7 Mistakes I Made Implementing Standards-Based Grading (And What I Learned From Them)

Over several years, I gradually shifted from a traditional grading system to a standards-based system. In year one, I got rid of zeros, extra credit and drastically cut the number of grades entered. The next year, in addition to small tweaks, I experimented with involving students more in the grading process and eliminated homework, group and effort grades. I entered year 3 excited about the prospects and ready to fully implement standards-based grading. Following are 7 mistakes I made implementing standards-based grading.

1. I failed to effectively communicate my vision and purpose to families. Honestly, I don't remember a single student having any issues with standards-based grading, and most families were extremely supportive and even appreciative, but some families resisted. The families that did resist were on the two grading scale extremes. I remember the father of an "A+ student" who seemed more interested in preserving the status quo and seemingly ensuring his daughter would be ahead in the race for valedictorian. On the other end of the spectrum, I had several parents who argued, "If my son does just enough to pass, he should be able to pass." In hindsight, I needed to more clearly communicate--and in multiple ways--why standards-based grading benefits all students. 
2. I still relied on calculating grades instead of determining grades. I entered the year knowing this would be my biggest hurdle because we were required to enter grades into our grading program, use either a point or a percentage system, and assign exam grades. Knowing averaging falls short of providing an accurate description of what a student has learned, I stuck with a point system because I felt I could better manipulate it to reflect student achievement. I attempted to focus on the most recent evidence of learning and used both median and mode in determining grades, but I felt my efforts were continually handcuffed by the school system's requirements. I slowly became more adept at determining grades and ultimately relied on my own professional judgment. 
3. I didn't develop an effective naming convention for organizing my gradebook. My gradebook reflected a combined--and thus confusing--approach to grading. Instead of completely organizing my gradebook by learning standards, expectations and criteria, I relied on a combination of naming by sources of information (quiz, project, presentation, etc.) and specific content standards. 
4. I didn't collect enough quality evidence. For power standards, I believe I did a pretty good job of collecting multiple samples of student achievement to accurately assess student learning, but for less important standards, I assigned grades that relied too heavily on assessments that were not sound. Essentially, I was checking a box that the student had learned it and I was ready to move on. We should attempt to collect at least 3 samples of student work to accurately assess student learning. 
5. I struggled to grade exceptional students. While I modified and differentiated learning and assessments for exceptional students, I did not have a plan on how to accurately assess all students based on their abilities, thus I could not accurately provide information on their achievement as it related to their IEP goals. When it came time to enter grades, I sorta' just entered a grade based on my heart and gut. Tailoring learning goals for exceptional students requires communication and collaboration with case managers, co-teachers, families and the student. 
6. I didn't solicit administrative support. At no time did I sit down with my school administrator to share my vision and plan to implement standards-based grading. At the end of the first marking period, I was called into the principal's office and asked/told, "Why do you have so many INCs? You can't give incompletes unless there are extenuating circumstances." For the first time, I explained to my assistant principal and the principal my standards-based grading system and the INC represented not having sufficient evidence to assess the student at this point, and I was holding the student and myself accountable for learning." Well, that didn't go too well. I was told to enter grades by the end of the week and within 24-hours an email went out to all staff that from that point forward all INC grades required administrative approval. I no longer gave incompletes, but instead submitted countless grade change forms every marking period thereafter. Thankfully, I had a good relationship with our registrar! Needless to say, I should've sat down and communicated my plan with administration before the school year started. 
7. I went at it alone. It wasn't until the end of the year that I learned that another teacher was also implementing standards-based grading and that she also had been called into the principal's office for giving incompletes. The shift to standards-based grading is a tremendous endeavor to take on alone. I wish I had solicited others to begin the journey with me--perhaps other ninth grade teachers or other world history teachers.

Even with all of the mistakes I made, I am glad that I made the change to standards-based grading. Grading requires significant professional judgment. We should aim to ensure that grades are an accurate representation of student learning and are clearly understood by the the sender (the teacher) and the receiver (students and families). 

My Journey to Standards-Based Grading

I’ll be honest; I came upon standards-based grading totally by accident.  

