This post will probably raise the ire of SBG purists. If you are considering switching to SBG, I say go for it. Even if it means you keep it simple the first year, as you and your students figure it all out for the first time. Here’s my K.I.S.SBG. story… Read More...

You can tell a lot about a teacher’s values and personality just by asking how he or she feels about giving grades. Some defend the practice, claiming that grades are necessary to “motivate” students. Many of these teachers actually seem to enjoy keeping intricate records of students’ marks. Such teachers periodically warn students that they’re “going to have to know this for the test” as a way of compelling them to pay attention or do the assigned readings – and they may even use surprise quizzes for that purpose, keeping their grade books at the ready.

Frankly, we ought to be worried for these teachers’ students. In my experience, the most impressive teachers are those who despise the whole process of giving grades. Their aversion, as it turns out, is supported by solid evidence that raises questions about the very idea of traditional grading. Read More...

There is a palpable anxiety mounting. Report cards are coming and students are wondering "What am I going to get?" Rather than a confident awareness of learning, students believe they sit at the mercy of their teachers who seem to arbitrarily assign letters or numbers to their names with little regard for learning.

Perhaps based on how much teachers like them or how well they 'play the game', adolescents fail to comprehend that their grades are actually supposed to convey a level of proficiency in specific subject matter.

Achieving a grade, seems a very passive experience for many students. They show up. They do the work or they don't or do enough to get by, but seldom have a deeper metacognitive awareness of connection between their learning and mark assigned. Read More...

A colleague of mine recently described what it was like growing up as the youngest kid in the family. His main point was that the youngest child sometimes learns a lot from watching the older kids fail horribly. Hopefully this post gives you a chance to benefit from being the little brother/sister learning from us older kids so you don’t have to make the same mistakes. Administrators, this one’s for you. Read More...

Here's a quick summary of our grassroots journey towards changing grading practices district-wide to better provide student learning feedback to parents and students through the grade book.  Read More...