Standards Based Grading

In a Nutshell

• Standards Based Grading (SBG) involves coming up with a list of standards (learning objectives) for the course. Students receive a grade on each individual objective with each objective being evaluated multiple times (how many times depends on both instructor and student motivation). A student’s grade on a given objective represents that student’s current level of understanding, thus new grades replace older grades, replace not average

Some Main Points

• Erich uses a scale of 0-4 for each standard with 3 meaning that the student can do everything Erich has asked them to do and a 4 meaning the student has an advanced understanding.
• “Point Accumulation” is discouraged thus things like homework, attendance and participation are not graded or are graded only very lightly.
• Even though homework was not graded (not even for completion) 9-10 out of the 17 students in Erich’s summer class would regularly do the homework and look through the solutions Erich handed out each week.
• Erich give a one question quiz at the start of every class to assess standards.
• Erich uses the higher of the two most recent scores as the current score for each objective so that students still need to retain knowledge but are allowed a mistake without decreasing their grade.
• Erich still gives a cumulative final exam at the end of the semester but he does not let the final exam influence grades on any of the standards (otherwise a student who bombs the final can really hurt his semester grade with a poor final score and several standards scores being pulled down).
• You need to advertise the idea of re-assessments during office hours to students. These re-assessments promote learning and understanding but students aren’t automatically inclined to take advantage of them.
• SBG improves your focus by forcing you to ask yourself “What concept is this question testing?” and “Is it question testing this concept in the way I want to test this concept” about every homework and quiz question you write.
• SBG works well in classes where you can focus on big picture skills and don’t need to cover a laundry list of nitty-gritty details. Your list of standards for the semester should not be longer than about 30 or else you won’t have time to assess each standard multiple times.

Further Reading

• Check out the full presentation here

• The blog dy/dan has some useful thoughts on grading that match the SBG mindset.

• The blog Think Thank Thunk gives examples of using SBG in high school physics and calculus classes.