Grading for Algebra

Standards-Based Grading

I am using a standards-based grading model, which emphasizes evidence of what a student has learned and de-emphasizes the number of tasks a student has completed.  This system is also meant to give students an opportunity to make mistakes and then learn from those mistakes. 

Test Revisions

The core mechanism in my grading system is the ability for students to revise their tests and correct their mistakes. Here's how they work:

About one week after a test, we pass back and review the results. Students then have their first opportunity to redo questions that have mistakes on them and turn them in again. After that, any tests that still require revisions can be found in a filing box in the back of the classroom. Students can retrieve unfinished tests during any in-class work time to revise their work. If they do not finish the revision, they place the test back in the filing box. If they finish the revision, they turn it into the "turn in basket" in the front of the room. Tests must remain in the classroom.

Every day I score revisions I find in the basket and update the gradebook. I will score revisions within 24 hours and have them updated before the student's next visit to class.

Students will have 2 - 4 weeks to complete the revision process for each test. The due dates are posted on Schoology and I give reminders during class. There is no limit to the number of revisions a student can make to his or her test. The revision period is limited only by time.

Please note: A student must have completed at least 70% of the tasks tracked in Schoology to be able to submit test revisions.

Daily Practice (Homework)

I give practice tasks nearly every day with the expectation that students complete them. We have in-class work time to start on the assignments, and I hope that students work on finishing them outside of class. However, full completion of every practice task is not a direct requirement. I do not collect work. Instead, students keep their work in their math journals for their own reference.  Periodically I have Notebook Check assignments where students provide proof of completion for particular tasks.

A student who uses the given in-class work time to start an assignment should spend no more than 20 minutes outside of class that day. I do not want my practice work to become a burden or an anxiety catalyst. If a student is struggling to complete one or more assignments, please ask for help during class. There might be an underlying conceptual misunderstanding that I can address.

How to Interpret Scores in StudentVue and ParentVue

Students can check grades using StudentVue, and parents can check grades using ParentVue. Both connect to the Synergy gradebook. In this gradebook you will see a list of skills and a score showing if that skill has been successfully demonstrated yet.  You will not see individual assignments in this gradebook, and you will not see test scores in this gradebook. 

Each skill is scored on a 4-point scale:

Please note that due to the nature of this grading system, grades can change dramatically over short periods of time. Please see my grading example page for more information.

How to Use the Schoology Gradebook

Some of our daily practice tasks are tracked in Schoology. You can view the Schoology grade report to see a student's completion of those tasks. These tasks do not translate directly to a grade, but a student must maintain at least a 70% completion rate of Schoology tasks in order to submit test revisions. 

A common student misconception is that the grade they see in Schoology is their grade for the class. This grade in Schoology is NOT a student's grade. It is only a measure of task completion. 

For my Algebra 1 classes, full completion of assignments is a skill that is tracked in the main gradebook. I want to encourage our younger students to establish good habits of assignment completion.

Why I Use this System

In high school, our job is not only to teach our subject material but also to prepare our students for life after school. In the "real" world, we are not rewarded for partial, incomplete, or incorrect work. Our society expects work to be completed in full. Consider this example:

You hire a general contractor to remodel your bathroom. You have plans, you've ironed out the details, and you've purchased the materials. After working in your bathroom for a period of time, the contractor tells you he is finished and expects payment. You look into the bathroom and find that two of the shower tiles are missing, the toilet is pointed in the wrong direction, there is only 1 towel rack (your design specified 3), and there is still uncleaned paint splatter along the floor. The job is simply not finished yet. Is it reasonable for you to be expected to pay the contractor for the job and let him go? Sure, he did some of the work, but you are not going to pay him yet, and you certainly aren't going to give him a 4-star rating online. Instead, you will inform him that he isn't finished yet, so please get back in there and keep working until the job is done.

We see this pattern all around us. You won't pay your Uber driver for only taking you most of the way to the airport. You won't pay your dental hygenist for cleaning half of your teeth, you won't pay an accountant for filing only some of your taxes, and you're going to complain if a waiter brings you a plate of food that isn't exactly what you ordered. If a movie stops abruptly with 35 minutes left, you are going to talk to the manager of the movie theater to get a refund.

My grading system is designed to prepare students for a world that expects jobs to be completed correctly. There is no partial credit for completing some of the work or getting some of the correct answers. In this class, your work doesn't count until it is all-the-way finished and fully correct. If your work isn't finished, then keep working on it until it is.  Students have at least two weeks to turn in late assignments, and they have 2-4 weeks to revise tests. This extra time allows students to keep working until their task is finished.

This system also encourages and rewards perseverance, which I believe is the single greatest ingredient for success.

I want a student's grade in my class to more accurately reflect the material the student has learned, rather than be a record of tasks he or she has completed. Ultimately our goal is learning, and I believe this system refocuses our attention on what students are learning. It also alleviates a degree of test anxiety because there is less importance placed on specific tests on specific days. In this system, a student has a degree of freedom to make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and then demonstrate the learning that has come from correcting those mistakes. This system is designed to refocus our attention on the skills we are learning and remove the emphasis on which tasks we are completing. 

In this system, a student should not ask "how do I get more points?" Instead, that student will ask "how can I successfully demonstrate this particular skill?" 

Since adopting this system, I have received a lot of positive feedback from students, parents, and counselors. Students reported much diminished levels of anxiety around tests and very much appreciated the ability to improve their grade by correcting their mistakes. Students who are willing to work, persevere, and learn will find success.