3 out of 4 is NOT 75%

this is not 3 out of 4

We had parent teacher conferences this week.

I like parent teacher conferences.

I like getting more information about students, since I mostly just get a 60 minute snapshot daily.

I don't know what they are like at home, with their siblings, with their parents......... I like conferences.

This is the second year of standards based grading in my Biology classes. It has been an odyssey, a decided journey to this point. Transitioning from year one to year two has been far easier than then "IPO" of last year. Every start up probably has some rough patches.

Conferences bring another chance to talk about standards based grades and this time mostly with parents. When the night was through, people who came in looking at grade sheets seeing a score of 3 out of 4 and thinking "75%" now understood. A 3 means their student was proficient with a content or skill standard. They had mastered the "I Can Statements" (thanks C.D.!) to a degree the mark of 3 was designated. It was a means to communicate to Ss and parents about with had been learned.

Parents asked questions, we had conversations, they sought salience, we talked more.

The grade book software used in the district is not perfect for SBG, but as a science department, we've made the best of the situation. Almost all the scores in our grade book reflect formative work. The work is assigned a value out of 4, but the weight is 0. Only the summative assignments are assigned a weight and even then, because of the software and the way the rest of the building runs.....it gets ugly and convoluted.

I recently gave a summative assessment with multiple standards embedded in it. The grade book screenshot to the right illustrates  how we've decided to report. Entries titled EDSBG (Experimental Design SBG) and EDSA (ED Summative Assessment), the two scores present a score out of 4 and then a conversion into a number the software can convert into a percentage and letter grade.  A SBG score was determined by taking the total number of points earned from the various standard scores and dividing by the total number of standards assessed. This turns out to be an average score, but since it is a summative, I feel okay about that. As a department, we sat down and said that a 3 was equivalent to 80% or a B. (We made our percents out of x/10. That is why you see the numbers like 6.5 or 8.5.)

In my gut, I don't like that, because a 3 is not a percentage, it states a mastery of a standard. Until our system allows us to do it differently, this is how it is happening.

In the SBG boxes or percentage, you'll see some carets in the corners. These are an indication that the Ss have had opportunity to redo a one or more of the standards embedded in the test.

Communication was key on the night. I had a handout to explain more and pointed them to a screencast about standards based grades.

Parents walked away with understanding of 3 out of 4 not being 75%, but a measure of learning against a standard.

Cool.