I had become increasingly frustrated with my students’ attitudes toward learning and grades. Many of my “top” students were motivated more by “What do I have to do to earn an A?” than “What do I have to learn?” My less motivated students were too quick to accept less than their best. They were perfectly satisfied to earn C’s or D’s. It was the latter that spurred me to make changes to how I taught and how I assessed.

My three original reasons for adopting standards-based grading:

1. Students avoided work because they didn't feel they'd be successful. 
2. Too many students were not completing their work. 
3. Many students were turning in work that was far below their potential.

high school career. But over the years far too many students were not completing their work. Many turned in work that was far below expectations and often extremely below grade level. Challenging assignments were met with trepidation; if the assignment was difficult, many students either simply didn’t do it or their efforts were minimal.

In conversations with other freshman teachers, we lamented that in middle school many students had the option to not turn in assignments, and at the end of the semester or year, they were given opportunities to raise their grades. These ranged from extra credit to fluff assignments to being allowed to turn in work that was assigned months ago. (Disclaimer: I know it’s easy for high school teachers to blame middle school teachers and for middle school teachers to blame elementary teachers. I also know many high school teachers have the same ineffective policies, but the point here is that if we’re going to prepare our students for college and life, we must do better.)

I pledged to myself and to my students and their families that I was no longer going to let students off the hook. I believed in their abilities and I was going to hold them accountable. They would leave my class with a newfound confidence in themselves. They’d be better prepared for life and along the way they were going to have fun learning about history.

On the first day of school, I explained my new learning and grading to all of my students. I explained that redos, retakes and revisions would be allowed (for more on redos and retakes: here and here). I went on to say I would never assign a grade less than a C, instead students would receive a “not yet” or “work in progress.” Practice assignments, including most homework, and formative assessment activities wouldn’t be graded. In addition, students would be given freedom to demonstrate learning in a variety of ways.

My standards-based grading goals were simple:

1.  By attaching learning goals to each assignment and activity students were more likely to challenge themselves.
2.  Instead of emphasizing grading, I’d be providing more feedback
3. As author Ken O’Connor suggests, I wanted to be confident that the grades the student in my class received were accurate, meaningful and supportive of learning.
4.  I wanted to remove subjectivity from grading.
5.  I was no longer going to grade behaviors by punishing students for late work or work that wasn’t turned in.
6. I'd make greater use of differentiation, flexible grouping, pre-assessments, and redos and retakes. All were intended to increase student motivation, reflection and increase intrinsic motivation

By no stretch of the imagination was the process easy or flawless. During the first year, I struggled to “compute” grades, the administration admonished me for giving incompletes on report cards, and several students and parents complained. Student grades provided a more accurate snapshot of student learning, but more importantly more students became motivated to learn and pushed themselves. Instead of avoiding challenges and withdrawing from tasks, they became risk takers; their efforts increased. They became more analytical, reflective and persistent. They established their own goals and strove to achieve them.

So while I stumbled upon standards-based grading accidentally, my journey had begun. I haven’t looked back since. 

6 Fundamentals to Facilitating Change

I’m a pretty straight-arrowed rule follower, and I’ve never considered myself a rabble-rouser. So several years ago, when I got called into the principal’s office, I suffered a mini-anxiety attack. With my heart palpitating and my spores gushing sweat, I feebly sunk myself into a chair opposite of the principal’s massive desk, seemingly hoping to hide behind it.

“Reed, you gave 15 INCOMPLETE grades. Incompletes are only to be used in extreme situations like when a student misses several classes because she was sick. Go back to counseling and fix this.”

With that--and no opportunity to defend myself--my shift to Standards-Based Grading grading had hit another roadblock. I had a great relationship with both the director of school counseling and the registrar, so I was pleased to see them together as I entered counseling department. Obviously, they knew why I was there, and they reassured me that it was no big deal. The registrar let me in on a little secret, another teacher had also given a significant number of incompletes, and from her perspective, the only problem with incompletes was that it required more work for her since she would have to manually enter the new grades. She continued, “We can’t accurately calculate GPAs when a student has an INC. Other than that there’s really no problem with incompletes except that it’s something different.”

