“Standards-Based Grading” != “Retesting”
(Note: “!=” means “does not equal” in most computer languages, sorry if you already knew that)
It’s summer, so I’m not in the classroom. My daily encounters with puberty, math, and power tools hasn’t provided me with much blog fodder. [Also, I'm spending pretty much every waking hour coding the SBGradeBook, and I'm super excited about it. It does do your taxes, and it will be your life-coach (Sam Shah, looking your direction). None of that is true, but it will help you implement SBG, and I'm hoping to release a couple hundred beta accounts in early August. All of you that have emailed, twittered, and commented: you're in. I sincerely appreciate the interest and am really humbled; I hope I don't underwhelm.]
Wait, let’s get back to the topic at hand: what would Think Thank Thunk be without a gratuitous post about SBG implementation and how it taught me to love woodland creatures? More than a little put out, I can tell you that, missy!
I’ve been getting some really great emails and comments lately about starting to do SBG (you guys have time to reflect/plan now that the terror monster school is out, or what?). The biggest misconception is the reassessment piece. Many of you are worked up into a certifiable tizzy about how to handle all of the student-generated reassessments. How many can they do? When will they show up? How will I generate questions? What happens if I under-cook pork? It’s scary out there, and I think we should rewind a bit and remind ourselves why we want to switch to SBG:
SUMMATIVE OBSESSION MAKES KIDS STUPID
Too loud? I think not. I’m the SBG Bulldog, and it pisses me off when kids don’t learn. Like passive-aggressive-pee-on-the-couch pissed off.
SBG, coupled with compassion and a mild infection of constructivism, can transform the most pedantic classrooms into learning factories.
If you’ve been wondering where I got these ideas — which I admit are not new — I will claim to have thought of them myself. !!– Holy Paradoxical Plagiarism, Batman –!! I didn’t know until later that “SBG” was, like, a thing. It just made sense to me, and that’s how I know this isn’t some self-esteem-esque garbage fad.
SBG arises from the grading dilemma. It arises from the fact that you should not be punishing students for practicing. It arises from the realization that the 1:1 work:school analogy is a fallacy built on a lie feasting on nonsense. My implementation of SBG was just a little thing I tried to get kids to emphasize knowledge over accumulating points.
Meat and Taters:
It does not, however, boil down to simply retesting. The basic idea is this: you want to give your students the incentive and opportunity to show that they can and will learn, and that their understandings are dynamic. This is impeded by grading everything, which makes it possible to for a kid to dig a grave instead of just a hole. If you simply view SBG as retesting, you’re missing the point. The point is to track development and to nurture it. The point is to have a systematic effective way of telling kids what they do and don’t know, and having them be able to remediate for themselves.
Simply scheduling three built-in assessments of one standard is ok. It’s the way you use it that matters, though. Kids learn how assessments work, they can perform well on a given type of assessment without actually knowing things (how many of you are “good test takers,” and what the hockey sticks does that mean anyway?) Are these really assessments, or are they just more games?
You know what, screw the acronym: I’ve done what I promised I would never do, use an edu-jargon acronym. I feel dirty. I feel like I’m going to get published in some big-kid esoteric journal now, instead of rambling incoherently into the wind that is the blog-o-net. I’m so sorry.
SBG is just breaking your class up and seeing assessments for what they are: indicators. Once you make this switch you’ll stop seeing your final exams as holy grails, and you’ll stop using quizzes as a classroom managment strategy (you know who you are).
Everything is an assessment. Once a kid realizes that a hallway conversation can affect their grade (up or down), or that doing something awesome in another class can show you proficiency in some skill that they bombed in your class the previous month (e.g.: presenting well), the kid will get the only important message: Learning is what matters; points are made up currency that have no value outside the school’s walls. Points are a scurge, a charlatan, a menace, and are little more than a necessary evil.
I don’t care how you implement Standards-Based Grading. I don’t care if you call it that. I don’t care how or when your kids reassess, but I do care why. Are they doing it for points, or are they doing it because they worked their tails off, and now they can come in — beaming — to show you how they can now factor a cubic, and that they know why on God’s green Earth someone would actually want to do that. (Don’t forget the last part.)
Collegiate Caligula & Summative-Obsession: A Sad Story Surprise! My Wife is the Good Teacher, I Just Plagiarize
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22 thoughts on ““Standards-Based Grading” != “Retesting””
[...] SBG, but none of it is actually SBG. Enthusiasts of the grading system will tell you “SBG is more than retesting“, so I am excited to try SBG for real for the first time [...]
[...] but does it work? Yes! This is really the direction my classes are going. We’re switching from students asking, “What do I need to correct?” to them asking, “How can I show that I meet this [...]
Just getting started on SBG and haven’t been this excited about anything in years. Your work and ideas (and those of the other bloggers I’ve been quietly following) just keep expanding my thinking.. Hallway conversations! Exactly! I started using my baby-steps form of SBG late this past school year. What a difference it made on so many levels. Thank you so much.
And I quote, “I feel dirty. I feel like I’m going to get published in some big-kid esoteric journal now, instead of rambling incoherently into the wind that is the blog-o-net. I’m so sorry.”
