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Standards-based grading refers to the practice of giving students nuanced and detailed descriptions of their performance against specific criteria or standards, not on a bell curve. It can stand alone or exist alongside traditional letter grading.
In a standards-based grading system “grades” are replaced or supplemented with measures of progress towards descriptive standards. This approach precludes averaging results on a collection of test and assignments. Instead, the criteria used to determine what “meeting a standard” means is defined in advance, often in a rubric, and teachers will evaluate learning progress and academic achievement in relation to the criteria based on the students level of attainment (so, if a student struggled to master a concept in the early stages of instruction, but mastered the concept later, only their level of mastery is reported and their early challenges are not counted - thus "no averaging"). In standards-based schools, grades for behaviors and work habits—e.g., getting to class on time, following rules, treating other students respectfully, turning in work on time, participating in class, putting effort into assignments—are reported separately from progress towards the standards, so that teachers and parents can make distinctions between learning achievement and engagement in learning.
Adapted from:
The Editors. (February 5, 2019). What is Performance Assessment? Education Week. Retrieved from: https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/02/06/what-is-performance-assessment.html
For more on standards based grading see:
Great Schools Partnership (Retrieved 2016). Grading + Reporting
Scriffiny, P. (2008). Seven reasons for standards-based grading. Educational Leadership 66(2).
New England Secondary Schools Consortium (Retrieved 2016). What is proficiency based grading?
Sample Standards Based Report Cards:
For a 1st grade example click here
For an 5th grade example click here
For a secondary example click here
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