With that I immediately understood: different isn’t always good. This is especially the case when it goes against a long-standing school policy.

After I explained to the registrar that students received incompletes because they had not completed a significant assignment or did not demonstrate the required mastery of a strand or unit, the registrar offered a temporary solution, “Reed, give them the F or whatever, and then come back with a grade change form and I’ll change the grade. It’ll end up being the same amount of work on this end.”

I appreciated her understanding and willingness to work with me. Of course, I had already explained to the students and their parents why I had given Incompletes and what needed to be done, so I went back to my office space and started making phone calls.

While this wasn’t how I wanted to spend my time, it offered an opportunity for me to reflect, “Standards-Based Grading has been good for my students and assigning Incompletes (in my classroom I called them ‘Not Yets’) on assignments had led to improved academic performance.  What could I have done differently? What did I need to do going forward? What had I done wrong?

As an educator, I sought to constantly tweak, change and improve, but clearly I had taken a few missteps in my journey towards Standards-Based Grading. Through reflection I identified six areas where I erred.

6 Fundamentals to Facilitating Change

1. Change requires honest dialogue and courageous conversations. Internally, I had identified a problem and a solution but not wanting to rock the boat, I did not involve others when I should have.
2. Educational change requires support from many people. By providing information to others, along with the rationale and supporting research, I could have increased support and avoided conflict.
3. There’s nothing wrong with starting small and sharing. I had been flying solo on my Standards-Based Grading journey, but I could’ve expanded my efforts to include other teachers from my PLC or my team. Doing so would’ve ensured ongoing dialogue, increased validity and improved fidelity.
4. Change efforts must be organized. Had I been more organized and done a better job of coordinating my efforts with others, I could have avoided cynicism and conflict. By creating a specific plan with the help of others, the change to Standards-Based Grading would have been more valid.
5. Anticipate problems and emotional reactions, including your own. My principal rightfully felt like the carpet had been pulled from under him as I--unintentionally--broke school rules, and I also became very frustrated. I did not anticipate emotional attachments to educational policies, nor did I proactively plan for problems.
6. Expect cynicism. To reduce the rampant cynicism among most school staffs about educational improvement, restructuring endeavors should be well organized and coordinated. A written and/or visual model of the change effort can be developed and posted, including timelines, activities, task force members, and their responsibilities

Educational policies should be synonymous with change. Ongoing restructuring and improving should be a valued norm. Such innovation must be appropriately managed to ensure positive results. Doing so will ensure that we meet the needs of our students.

Two Conversations that Emphasized the Need for Standards-Based Grading

This past week I overheard two conversations that reminded me of the need for standards-based grading.

Conversation 1: in produce section of grocery store between a parent and a middle school teacher who I’ll call Mr. Smith

Parent: Good to see you Mr. Smith. How’s Jon [another pseudonym] doing?

Mr. Smith: Jon’s one of my best students. His test scores are always among the best in the class. I think he had the highest score on the last test.

Parent: That’s great! He really enjoys your class.

Mr. Smith: Thanks. He's a pleasure to teach. 

What's wrong with this conversation?

Simply, why is the teacher comparing Jon’s performance against other students? Assessments and grades should be used to provide meaningful feedback in relation to learning objectives. Grades should never be used to rank and sort students. I'm sure the teacher meant well and the parent was clearly pleased with this impromptu progress report, but does the parent truly know How's my child doing?

Conversation 2: overheard at a basketball game

Parent: Did you get your test back?

Middle school student: (Sheepishly) Yes.

(Parent tilts her head and gives her daughter “the eye.”)

Student: I got a 60. But everyone did badly.

(Long pause as parent simply stares through the child.)

Student (with cautionary optimism): She gave us an extra credit assignment to pull up our grade.

Parent: Get it out and start working on it.

What's wrong with this conversation?

I applaud the teacher for recognizing that the entire class struggled on the test (assuming the student didn’t make it up). But instead of assigning an extra credit assignment to raise students’ grades, the teacher should be reflecting on her own professional practices to ensure improved achievement. This should include re-teaching and re-assessment.

