Grading Policies
Standards-Based Report Card Parent Guide
Benefits of Standards-Based Grading for Students
Students understand their current level of proficiency in targeted skills.
Students communicate their needs and next steps in learning.
Students practice for skill improvement and learning, not grades.
Students have multiple opportunities to show mastery.
Students are not allowed to opt out of learning.
Create a culture of learning and failing forward.
Students are partners in their own learning.
Learning standards are clearly defined and aligned with state standards.
Students are offered multiple opportunities and ways through which to demonstrate proficiency.
Instruction meets the needs of all students.
All students can achieve their highest potential.
Benefits of Standards-Based Grading for Parents
Parents can see exactly what their children know and are able to do.
Parents know in what areas their children need more support and where their students should be pushed to higher levels.
Report card grades are less mysterious and have more meaning.
Specific feedback on student progress helps parents build self-esteem, pride, and motivation for students.
Grades are feedback snapshots that provide timely updates and reflect changes to ongoing student performance levels.
Benefits of Standards-Based Grading for Teachers
Education becomes more learner-focused, so the teacher and the student work more closely together.
Teachers of the same courses have aligned expectations and standards.
Teachers work more closely together to align practices and expectations for mastery of the curriculum.
Teachers know exactly where students stand in their progress toward learning targets and what supports need to be provided.
A variety of ongoing classroom assessments help teachers determine when students need extra help and when they need more challenging work.
Stakeholders understand the student's current level of proficiency in targeted skills and use feedback to move learning and learner forward.
The class grading climate builds the mindset that learning is limitless for all stakeholders.
Six/nine-week endpoints do not determine when learning starts or stops.
Adapted from “Why Standards-Based Grading?” Quakertown Community School District, November 2011 and Leander ISD Grading Principles and Actions, 2021.