Grades in a Traditional System

Everyone - parents, students, teachers, community members, and administrators - are very familiar with our traditional grade system. Typically, a grade of "A" means that the student scored 93% or higher on assignments. But that is all it tells us. It does not tell us what skills were mastered and which were not. It does not tell us how much of the grade was from simply doing the work on time. It gives no real measurement of how much the student learned.

Furthermore, an "A" in our district is a grade from 93 - 100, while in other districts, and "A" is a grade from 90 - 100. In some places, a 60 is considered passing, while in others a 70 is needed to pass the course. And, if a student "passes" the course with a 70, what information did they not master?

Historically, the traditional grades of A, B, C, D, and F are used to compare students to one another. In fact, in some cases teachers are told not to give out too many A's or too many D's. But if EVERYONE mastered the material, shouldn't they ALL receive a high grade?

Grades in a PBE System

In order to better communicate student learning, we are adopting a common rubric system for grades in our PBE system. Under this system, each classroom indicator that is used to determine proficiency is measured on the same 4 point rubric scale (or proficiency scale). A sample of that scale is given below.

In this scale, the text in red is the content unique to this proficiency scale. In particular, the red text in the 3.0 level is the exact indicator that students will be assessed on. The text in the 2.0 level are foundational skills needed in order to successfully complete the indicator at the 3.0 level. Thus, a student who is able to achieve the foundational skills but not the actual content of the indicator would receive a 2.0 on the assessment.

In order to show proficiency, then, a student must earn a score of 3.0 on this rubric scale. Any lower score is not sufficient, and the student will need to continue working to learn the content and re-take the assessments until he or she has achieved the score of 3.0.

It should be noted this rubric scale allows for a score higher than proficiency - notice that the 4.0 content refers to content going beyond what was taught. Each assessment used for proficiency will have questions that go beyond the standard and indicator being assessed to allow students the opportunity to show they have exceeded the required work.