Premise for Proficiency-based Grading
Grades are intended to communicate progress toward mastery of articulated course content standards to students and parents. They are intended to indicate what a student knows and is able to do with respect to course objectives that have been explicitly taught. They encourage the student to act on feedback and the teacher to adjust and individualize instruction.
Guiding Principles
- Grades should be directly tied to a specific content area with course standards and objectives.
- Grades should be accurate and reflect proficiency in those course standards, concepts and content.
- Grades should be associated with differences only in student performance rather than with differences in gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status.
- Grades that can be justified should reflect multiple opportunities for assessment in multiple modalities in a given course or content area.
- Grades should be specific and timely in providing feedback to students and parents.
Reinforcing Practice
- Teachers create frequent opportunities for students to demonstrate proficiency in prescribed standards.
- Teachers utilize a multitude of assessment evidence to determine a student’s level of proficiency: assignments, observations, portfolios, assessments, products, discussions, projects, performance tasks, etc.
- Homework is meaningful independent practice which requires time and effort outside the classroom and has an articulated purpose tied to content standards. It is not scored but serves as a vehicle for teacher feedback to the student on that practice.
- Points are not deducted for reasons other than a student’s lack of academic proficiency.
- District benchmark assessments are administered, scored and can be recorded.
- Classroom formative assessments tie directly to specific content standards and objectives.
- Teachers allow students who score below proficient on formative assessments to retake them and/or take alternative assessments to demonstrate their increased learning.
- “Extra credit” is not included in the academic grade. All students are given additional opportunities to demonstrate increased proficiency through extensions and remediation.
- Issues of student behavior, participation, punctuality, work timeliness and effort are reflected in a citizenship grade rather than an academic grade.
- Gradebook is updated regularly to prompt learning and increase proficiency.