While some extra credit assignments do equate to increased learning or mastery of the objective, most extra credit assignments dilute the meaning of grades. For example, in this case, it sounds as if the student simply needs to complete additional work to raise her grade; meaning the quantity of work becomes more important than the quality of the understanding.

If, as the student stated, most students did poorly, it’s not a learning problem. It’s a teaching problem that requires corrective action.

Four Standards-Based Grading Principles Relevant to These Conversations

1. Grades should focus on results rather than activities. Emphasis should be on learning and not competition and completion.
2. Assessments provide information for students AND teacher.
3. If a particular concept or skill is worth assessing then it’s important enough to teach and teach well.
4. Teachers should follow assessments with high-quality corrective actions and students should be given additional opportunities to demonstrate mastery.

10 Ways Being a Connected Educator Transformed Me

Like many educators, becoming a connected educator transformed my professional life. Prior to becoming a connected educator my professional network was quite limited. Limited, in fact, to a handful of teachers with whom I ate lunch or talked to as we ran off copies. Becoming a connected educator exposed me to a network of peers and experts who are committed to improving teaching and learning, each willing to share their favorite strategies, resources, and more.

My Top 10

1. #Edfocus One of the first twitter chats I was exposed to @MrBernia, @mccoyderek,  @BurkheadBill and others showed me the power of Twitter. My journey into becoming a Connected Educator had begun. 
2. Reading blogs Out of fear of not including several blogs that I routinely read, I'll quote Will Richardson, "The ability to share and connect with many, many others of like minds and interests" has transformed my learning and my own professional experiences. Of course, Will's quote applies to all "things connected" from Twitter to webinars to Voxer, but the depth associated with blogs has clearly transformed me. 
3. My own blogs This blog, my far too sporadic entries on Brilliant or Insane, and my Cougar Communication blog all require reflection and greater understanding. Through my own blogging, I've been connected to more educators, leading to increased communication and collaboration and ultimately I've become better because of it.
4. #ptchat I'm proud to say that I've been a regular participant in #ptchat from the beginning. @Joe_Mazza is an inspirational lead learner and someone I've learned so much from. Conversations on #ptchat have ranged from Bully Prevention to Using Technology to Engage Parents to Back to School Nights.
5. #satchat No other chat has taken off quite like #satchat. Moderators @bradmcurrie @ScottRRocco have created a platform for superintendents, central office personnel, school-based administrators, teachers and anyone else interested in improving education. I've heard Brad describe #satchat as a one-stop place for administrators to share and learn from each other. I wholeheartedly agree!
6. #iaedchat and #edchatri The inspiration behind #vachat (see #7)
7. #vachat Along with @philgriffins, I co-host #vachat every Monday at 8ET (Shameless plug). But seriously, inspired by the likes of all the previously mentioned twitter chats, we--along with @Dr_TravisBurns--saw the need for a twitter chat for Virginia educators. Of course, like all the aforementioned chats, our chat has become much more global. Serving as a moderator surely isn't easy (coming up with a topic and questions is much more daunting than I ever would've imagined). The topics I choose are often ones that I'm struggling with, so I'm able to take what I learn and immediately apply it.
8. #sblchat Like #ptchat, standards-based learning chat meets every Wednesday at 9ET and I'm proud to say I've been part of it since its launching. No other chat includes so many experts (@RickWormeli2, @kenoc7, @myrondueck, and others are regular participants). Personally, before going into administration I had slowly been making the shift to standards-based grading, and I don't think anything transformed my teaching and instruction as much as my shift to SBG. I continue to learn from the #sblchat (I wish it had been around when I was still in the classroom!)
9. Edcamps If I wasn't connected, I never would have experienced an edcamp, the best professional development conferences ever!
10. Exposure to New Technologies As an educator, it's important that we not only teach our content, we must also teach and expose our students to technologies that they will use outside of school and that will enhance their learning. Of course, the only way to do so, is to be a connected educator. We can't simply sit on the sidelines; we must be innovative practitioners.

Being a connected educator has enabled me to take full advantage of the above opportunities. Being a connected has stimulated my development as an educator.

