The start of the school year always has me thinking about how I will measure student progress/acheivement and how to share that information in a way that allows students grow as learners. Most years that means I'm re-examining rubrics, re-tooling and preparing to set up student portfolios. For years my district has been looling at Stiggins and how do we assess to promote learning. Accross the state a number of districts are moving to standards based grading. Something Kristin brought up recently.
Philosophically I like standards based grading. I think it offers teachers, students, and families a far more clear and objective picture of learning taking place. Much in the same way TPEP has potential to be a powerful tool for porfessional growth, standards based grading has the potential to be a powerful tool in student learning when accompanied by timely actionable feedback. But there are issues.
This year my district is piloting standards based grading at the secondary level and my school is one of the two pilot sites. As I prepare to set up my grade book and instert grading policy into my syllabus these are the questions I still need answered: Are we prepared within our classes and as a school to move students demonstrating mastery on to more challenging work or the next grade level? Are we prepared to hold back those who are not meeting standard at the end of a grading period? How can my ELL students demonstrate their skill in a subject area while they are still developing English language skills?
My first two questions, while incredibly relevant to how standards based grading can be used as an objective tool for growth, worry me far less than my third in the here and now. To just give ELLs 1s (not meeting standard at this time) until they have the language to demonstrate what they know is a social justice issue. As I look at the common core standards across the K-12 spectrum in any given subject the verbage across the grade bands aligns with the four levels in the state English Language Development Standards. If a new to country, 7th grade non-English speaker was assessed on the k-2 grade band standards they would (theoretically) be able to score 3's and even 4's.
It is demoralizing enough to know you are an intelligent person and be unable to express that in the language of the land you are in. My students do not need to be further demoralized by only seeing 1's. Previously teachers were able to modify their grades so that growth in language if not content could be acknowledged. It wasn't perfect or even right. I just know in order to keep kids engaged there has to be a way to report and honor growth they have made regardless of where they start from.
Kristin- The social promotion kills me. What is the point of standardards based grading if we are just going to continue to move them on before they can meet standard? If it is just to align with CCS, we miss all potential for positive change and student ownership of learning standards based grading offers.
Since we are in a pilot year and so far no standards have been loaded into our grading software program for my classes, what I am going to do is assess my ELLs on the state ELD standards for reading, writing, listenting and speaking. For my level three kids I can see using the mainstream ELA and SS standards if I have done a good job of scaffolding and differenetiating. Otherwise I see no other equitable solution. I want them to learn and absorb all the content of ELA and SS. But my ultimate responsiblity is to teach them English so they can live and work in a fulfilling manner as a participating member of our community. I have yet to see a place where CCS or Standards Based grading acknowledges that reality for my students.
I wonder if it’s even accurate to plug a 7th grader who has spoken English for four months into year 7 of standards. Wouldn’t it be more reasonable and accurate to create a trajectory of skills that pulls from each year for ELL students? It’s not so much a lowering of standards, as common sense in scaffolding skills.
Tamara, I’m so glad you raised the issue of standards-based grading in a system of social promotion. It’s frustrating to measure and mark a child based on a set of standards when, regardless of whether or not he masters them, he’s going on to the next year anyway.
I would like to see a system emerge that allows us to teach to common yet flexible standards that honors individual students’ learning trajectory. I see a common theme in theses comments: standards are good and necessary, but should they be the same for everyone at the same time? So question: Are all roads leading to formal tracking?
Two things stand out for me on this issue. The first is that we do need to allow for alternative assessment. A newer ELL might not be able to write a lengthy essay with the same grammar or syntax as a native speaker, but they may be able to demonstrate learning in other ways. Or (as I see happening at the graduate level) teachers can assess content, but not the elements that indicate language learning. This wouldn’t work in ELA, but it would work in other areas.
