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Learners are more than just a number!
Remember when you were little, and you couldn’t wait to get to school?
When did education drum that excitement to learn right out of us?
When did it become all about the score and not the learning?
Students are more than just a number.
Students are more than just a number.
Educational research demonstrates that traditional norm-referenced (100-point scale) grading leads to a lack of clear grading criteria, inconsistency in factors that influence grading, confusing scoring of grading, and little meaning or feedback on grading for students and parents (Brookhart et al, 2016; Guskey, 2002, 2006, 2009, 2013, 2015; Guskey & Brookhart, 2019; Hooper & Cowell, 2014). Traditional grading is especially problematic in equitably addressing the needs of students whom Hill et al. (2017) called “priority learners”: minoritized students, English language learners (ELL), special needs or exceptional student education (ESE) students, and marginalized students (Guskey & Jung, 2009; Jung, 2009; Jung & Guskey, 2007; Mattern et al., 2011; Marbouti et al., 2016; Sampson, 2009).
Traditional, norm-referenced grading is broken, and it has been for over a hundred years. 100-point grading scales are inherently inconsistent, inaccurate, and inequitable in all disciplines, especially for ELL, ESE, and underserved students (Guskey & Brookhart, 2019; Guskey & Jung, 2009; Marbouti et al., 2016).
Do we really need 59 ways to fail? Our students deserve more than becoming just a number. Let’s reignite our students’ passion to learn and find ways to give them equitable, accurate, and meaningful feedback.
It’s time for NewGrade!
Teachers Deserve Curriculum That They Design and Are Excited to Teach
Teachers Deserve Curriculum That They Design and Are Excited to Teach
Teachers and administrators in K-12 schools in the United States encounter tremendous difficulties in shifting curriculum mapping, grading, and reporting from a traditional 100-point scale grading system to standards-based grading (SBG) and standards-based reporting (SBR) (Guskey & Brookhart, 2019). Increasing numbers of K-12 schools in the United States have implemented SBG and SBR with mixed success. Factors for inconsistent implementation include inconsistent or contradictory beliefs on the purpose of grading; lack of knowledge on standards-based curriculum design; lack of understanding or buy-in of SBG and SBR; difficulty with conversion of SBG assessments to 100-point report cards; transition from traditional point-based assessment to skills-based assessments; and competing and separate computer software packages that focus on different aspects of curriculum design, grading, and reporting (Guskey et al, 2011; Muñoz & Guskey, 2015; Peters et al., 2017; Proulx et al., 2012).
In many districts across the country, curriculum is designed by curriculum specialists, and many preservice teaching programs don’t focus on curriculum design. All states have standards, but most teachers don’t grade or score with standards. Even if curricula are designed with standards in mind, many teachers have no idea what the standards mean or how to meaningfully design their daily classroom learning around those standards. It’s just another box to check. How can we help teachers love their curriculum and design their own standards-based curriculum for their own students’ needs? NewGrade is here to help!
NewGrade Makes It Easy!
NewGrade Makes It Easy!
At NewGrade, we motivate teachers with easy graphics, tutorials, and standards map checklists to make curriculum design exciting and motivating and to provide a curriculum tailored to their individual students. Students of all abilities, backgrounds, and learning styles deserve curriculum and grading that will give them the tools and information they need to be passionately curious about their own learning.
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