Standards Based Grading

"My 2nd Session (Thursday) was done by Susan May and Kathi Cook from the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas (Austin). I also met up with @Fouss and @Sarah_IC - all three of us had it on our list. I chose this one because I have lower level students who do struggle and I don't want them to give up so easily. "

"A little something to give back to the wonderful SBG community on the web: my version of a letter explaining "the how" and more importantly, "the why" of my SBG implementation. I've adapted sentences from similar letters shared by other teachers using SBG (apologies - I mixed up the material to the point I can't identify individual authors any more!), and then extended for my own context. I also felt I should add some FAQ style paragraphs at the end of the document to help address any concerns. When I wrote this letter I very carefully avoided using the SBG terminology or any sense this was something to make a fuss about. I think it's important to reassure people this is a normal way to work with a class - the only thing that is different is that the final topic test result is no longer the main form of grading and that students can do repeat attempts to improve their grades. Amazing how such a small change in the way of thinking about assessment can have such a massive impact on teaching and learning!"

SBG is super-great because it organizes assessment data into topics that everyone can understand.  "Quiz 5″ means nothing but "Calculating Error" is meaningful.  A student that got an F on Quiz 5 doesn't know anything about what he should do, but a student that has an F in "Calculating Error" at least has a lead.  ActiveGrade lets you write a long description of each standard, so you could even make recommendations for improving in "Calculating Error" that your students can see when they look at their grade report, so instead of staring blankly at "Quiz 5″ they can see something like "Our book describes this in detail on pages 450-451, there are practice problems (with answers!) on page 460, and check out the class webpage section on Experimental Methods."