About this Playbook

What Is This Playbook and What Is It For?

At Learner-Centered Collaborative, we have worked for years with schools and districts designing learner-centered systems that are more authentic, personalized, competency-based, equitable and inclusive learning environments and creating the enabling conditions to bring those learning experiences to life, all in service of supporting learners to know themselves, thrive in community and engage in the world as their best selves. Each community defines what that looks like and the specific whole-learner outcomes they hope learners build in their system, but time and time again we see that traditional grading practices are one of the structures and conditions that live in tension with this greater learner-centered vision. 

This Playbook is the product of a lot of questions. As we work with systems to think about shifting away from traditional grading practices, namely giving points and percentages on assignments and averaging them to a final grade, more questions arise. 

Many of these questions are adaptive (Kebschull, 2023), including:

• What will these shifts mean for teaching, learning, the schedule and the structure of courses or learning?

• How will we align educators, families and the board around the changes?

• How will we support learners with this shift?

• How will we support educators in this shift?

• How will we support learners in achieving their post-secondary goals? 

Other questions have been more technical (Kebschull, 2023), including:

• What outcomes should we assess?

• What will a progress report or report card look like?

• How many levels of proficiency do we want to use to mark progress and how will we define those levels as success criteria?

• What will the “gradebook” look like?

• How will the report be generated or created?

• What technology tools will we use?

In our work with these schools and districts, we realized that the answers to both the adaptive and technical questions were complex and varied based on the context and unique systems in which they were being considered. The more we talked to people and uncovered different models, the more we needed to know. We also realized that most guidance available for answering the technical questions came from the technology tools themselves, which  makes sense as they set up the gradebook system and reporting tools. However, different technology tools allow for (or restrict) different decisions and approaches. At Learner-Centered Collaborative, we believe that pedagogy and assessment philosophy should guide your decisions around designing your assessment, grading and reporting structures. Technology should be the tool that supports that structure, not leading it.

And so we set out to write this Playbook to illuminate what is often a black box of Competency-Based assessment, grading and reporting practices. We interviewed dozens of schools and systems at all different stages of this work. We also spoke with organizations and providers of technology tools supporting systems in this work. We uncovered a wealth of new learning that we are excited to share with you, but this is just the beginning. This Playbook will lightly touch on the adaptive change process required for this work. However, the main intent is to provide insight into how systems are technically managing assessment, grading, and reporting. We believe that understanding the technical aspects will support systems in addressing adaptive changes. For those who have already begun adaptive change work and are ready to make concrete decisions, design new systems, and implement them, this Playbook serves as a helpful decision-making guide.

This Playbook includes 3 sections: 

1. Introduction to Competency-Based Reporting and Why Change Now: Explore challenges with traditional grading and reporting and the various alternatives 

2. Designing Competency-Based Assessment and Reporting Structures: Explore the key decisions to be made in the design process 

3. School Profiles: Explore the assessment and reporting structures of a variety of schools and districts

It’s important to note that assessment, grading and reporting is one small piece of a much larger transition to learner-centered and Competency-Based education. This Playbook will mention some of those additional elements by highlighting details in the school profiles including schedules, learning experiences, feedback approaches and assessment practices. However, the focus of this Playbook is on the design of the assessment, grading and reporting structures. As a system designs these structures, it's crucial to consider all the interconnected pieces that create the enabling conditions for successful implementation, which are represented in the puzzle pieces at the bottom of the graphic below. 

So why focus on reporting? First, as educators, we believe in backwards design. Understanding the end goal helps systems prioritize and thoughtfully prepare. We also believe this area is currently a black box. While we are all familiar with what traditional grading looks like, envisioning an alternative can be daunting. We hope this Playbook makes the alternative visible and concrete to help others see models of what’s possible. 

How to Use This Playbook?

This Playbook is not intended to be read from front to back, but rather explored based on your readiness level and the key decisions your system is currently exploring during the design process. 

We recommend starting by clearly understanding the terminology used, unpacking why this work is needed and then exploring what the shifts to Competency-Based Reporting look like. You may want to then explore specific school’s approaches in action by exploring the school profiles. Or you may want to consider specific design decisions involved in the process, which are highlighted in the flow chart below.

Signs your system may be ready to explore new assessment, grading and reporting structures: 

• You have explored the research on challenges with traditional grading systems with educators, learners and families.

• You have built capacity with educators around Competency-Based learning practices such as focusing on formative feedback, designing quality assessments, and modifying instruction based on formative feedback. 

• You have developed momentum and community buy-in around learner-centered practices and the need for preparing learners with future-ready knowledge and skills.

Even with all the conditions above in place and full community support, it takes significant time and energy to design and implement new systems.  There will still be barriers to address including outside policies and institutions. We hope this Playbook serves as a model and a guide for how others have approached the design phase of this work.