Measuring Student Progress

Standards-Based Grading

Milford School District shifted to a standards-based grading approach in kindergarten and is now making the shift as our students progress through elementary grades. The purpose of a standards-based student growth report is to communicate a learner’s proficiency level as they progress toward meeting the defined learning standards. Learning standards are the nationally established academic skills your child should know or be able to do by the end of the school year. 

The student growth report fully aligns with the State of Delaware-approved Common Core Standards in English Language Arts, Mathematics, the Delaware Social Studies State Standards, and Next Generation Science Standards. The indicators on the growth report do not reflect every standard taught and assessed throughout the school year. Rather, they reflect mastery levels of prioritized standards that are considered necessary for future academic success. 

The growth report is designed to:

• align with current state standards;
• reflect student progress towards grade-level standards;
• be unique to the grade and the standards of that grade; and
• provide more objective evaluation according to consistent grade-level standards.

Research supports standards-based grading and reporting as a basis of communication that will help students learn more effectively through better feedback for teachers, students, and families. The Standards-Based Growth Report is only one component in Milford School District’s effort to improve learning outcomes for every student in every classroom. 

 

Standards-Based Versus Traditional Grading

Standards-based grading communicates how students perform on a clearly defined set of learning targets called standards. Standards-based grading aims to identify what a student knows or can do in relation to pre-established learning targets.

Unlike the traditional grading system, a standards-based grading system measures a student’s mastery of grade-level standards by prioritizing the most recent, consistent level of performance. Thus, a student who may have struggled when encountering new material at the beginning of a unit may still be able to demonstrate mastery of key content and concepts by the end of the marking period or by the end of the school year. 

 Standards-based grading gives students the practice they need and more than one opportunity to demonstrate success. It uses assessments based on prioritized standards and multiple scores per student, which reflect a student’s ability at a specific moment in time. 

In contrast, in the traditional grading system, a student’s performance for an entire marking period is averaged together and typically involves a single overall letter or numerical grade. As an example, early quiz scores that may have been low would be averaged together with more proficient performance later in the course, resulting in a lower overall grade than the student’s current performance indicates. The traditional grading system does not always convey precise information regarding student growth.