"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future" - John F. Kennedy.
Last Monday's Central School Board meeting, two of our board members shared about their recent visits to our classrooms. The common message, education doesn't look a thing like it did when they were in school. Many people that have strong opinions about public education, have not recently visited our schools and hold onto these opinions from a time that has long ago passed. Our public schools of the past were built on a factory (one-size-fits-all model), with a grading system that echoed that model. Our current schools are transitioning to a focus on the individual child, and with that transition we also need a grading scale that echoes the emphasis of the individual learner. That system is standards based grading.
Before you can fully wrap your head around standards based grading, you have to have an understanding of the many faults of our traditional grading system. The traditional A-F grading system actually did not have a strong emphasis on learning. Instead the emphasis of this model was largely based on a students prior knowledge, work ethic, attitude, and ability to play the game of school. The traditional grading system takes everything into account when developing a student's grade and gives the largest weighting (60%) to an F grade while all other grades have a 10% weighting. The traditional grading system also leaves no room for error by our students, and I would argue how do you really learn anything without failing at it first? In a traditional grading system, those early failures count against your grade and in many cases may eliminate a student's ability to ever achieve success (A or B grade) even though they may have mastered the learning by the end of the grading period.
I was recently asked some questions in regards to standards based grading by the Clayton County Register. In my response (which should be found in a future publishing) I shared the conversation I had with my daughter about standards based grading. My daughter is a junior here at Central and is a very good student with nearly a 4.0 GPA. She obviously knows how to play the game of school. She shared with me that she was not in favor of the change to standards based grading. Through that conversation, I quickly learned she did not have a strong understanding of what standards based grading was, or why the change was needed. Ironically we were on our way to Scheels to find her some hunting boots when this conversation took place. So I seized the moment to put standards based grading into a simpler analogy (remember my truck analogy in a previous post!). I asked her if I also bought her a bow at Scheels, imagine both of us practicing the next day. In that practice I asked, do you think you will instantly hit the target consistently. She said "no" and admitted it would take some practice and fine tuning of the bow to become consistent. I asked her to think about the two grading systems. In a traditional grading system, that practice and fine tuning would all be graded. Those early failures to hit the target would count toward her grade. I asked her to then consider a standards based system. If after that practice and fine tuning she can consistently hit the target, did she not meet the learning goal? Reluctantly she said, "well yes". I then placed myself in the picture and asked her, how do you think I would do? She stated, you would probably do pretty good and hit the target right away because you already own a bow and practice regularly. She is correct. I said in a traditional grading system, I would get a high grade, not because I necessarily learned anything, but because I knew a little something about the subject before it ever started (background knowledge). Who is to say after some practice, my daughter doesn't become just as good if not a better shot than me? In a traditional grading system that would never show, in a standards based system it would.
Standards based learning is a focus on the mastery of a specific learning target and does not take into account the practice and time it takes to reach mastery. Mastery towards these targets depends solely on the individual learner. A teacher can facilitate this learning, but the student still has to put in the practice and work to reach mastery. They can't copy homework from someone else and get a good grade. They can't turn in extra credit that has nothing to do with the learning target and get a good grade. A student actually has to prove to the teacher they have mastered the target. Some students may be able to master a target very quickly, others it may take multiple tries. Our duty as public educators is not a one shot and done approach then move on whether students "get it" or not. It is our sole responsibility to ensure ALL students have mastered essential learning concepts so they can build on that mastery at the next level, whatever that level may be.
The Central administration and staff look forward to discussing standards based grading in person on March 1st at our public forum being held in the auditorium starting at 7:00pm. I also welcome any comments or questions on my Blog and will do my best to answer promptly.