You may not get published, but if you are not careful some college may ask you to enter into a doctorate program. Then what are you going to do?
I, too, am excited about switching to SBG next year. One thing I’m still unsure about is whether or not I should switch over all 3 of the subjects I teach at once, or just do 1 to start… I’m also hoping to get in on the beta testing of your gradebook – that’s the other big thing that freaks me out about switching: how do I keep track of it all?!
Your grading program has the potential to provide some valuable data on the effectiveness of different types of assessments. If there were a way to categorize each score revision on the type of assessment (exam/quiz, informal discussion, essay/lab report) and store it in a history, we could see which types of assessments were giving our students the most success at demonstrating their skills and knowledge. I’m imagining a pivot table that could immediately show us what types of assessments are working and which need updating.
I’m interested in a beta of your SBG thingiemobobber too!
scottfarrar.com
@Erik
I would also point out that just because I know you’re awesome at an essay in September doesn’t mean I know it in April. Write the essay, let me know you still know how to do it.
The separate grades for essay form and essay content is key. Writing Mechanics should be a standard and is def important, but how often do you see kids quit because their ideas are great but they’re getting Fs because of spelling errors or whatever. Separate it out and they can work on what needs to be worked on.
This is the most excited I’ve ever been for the next year at the beginning of he summer… Planning on implementing SBG in my classroom next year and would love to get in on the beta testing, if there’s still room!
@david I think a student should be aware of when their grade can go up or down based on their performance.
What I am just worried about (worried in the sense of planning out now instead of flailing around in October), is a student in September nailing an essay and saying,” Well, I don’t have to write another essay again for the rest of the year”. I guess thats why grades can go backwards. SBG is like real-time grades.
Another part I am trying to work out having students be responsible for content the saw in September and October and know it June. Social Studies content does not build on its self like Math.
@Erik: I have a colleague that’s in your same boat. We walked down this line of logic: The reason you’re giving the essay is because it probably helps assess another more contenty type standard. If the kids says, “Hey, I’m Captain Awesome, I don’t need to write any more essays.” They will not be able to demonstrate the content standard, and you’ve got them. However, if the kid is cogent enough to say, “Hey, I can really write an essay, and you know it. How’s about I make a sweet powerpoint for this content instead.” well, then you’d best count your lucky stars to have a student like that. I’d probably forget about their already masterful essay skills at that point.
More than likely, a kid will enter the essay standard somewhere in the middle, and it will be in their interest to keep writing better ones.
=shawn
Elaborate on the hallway conversation. If a kid demonstrates some sort of understanding (or lack thereof) in an informal conversation, do you casually change the grade or do you make them aware of it before you do so?
I’ve been adjusting up with conversations but not down. Probably because no one’s going to complain about a grade improving.
@David: For as much as I talk about the hallways assessment, it only happens a few times per semester. My main goal with that example, though, is to explain the difference between an SBG implementation and a traditional system. The idea that a conversation could change a grade would have been blasphemy to me a year ago. Now, I just ask myself, “do I have a better — more accurate — picture of what this kid knows?” However that happens is fine by me. It’s amazing how they respond, management doesn’t suffer, it’s great.
further to Erik’s question, as I understand it the big thing about SBG is separating out the different things you are trying to assess with an essay.
So one standard is mastery of the essay form.
But usually you are also trying to assess learning of some content, too.
I can imagine a situation in which a kid can write a very good essay that is way off topic. That means high marks for the “writing an essay” standard but really low marks for demonstrating knowledge of the particular topic the essay was supposed to be on.
Therefore, retesting could involve having a conversation with you about the topic in which the student demonstrates that knowledge (and maybe explains how they got sidetracked from all that knowledge while writing the essay, though that’s a bit of a bonus for you).
@JoVE: spot on.
[...] Class – 6/13/10 Not Losing the Main Idea June 18, 2010 I need to keep this in mind as I make plans for next year: [SBG] does not, however, boil down to simply retesting. The [...]
@Shawn: So then I have to match skill with content. If I want students to be able to write an essay, I can’t assess that any other way. I need to make the essay a standard.
@Erik: If the goal is writing a coherent essay, then yes they’ll have to keep writing essays, and it should be clear to the student that content of that essay is arbitrary. If the goal is making a coherent argument in writing, then whatever method should be fine (blog, essay, novella, thesis, whatever). If anything they do indicates to you some new understanding (or regression) then I would say to let their grade reflect that.
=shawn
Do you weight assessment? Does a conversation in the hallway count less than an essay? How many of these conversations equal an essay?
@Erik: Great question, and it really gets at the heart of what I’m trying to get at. All assessments are equal. Because the goal is demonstration of knowledge, and all kids are completely different, one mode of assessment cannot be trusted for all students. You’re already using your professional judgment in grading, now you can use it for good instead of evil!
=shawn
Strong post. I’m going to add in a second: the “standards” in standards-based grading != your state standards. Don’t get locked in to having to take your suck standards word for word.
PS – My night is not complete unless I break your gradebook at least once. Good times.