Despite the many changes in education over the past century, grading and reporting practices have essentially remained the same. In part, this is because few teacher preparation programs offer any guidance on sound grading practices. As a result, most current grading practices are grounded in tradition, rather than research on best practice. In an effort to develop a process that leads to accurate and meaningful grades, many schools are moving toward standards-based grading. In this approach, three types of evidence are gathered and reported separately: product, process, and progress. Although standards-based grading corrects many of the fundamental errors of traditional grading practices, it also highlights other challenges when grading students who are unable to achieve grade-level standards. This includes not only students with diagnosed disabilities but also English language learners and any other students who, for reasons known or unknown, fall significantly behind their peers in mastering essential skills. Implementing the grading process described in this article results in more-transparent grading procedures and thus reveals the urgency of making purposeful and thoughtful policy decisions for exceptional learners. By implementing this grading process in a standards-based environment, school leaders can ensure that grades for all students are fair, legal, and clear to teachers, students, their families, employers, and institutes of higher education. (Contains 1 figure.)