4 Reasons Effort Shouldn't Factor Into Grades

Learning is not a behavior, but rather a complex process that differs for each student. As such, we need grading systems that don't measure--or attempt to measure--behaviors like effort. Too often grades measure compliance, completion of assigned tasks, participation, and responsibility, which are effort grades. Grades should be an indicator of learning and progress.

What follows are four reasons effort shouldn't factor into grading.

Measuring effort is nearly impossible; it's vague and intangible.

• My senior year in high school, I took US Government and Calculus. Growing up in a political family, I found government easy; it came naturally to me. Calculus, on the other hand, required every ounce of effort. My year-end grades were an A and C respectively. If I were graded based on my effort though, my grades would be the inverse. 
• Effort is a subjective measurement. A teacher who favors grading effort may look at factors such as amount of work attempted/completed. Measuring variables such as these don't factor in how long and hard the student worked to complete an assignment. Another teacher may wish to measure class participation in discussions and asking questions, but an introverted student may be attuned to everything and thinking but seemingly isn't participating. 

Incorporating effort into grades makes grades less valid and ambiguous. 

• Grades should not harm the relationship between teacher and student. Effort grades increase the likelihood of conflict. During my first year of teaching, I had a problematic world geography class. Most of the students in the class were high achievers and their poor behavior was most likely indicative of lessons that didn't challenge them. In an attempt to gain control of the class, I implemented a participation grade. Students were rewarded for participation and punished for coming unprepared, disruptions, etc. My new grading procedures didn't solve the problems and the relationship between my students and I soured.

Effort grades don't change behaviors

• Effort grades are often used to change behaviors through punishment. Say for example a student could earn up to 10 participation points each week. At the end of the week, the teacher (me) goes through the class roster and assigns most students 10/10 points and assigns students who exhibited disruptive behaviors 5/10 points, hoping this will motivate the student to change his/her behavior. Rarely--if ever--will this change the behavior. Using grades as extrinsic motivators to control student behavior does not work.

Effort grades muddle the academic meaning of grades

• When a student tries hard but is barely succeeding, educators' hearts ache and we feel tremendous guilt. Feeling a passion for that student, we reward that student's effort but at the end of the year they haven't met the course's standards. It's not until the end of the course test or the next year that it is learned that student has academic weaknesses that need addressing.

None of this is to say that teachers should not communicate about student behaviors that are important. We should, however, separate academic achievement and behavioral grades. As a matter of fact, we should strive to create a dual-purpose report card with a standards-based grade and a separately reported behavioral "grade" focusing on social and emotional aspects, soft skills, and intended learner outcomes. 


 

My Goals for 2014-2015

The start of each school year marks the opportunity for me to  set goals for the upcoming school year. Unlike my New Year's resolutions, I tend to do a better job of working towards these. Of course, sharing my goals with anyone who comes across my blog and those I work with definitely ups the ante and increases accountability. So here are my goals for the 2014-2015 school year. 
 
Every day I will help make a colleague better. 

• I will perform at least 750 observations and provide teachers with timely feedback
• I will schedule a weekly visit with each teacher on the comprehensive cycle to provide feedback and to discuss 
• Each Cougar Communication will have an instructional element, and I'll make more use of visuals, images, videos, etc.
• In person feedback will be provided whenever a negative is witnessed during an observation 
• I will work with each teacher to develop their own professional learning plans 

I will work with struggling students to improve their academic performance 

• Meet with parents, students, counselors and teachers on a regular basis for those students who are most at risk 
• Require teachers to monitor students' academic progress and communicate that progress to me 
• Expand the use of RTI procedures  

I will hand write at least 3 thank you/job well done notes each week 

I will create relationships based on respect, trust and mutual understanding. I will support and engage those with whom I work and always act with the utmost integrity. I will listen and learn. 

• I will attend all departmental meetings 
• I will meet weekly with department chairs 
• I will be visible before and after school 

I will communicate and engage parents, students and the community on school issues. 

