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Hi Susan,
I just saw this post, maybe I can give some insight :) We are currently in the middle of Stiggins, who is another author/advocate of standard based grading. Our school is slowly moving towards this area.
We are also an IB School which is making standard based grading a little bit easier for some of the teachers, maybe 5/6 out of 50. I am one of the six that have slowly implemented it into my classroom. Are you familiar with IB? They have rubrics/standards for each subject area, so for science there are 6 standards students must reach. I use their 6 standards as my main framework for creating rubrics/assessments.
Does this make sense? I think this is a much easier then have to list each of your state standards and track student progress. I also believe you must go slow to go fast! That has been our motto for almost 4 years :)
Liz
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I have never heard of Standards Based Grading.
Do you mean every thing will be graded using a rubric?
Please explain. It sounds interesting.
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I am also interested in more information on standards based grading. I have read some on the topic through the NSTA listserves, but I do not understand how grades are assigned. And if you are grading based upon accomplishments of a learning goal, can you still work a participation grade into the overall grade, or doesn't participation factor into it?
Thanks in advance,
Sue
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Hi Sue and group,
I am still struggling with Standard Based Grading, because we, as Science educators are so busy trying to get everything in before end of the year :). Our school is trying to develop a Life Skills Rubric, which would be an area for you to mark participation, HW completion etc... Our goal is to have it developed by April.
Our standard based grading is currently just based on the 6 rubrics we use in science class. The standards we are using our IB standards and assessment. There is talk about moving closer to standards based, which would mean breaking down state standards, and allowing students to continue to try and become proficient.
Thanks
Liz
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I have been using standards based grading for years in my middle school classroom. Initially I was one of the first folks involved in standard setting within WA state. We had the standards we wanted kids to meet broken down by grade level bands, with each year supposedly building toward proficiency in high school.
What I used for my standards was the same expectations and tools we used for setting anchor papers for our state test. By using the same tool kids were scored on, I was able to raise student scores significantly.
The problem we have now is that our elementary schools in many instances are not teaching Science, just Math and Reading. So, when we get them as 7th graders, all they have done is read about Science, not actually do much of anything hands on.
I began my work with the Scientific Method for the most part. The parts of the investigation from question through conclusion, was and in many cases still is, the focus of how I score students. The topics come and go, but the foundation of the method is the same.
The work is always in progress. We hit a stalemate this year because our state test changed last year to some degree, less questions, so students may have only one question to prove they understand some phase of Science. We are expected to teach it all, but only a small part is tested, so we really don't know if we are making progress or whether we just happened to teach the right thing.
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This is a fascinating topic for me as well. I recently read the article Standard-izing test items, that discusses the development of assessments as part of Project 2061. It is a relatively old article (Jan 2005) and I wonder what progress has been made toward developing a collection of math and science assessment items, and whether they are actually being used in classrooms.
Standards Based Assessment Collection
(6 items)
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I would strongly suggest that you look into IObservation as a possibility. While expensive to invest it, I think it is really worth it if you are serious about applying Marzano's Art and Science of Teaching to faculty annual review and assessment. They have worked out a system to apply Marzano's work (or Charlotte Danielson). It is really good. We have had a demonstration of the system about a month ago and will pilot it this spring. Here is the link. You can watch some videos and get a good idea of what they are trying to do OR sign up for a webinar.
http://www.iobservation.com/
If you have other questions, let me know. We work a great deal on faculty assessment and supervision at the Center for Teaching.
Bob Ryshke
Executive Director
Center for Teaching
1424 West Paces Ferry Rd NW
Atlanta, GA 30327
[email protected]
404-609-6322
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Susan, this is the link to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, where you will find a variety of resources available to us as educators in Washington State.
http://www.k12.wa.us/Science/Assessments.aspx
Within each of the Powerful Classroom Assessments as well as Released Items, you will find rubrics for scoring student responses which may be of some help to you. While these rubrics are somewhat useful when you are scoring the given prompts, they don't necessarily help students understand what they are expected to do on a daily basis.
What several of us have done is create rubrics using a 0 - 4 scale, with 4 exceeding standards, 3 meeting standards, 2 not meeting standards, 1 missing many of the basic components for meeting standards. A 0 means they were off prompt or no response. The rubrics are based on what the state is expecting to see students be able to do to be scored at the level of proficiency/mastery.
The rubrics and companion guides I created for my students seem to work well. Many of my middle school students go to the high school and come back to tell me they are ready to write a lab investigation well. With the basics nailed down, the high school teacher can then focus on the control group and more elaborate lab write ups and more difficult Science concepts. Students then go on to the state assessment and score well because there is no surprise as to what is expected of them.
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MARZANO? As a guide? Did you actually read through this book? His examples are for first year teachers, and that is being kind to him. He taught very little (if at all himself). He uses examples form other people's specific research as if it can be applied across all socio- economic learning groups and situations. I think you should read the reviews on this book (review by experienced teachers) not his research colleagues. Below is a review form Amazon by "Stinky K". Amazon gives the book 3 1/2 stars. We did a 7 week book study at my school with 12 teachers form across the curriculum. One out of 12 had something (one thing) to say that was good about it.
THE QUOTE:
"If you chewed on this book it might be more inspiring than it is as a read. Wow! You mean that encouraging students, giving them homework, and having them reflect on their lessons actually has beneficial effects? I'm shocked! It's a good thing that these notions are presented with lots of proof from academic studies with lots of scientific graphs, or I would never believe them. Sheesh. Of course there are some good suggestions but they are not presented very well, so unless you can relate to some of the ideas already they probably won't leave much of an impression on you. There have to be better books out there". (Stinky K.)
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