The second thing is the question of equity. In many subjects, ELL students miss a lot of content because of language. Our current grading system allows us to gloss over that because they are trying really hard, or making growth, even if it’s not grade level growth. Our current system allows us to pretend that we are meeting their needs because we don’t have to look at the columns of 1’s that a standards based system requires. Perhaps this will begin to open up conversation and change(!) in the ways we meet the needs of our ELL students. That is something that we desperately need to do if we are to promote social justice in education. If standards based grading means that we can’t, as a system, ignore the needs of these learners, then I think it’s a positive direction.
I think we can grade “equitably,” but we just won’t like the results… it goes back to something probably every parent has said when a kid says “that’s not fair!” to some decision… fair and equal are not the same. We should focus on what is fair to those kids (all kids) and sometimes the same standard is not it…nor is the same diploma. High, reasonable expectations for individual students; it takes more time (money, patience) to assess and respond individually than to just throw a blanket over it all. Blanket standards might work for most, but not for all. Ever since NCLB introduced the concept of 100% pass rates into the discussion about education, things have grown more and more unfair.
I don’t know that it is possible to grade equitably in an inequitable system. I agree with your point that a student’s limited second language proficiency shouldn’t become a barrier to demonstrating understanding. However limited L2 proficiency does negatively impact student learning. Limits in curricular resources and language dependent assessments become barriers… maybe standards based grading highlights that inequity.
I hope as common core standards become more fully integrated into curricula so will better resources for ELL learners. Perhaps then grading, and shooling, will be more equitable.
Hi Mark
I also taught ELD in Oregon. There we could offer content classes like math, science, and social studies because we had a critical mass of Spanish speakers and a tremendous pool of bilingual teachers. So kids could demonstrate and grow in content knowledge in their primary language while also taking classes to develop English proficiency. Easily a model in which standards based grading could be equitably applied.
Now, I have classes with kids speaking five different primary languages such as Marshallese, Kirundi, Pashto, Russian, and Chuckese. Finding bilingual aides for those languages (with the exception of Russian) is difficult enough, let alone a certificated bilingual teacher. I agree with you “dumbing down” the standards to the K-2 band outside of ELA does nothing to honor the knowledge these kids hold. It is a grossly simplistic attempt to solve a complicated issue. Which points directly to the question you posed: should everyone be held to the same standard? The answer either way creates issues our current system is not set up to handle.
I share some of your apprehension, having in the distant past taught Sheltered English LA/SS in Oregon and worked as an ELL aide in a middle school science class (also in Oregon). A few thoughts come to mind:
1. I presently teach 9th grade ELA. I have native speakers of English who in a standards-based system will not meet standard (in my class or in their science class) because of their low reading and writing skills…many each year are assessed at reading fluently at the 1st or 2nd grade level.
2. If an ELL student’s L1 literacy is strong enough, could they not demonstrate the ability to meet standard using differentiated means? Do the standards demand that the student’s expression of knowledge be in English, for a non-English/LA class? (There are layers of complication there, of course).
3. You mention that if a newcomer in the 7th grade were measured on the K-2 standards that would be more fair… I agree (maybe) in terms of the ELA standards. What do the K-2 science standards look like, and is it really fair to that 7th grader to only expect 2nd-grade level science thinking/knowledge? And, if those are the standards met, should that child really be moving on?
I see the concerns of equity. To me, though, the answer to ensuring equity is not lowering the standard (to K-2, for example) but changing the acceptable ways by which the standard can be demonstrated. This of course takes resources like specialists, access to modified texts (don’t pay… use google!), etc. To me, the latter is a more genuine form of equity than to lower the standard. Otherwise, I could make the same argument for my native English speakers who lack core literacy skills…just lower the standard to avoid demoralizing them. Now we’re back to the same old chase, and the kid ends up moving on without having received the support needed to get them to the same standard as everyone else.
Which of course elicits a deeper question: should everyone be held to the same standard, and if not, should everyone receive the same culminating certification (a high school diploma) or should there be multiple levels of diploma/certification.