• I will blog on Cougar Chat at least once per week 
• Our Remind account will have at least 600 people sign-up
• Kettle Run News (Twitter) will finish the year with at least 800 followers
• Principal Forums will be streamed live
• I will work with faculty to ensure that BlackBoard Learn is implemented and used as described 
• On 75% of Friday, I will complete my Friday Five 
• I will explore use of other social media sites to enhance our digital footprint

I will work with Professional Development/School Improvement Team to improve instruction and learning.

• I will work with our School Improvement Team to provide relevant, meaningful, purposeful and engaging professional development opportunities for ALL faculty 
• Our  professional development will be teacher-driven, student-centered, and choice-based.
• Professional development opportunities will be offered online 
• I will lead at least 3 professional development sessions including one on Standards-Based Grading and one on Restorative Justice. 

We will expand our use of Restorative Practices 

Every day I will make myself a better leader by reading, learning from my Twitter PLN, asking questions and LISTENING.  After all it's all about RELATIONSHIPS. 


 

Standardized Tests: The Movable Target?

A couple of weeks ago, a Washington Post article stated, “Reading scores for the Virginia Standards of Learning test dropped by double digits following the introduction of a new, more rigorous exam this past year.

A couple of years’ ago, it was Virginia’s math scores that dropped as a result of newer, more rigorous standards.

Meanwhile D.C. Public School students made impressive gains in math and reading tests, but math officials reported that the gains were in part tied to the division’s decision to “score the tests in a way that yielded higher scores even though D.C. students got fewer math questions correct than in the year before.”

Virginia and D.C. are by no means alone as they try to balance tougher standards with consistent scoring. In 2012, seeing scores plummet, Florida state education officials decided to lower the passing cut rate/grade. A couple of months ago, the debate played out again with the Florida State Board of Education again voting to prevent school grades from dropping more than one letter grade. Even Board Member Kathleen Shanahan, who was a driving force behind the school grading system that “served as a model for other states,” commented, “I am struggling with the integrity of the accountability system…and the reliability of grades.”

As the debate plays out amongst politicians and state boards of education, it is teachers and students who are caught in the middle.

Should standardized tests enable educators to compare student performance from year to year? Yes.

On the other hand, standardized tests should challenge all students. But, at what expense? In Virginia, the more rigorous tests and scoring resulted in significantly lower student scores. State officials talked up the results as a temporary price to pay as Virginia shifted to higher standards.

But who paid the price? Students. Students, who in essence served as guinea pigs, and as a result may not earn and Advanced Diploma or even a Standard Diploma.   

Like too many classroom grading systems, proficiency on state tests seems immeasurable and perpetually alterable based on the whims of a few elected or appointed officials. Instead of being based on teacher instruction and student learning, passing rates and standardized testing have become politicized (the consequences range from the grade the school receives, to funding, to accreditation,  to employment decisions, to student graduation) while failing to galvanize meaningful educational reform.

We cannot expect our teachers and students to hit a moving target.

The Game of School

This blog entry was cross-posted at Brilliant or Insane

“What do I have to do to earn an A?”

If you’re an experienced teacher, you’ve been asked the above question too many times to count. We need not look any further to provide definitive proof that our archaic grading system has failed our students.

Instead of being motivated to learn, students enter our classrooms motivated solely by grades. The good students have learned to play the game. They turn their work in on time, answer a couple of questions in class, fulfill the rubric’s requirements, and occasionally—when necessary—they complete extra credit to ensure they’ve accrued the necessary points.

The end of the marking period arrives and the student has “earned” an A. At an awards ceremony, the student receives an Honor Roll Certificate; her name is published in the school newsletter and maybe even in the local paper.  Perhaps, she even receives a certificate for a free pizza from the local pizza parlor. Her parents proudly display their “My Child is an Honor Roll Student at XYZ Middle School.” So while seemingly, everyone wins, nothing could be further from the truth.

Our current “if-then” grading system rewards students for compliance, instead of learning. With the focus on outcomes, students will take the shortest and easiest path to the A, including cheating. Such a system takes away from the love of learning and reinforces superficial learning, instead of true understanding.

