How to Grade for Learning-Linking Grades to Standards

Here are the guidelines from a book by Ken O'Connor entitled "How to Grade For Learning: Linking Grades to Standards" that helped to guide the Grading/Assessment/Reporting Committee as it developed our new grading policies.

Guideline #1-Relate grading procedures to learning goals (i.e. standards)
-Grades must be linked to specific local/state learning targets (SD Content Standards)
-Alignment to standards based upon direct observation of the skills and knowledge associated with the standards

Guideline #2-Use of criterion-reference performance standards as reference points to determine grades
-Grades depend upon clear, public performance standards and the students own achievement
-Not on how the students achievement compares with other students

Guideline #3-Limit the valued attributes included in grades to individual achievement
-For grades to have real meaning, they must be pure measures of a student's achievement

Guideline #4-Sample student performance-do not include all scores in grades
-It is essential that teachers distinguish between formative and summative assessment
-Formative-to give feedback to students on progress
-Summative-used to make judgments about the amount of learning and grades

Guideline#5-Grade in pencil-keep records so they can be updated easily
-Supports learning as an ongoing process and what matters most is how much learning occurs (not when it occurs)
-Honors individual differences by recognizing the students learn at different rates

Guideline #6-Crunch numbers carefully-if at all
-Grading must be an exercise in professional judgment, rather than a simple, mechanical , numerical exercise

Guideline #7-Use quality assessment(s) and properly recorded evidence of achievement
-Grades are only meaningful when and only when they are based upon quality assessment

Guideline 8-Discuss & involve students in assessment, including grading, throughout the teaching/learning process
-When students know how they will be assessed, and especially when they have been involved in the assessment decisions, the likelihood of student success is increased greatly