In the United States the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) workforce is in high demand. To meet this demand, students graduating from high school must have the necessary 21st century skills and interest to pursue a STEM career. Unfortunately, student interest in STEM has been shown to decline starting in the upper grades of…

Purpose: This study sought to examine how preservice physical educators conceptualize and intend to use standards-based grading (SBG) after receiving a 1-hr workshop on implementing SBG into a physical education (PE) setting. Methods: Using a qualitative descriptive approach, the researchers utilized class reflection assignments, a perceptions…

Learning goals such as the Common Core State Standards are helping educational leaders to better understand the critical role assessment and grading plays in the teaching and learning process. In response to the growing body of empirical research on the topic of accurate grading practices, a number of schools are moving away from letter grades and…

The American school system is funded, operated, and evaluated based on student academic achievement data that is generated by various assessment tools and grading practices. The most traditional grading practice, norm-referenced grading, assesses student academic achievement on a 100-point scale that is further broken into categorical levels (A-F)…

High school science teacher Michelle Vanhala reflects on her (sometimes rocky) path to standards-based grading and a grading system that aligned with her educational philosophy.

The purpose of this action research study was to examine grading practices in one military-connected high school and to make recommendations for aligning grading practices to improve student achievement, engagement, and equity. Through iterative research cycles of look, think, and act, teachers from one military-connected high school participated…

Some high schools are moving towards standards-based grading in an attempt to produce consistent grading practices; however, the change's impact on college readiness is not clear. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of high school's grading practices as it relates to ACT scores and grade point averages (GPAs). Existing data were…

Standards-based grading (SBG) is a grading system in which each student is given a set of grades, each reflecting their proficiency in relation to a specific skill. The present study examined K-12 teachers' implementation of SBG practices in a small, suburban Midwestern school district, as well as their perceptions of and confidence in…

As a result of the national shift to a more standards-based model for education, principals across the country are leading organizational change in all aspects of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and leadership for student learning. One reform initiative, entitled standards-based grading (SBG), attempts to reimagine the way schools measure and…

As schools make a shift to standards-based grading to ensure greater equity and clarity of expectations and more transparency in reporting progress on academic and behavior expectations, teachers are required to adopt new practices. Understanding the impact such a change has on teachers' sense of self-efficacy and effectiveness in the classroom is…

Standards-based grading, an alternative form of grading in which a student's achievement is based on their performance on a clearly defined set of standards rather than on their performance on tests and assignments, is commonplace in K-12 education but has been slow to catch on in higher education. This article presents an example of how…

This article describes a Standards-Based Grading (SBG) implementation used in a variety of lower-level mathematics courses, notably including the use of oral re-assessments. A retrospective study of this implementation was conducted that showed that female students take advantage of optional oral re-assessments at greater rates than male students…

This article describes a framework of Standards-Based Grading suitable for use in a variety of mathematics courses. We detail our experience adapting this framework to various courses, ranging from Pre-calculus to Differential Equations, at four different institutions, including both small liberal arts colleges and large universities, and in class…

Traditionally, assessing and grading students in science has been an exercise centered around points and percentages (Feldman, Kropf, and Alibrandi 1989; Prøitz 2013). However, with the introduction of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the need to revisit grading practices stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, an increasing number of…

This study followed mindset changes in elementary teachers as they transitioned from traditional grading to standards based grading during the earliest stages of the change process. A pre- and post-survey of mindsets of participants, individual interviews, and a focus group interview were conducted. While the results of the pre- and post-survey…