassessed to Basic – 77%

Local standards – 90% of grade All other work – 10% of grade

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Creating Assessments Choose a topic

Create a goal for that topic

Think of a way to assess that goal

that will accurately depict the student’s level of knowledge

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Assessment Process Standard Check - primary feedback

Test – broken down and scored by individual standards

Reassessment – required on items where basic

proficiency was not demonstrated on the test

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Changes We’ve Seen

Raised curricular expectations Higher quality responses Personal responsibility Student success Classroom behavior Students learned more…

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Geometry Grades

Year MP Avg. Exam Avg. Difference

2007-2008 traditional

83 68 -15

2008-2009 traditional

84 69 -15

2009-2010 standards

83 86 +3

2010-2011 standards

84 87 +3

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Final Exam Results

Grade Traditional Grading Grading to Standards

93-100 37% 44% 85-92 15% 23% 77-84 15% 19% 70-76 7% 7% 60-69 10% 3%

below 60 17% 4%

Algebra I EOC

Median Scaled Score By Standard

Conc. II Alg. IB Alg. I Hrs. School State % achieving

mastery

Operations on Numbers and Expressions 19 - 20 25 25 - 28 33 - 33 25 - 28 27 - 28 22 - 30

Linear Relationships 19 - 22 27 26 - 27 31 - 35 24 - 27 26 - 27 26 - 33

Non-linear Relationships 21 - 21 27 25 - 27 30 - 34 25 - 27 28 - 27 27 - 38

Data, Statistics, and Probability 22 - 23 23 25 - 25 29 - 30 25 - 25 25 - 28 14 - 30

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Student Feedback

End of Course Student Survey

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Choices % of Total

Math is great for me! 12.2%

I usually do well in math. 24.3%

I do okay. 33.3%

I have to work hard to do well. 15.1%

I have trouble doing well. 15.1%

• What have your experiences in previous math classes been like?

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• How has this class compared to other math classes you have taken?

Choices % of Total % of Lower Skilled

Much better! 54.6% 60%

Somewhat better 33.3% 40%

About the same 9.1% 0%

A little worse 3% 0%

Just awful 0% 0%

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• Do you feel this method of assessment helped you to learn the skills better than you would have under a more conventional grading method?

Choices % of Total % of Lower Skilled

Much better 69.7% 70%

Somewhat helpful 30.3% 30%

No difference 0% 0%

I learned less 0% 0%

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Resources and Contacts Improving Student Learning, One Teacher at a Time; Jane

Pollock Improving Student Learning, One Principal at at Time; Jane

Pollock Feedback, the Hinge that Joins Teaching & Learning; Jane

Pollock Understanding by Design; Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe Becoming A Great High School;Tim Westerberg Developing Standards-Based Report Cards;Thomas Guskey

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HSPA Advanced Proficient

We typically have 16% of juniors in Honors Pre-Calculus

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Math 84/574 93/539 125/542 110/463 125/437 123/389

RV 14.6% 17.3% 23.1% 23.8% 28.6% 31.6%

State 23.4% 23% 24% 25.3% 27.5% 29.1%

Honors Adjustments Teacher initiated changes: 1. Most Standard checks are now being assigned as homework so as to not take up class time yet still providing students feedback as to their progress. 2. More time is being spent going over a test to allow students time to correct their mistakes. 3. More practice problems are being done in class to allow for better mastery of material.

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Honors Adjustments 4. Class data is collected and analyzed after each test to determine the best way to move forward while still providing appropriate time to review or reteach concepts. Larger class issues may be done in class while more individual issues can be done during tutorial or Got Math. 5. More class time will be spent reviewing homework which will allow for tutorial time to take on a bit of a different structure.

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Honors Adjustments Administrator initiated changes: We are in the process of looking for a better way to

report non-proficient scores. We would like for them to show up in the gradebook as not-proficient, but not have a grade associated with them until after the reassessment due date. We are having trouble making that happen in the computer program, Genesis, so we are working with the company to find a solution.

A summative assessment will be conducted at the end of the semester to determine the effectiveness of standards based grading, as it is currently structured, in Honors Algebra II. All decisions will be made based on data at the end of the semester.

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