By ditching our current grading system in favor of the SE2R Approach or another Standards-Based Learning system, students will take control of their learning. As Daniel Pink suggests in Drive, “increasing student autonomy promotes greater conceptual understanding, better grades, and enhanced persistence at school and in sporting activities, higher productivity, less burnout, and greater levels of psychological well-being.”

Ridding our schools of our antiquated grading system won’t be easy, but doing so will increase student learning and their love of learning.

Grading Group Work in a Standards-Based Classroom

The other day, Ms. Snider approached me with a simple query, “Do you have a minute to discuss grading of my group project?”

The ensuing conversation centered around two questions:

1.     Should the group be assigned one grade?

2.     How can we assess for individual learning and provide meaningful feedback to each individual?

We began with a resounding “NO!” to the first question.

Both of us believe that a grade stands for what each student learns, so this was easy. But, as we explored the subject in more detail, we soon realized that assigning the group one grade actually defeats the purpose of a cooperative assignment. Ms. Snider shared a story of her daughter, a high-achieving student, who often felt pressured to pick up her group mates slack. Like many students, her daughter felt it easier to do their work than to wait for them or to work with them.

Is it any surprise that a lot of our top students, cringe at the thought of group work?

We had our starting point: individual students will be responsible for their own learning and will receive their own grades.

Our next challenge was to determine how students would be held individually accountable while still relying on each other to successfully complete the assignment. Although this was a new project for Ms. Snider, she knew exactly what she wanted the students to learn and what skills they would acquire. That led us to our next question:

How can we assess learning and provide feedback?

After much back-and-forth, we stumbled upon the following idea. Periodically, each student reflects on his/her own contributions to the group and on his/her own learning. (Sometimes this might be daily and at other times it might be weekly.) We immediately began to craft a rubric, but then another idea hit us. Why not have the students share their own experiences and have the class create their own group participation rubric.

This, of course, led us to our next problem. Ms. Snider teaches some of our best students—students who are highly grade-motivated. Some would undoubtedly grade themselves harshly, while others would unfairly inflate their grades. To counter this, Ms. Snider came up with an outstanding idea: After each self-reflection, lets allow the students time to share their own rating and give the other members of the group time to provide feedback.

For the student who grades herself harshly, this would be easy. For the student who inflates, his/her grade the task would be more difficult for the group mates, but the ability to provide truthful and honest feedback is an important skill. Additionally, this would take some of the pressure off of students having to actually assign their peers a grade (an idea we nixed).  Again, we could use the same student-created rubric to help this process.

While great ideas were flowing from our conversation, we hadn’t yet discovered a way to accurately assess student learning. We were getting closer though.

Last year, I remember watching Ms. Mathews’ students create a Rube Goldberg machine. Along the way, she peppered the students with individual questions, and after presenting their machines, students were asked more detailed questions. Her questions required students to demonstrate their knowledge; their reflective nature also shed light on the entire group experience.

Ms. Snider took Ms. Mathews’ ideas to the next level, “You know what? That’s a great idea.” With increasing enthusiasm, “I think we can go one step further. Why not have the other students in the class ask questions—and I mean real questions after each group’s presentation?”

Finally, we started to discuss two very important individual components. First, all students would be asked to grade themselves according to the class-created rubric. Finally, each student would be required to demonstrate his or her knowledge of the assignment through an additional assessment—perhaps a test or an essay.

We were definitely on to something. As the project progresses, I’m sure Ms. Snider will improve upon the ideas we generated.

What started as a simple conversation morphed into something much more complex. Our focus centered around 4 basic, research-supported premises:

1.    No group grade will be assigned

2.    Students will not be told to grade each other. Students will, however, provide meaningful and honest feedback to their group mates.

3.    Reflection is critical to the learning process.

4.    Targeted, well-crafted and specific questions will be used to assess student learning. This will provide meaningful feedback and can be used as both for both formative and summative assessment.

****

By the way, I need to give Ms. Snider’s project a plug. This is not a group project in which students simply gather facts, arrange them neatly on a poster or PowerPoint, and then spit them out during a presentation. Ms. Snider’s project required students to think for themselves, to pose questions, to think creatively to solve problems and to rely on each other. I can’t wait to see the end results.