Standards Referenced Grading

How do you know what your student understands and can demonstrate?

In the Diocese of Sacramento, we have made a deliberate and conscious commitment to incorporate standards-based teaching and learning practices in our classrooms.  These practices support our essential obligation to provide our students with more than just a rigorous academic curriculum to prepare them for high school, college and beyond.  Catholic education must also prepare students to take their place in society as Disciples in Christ; instilling in them a sense of service and challenging them to live the Gospel through daily interactions with all whom they come in contact.  Therefore, our focus should be placed on both the student’s moral and intellectual excellence.  

There are several advantages of standards-based education:

• It ensures consistent expectations across grade levels.
• It helps teachers and students focus on the standards in their learning activities.
• Assessments are aligned to standards and provide evidence of what a student knows and/or can do.
• It provides feedback as to a student’s proficiency level allowing the teacher to better individualize instruction.
• It provides parents with valuable information on how their child is progressing on the critical concepts and skills of the grade level as well as individual standards.

What is Standards-Referenced Grading?

Standards-referenced grading (SRG) is a system of grading where teachers provide feedback to students about their demonstrated level of understanding on a set of defined standards and levels of performance. The steps to SRG include:

1. As students begin a unit of study, the classroom teacher begins by sharing descriptions of learning progressions with the students.  Learning progressions show what a student needs to know and be able to do by the end of the school year. (A sample progression is below.)
2. Students generally start by learning important vocabulary and skills.
3. Students then move up proficiency levels to the target level, which is considered “at grade level.” Here they are demonstrating knowledge of the diocesan standards. This usually involves higher level thinking skills.
4. Some students may go beyond the target level, which is considered to be more in-depth and often involves real world applications.

Meaningful Feedback: Feedback has been defined as “just-in-time, just-for-me information delivered when and where it can do the most good” (Brookhart, 2008).  In other words, students know their learning goals and that the target is “at grade level” (a 3.0). By having clear learning targets, teachers can use the proficiency scale to discuss where a student is on the learning progression and give specific feedback as to how to improve. Feedback has a powerful impact on student learning; it is considered one of the top influences on student achievement (Fisher, Frey & Hattie, 2015).

Documents Progress: By receiving feedback based on a learning progression, students can track their own progress over time. The teacher and student have a clear picture of what the student has learned and where improvements can be made. When students track their own progress, student achievement increases significantly (Marzano, 2010).

Students Have Ownership of Their Learning: In SRG students have tremendous ownership over their learning. They are aware of what is required for success. They can propose ways to show the teacher what they know and can do related to the standards. Students should be able to answer and ask these questions for each lesson of the day:

1. What am I learning?
2. Why is it important to know and be able to do?
3. How will I know if I am successful or not?

Sample Proficiency Scale (Learning Progression)

Analyzing Claims, Evidence, and Reasoning (4 ELA)

What do the Numbers Represent on a proficiency scale?

The numbers on the proficiency scale represent a learning continuum and are not points that are averaged. Level 2 provides important vocabulary and skills. Next on the scale is the target, Level 3. Level 3 is the grade level standards and requires knowledge of additional skills and concepts. Level 4 is considered more in-depth and requires higher level thinking skills than the previous levels.

The proficiency scale scores represent the following:

The proficiency scales are used to clearly define learning targets that communicate the knowledge of skills necessary for students and parents to understand the level of mastery a student has achieved at any given time.

Level 1 would only apply to students who lack even the most basic knowledge in a given standard.  

Level 2 is the grade given when a student is not at the mastery level, but working on the necessary vocabulary and learning targets identified in the proficiency scale.  A student remains at Level 2 until they have demonstrated full master of the priority standard(s) being assessed.

Level 3 is the grade given when a student has demonstrated proficiency on a given standard.  It is important that a student is given more than one opportunity to provide evidence of mastery before the priority standard is given a grade on the report card.  These assessments are summative in nature, but don’t necessarily require a formal written test.  The most recent and comprehensive evidence is given the greatest consideration when determining a grade.

Level 4 represents an understanding and application of knowledge at a level beyond what is expected at a given grade level.  It is important to understand what level 4 means:

Parent FAQ
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XMgWxExtHF3ZhH0c1JSeLC1sCLrxDHNCUHVIyQew1JQ/edit?usp=sharing

Marzano Critical Concepts
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10q1f9jckBxPd8OzpI9Y4XR2ildRr4Mzi/view?usp=sharing