Standard grading percentages plus#

For behavior, report cards often use numbers, plus signs, or minus signs. Each grade on the report card represents a skill or knowledge standard your child has had the opportunity to learn, so it’s a meaningful snapshot of academic achievement. It’s more useful to know that your child has met a standard than that she has a B with 84 percent. “The big switch with standards-based grading is we work by levels, not percentages,” says Ken O’Connor, independent educational consultant and author of A Repair Kit for Grading: Fifteen Fixes for Broken Grades. Schools vary in their report card scales and terminology, but often they use a four-part scale to denote levels of achievement with descriptors such as: An overarching goal in education these days is to develop students who not only master academic content but also demonstrate attributes for successful learning beyond school. “Each student earns the same grade but for very different reasons, and the grade doesn’t tell parents very much about what the student knows.”īecause standards-based report cards separate the two, you can see if your child needs help with an academic concept or can’t remember to turn in homework. Another student might bring home a B because he aced all the tests and quizzes but didn’t do any of the homework and didn’t participate in class,” he says.

Miguel Boriss, an 8th grade science teacher in Bellingham, Wash., explains letter grades this way: “One student might bring home a B because she did all the work, turned in all her homework, and participated in class but didn’t quite understand the concepts. The traditional grading system combines many elements-test scores, quizzes, completed homework, classroom participation, coming to school on time, extra credit-and averages the semester’s work into a percentage that correlates with a letter grade. Providing grades for academic proficiency and work habits gives parents more information about the areas in which their child needs to improve than the traditional letter grading system. How Standards-Based Grades Differ From Traditional Letter Grades Behavior includes aspects like completing tasks on time, going to class prepared, and contributing positively to class discussions. Work habits-educators may call this learning behavior or success attributes-are graded separately to provide an accurate picture of your child’s academic achievement. Under each category, you’ll see a list of math skills your child should be able to do, as well as a grade showing how your child is doing. In 5th grade math, for example, you’ll see the subject broken into several categories, such as operations/algebraic thinking and fractions. Standards-based report cards give a grade for each learning goal, so students receive multiple grades in each subject area. Learning goals, sometimes called learning standards, are the academic skills your child should know or be able to do for his grade level by the end of the school year. Standards-based grading, sometimes called proficiency grading, is a method for teachers to measure how students are doing in meeting the learning goals for their grade as determined by their state’s standards. Middle School Study Skills: Getting Organized.High School: What To Expect in 9th Grade.

Standard grading percentages