District 205 linking report cards to learning standards

Last year, Elmhurst Unit District 205 focused extensively on learning targets. Learning targets are explicit statements about daily instructional objectives in student-friendly language.

Learning targets provide clarity for the learner and allow the students to take greater ownership over their learning, increasing student engagement.

In my personal experience, the typical answer to the parent question, "How was school today?" is "Fine." If parents instead ask their children what their learning targets were for the day, students should be able to tell them.

The importance of learning targets is referenced in the article "Creating Coherence with Instructional Rounds" that I authored for the December edition of School Administrator. Principals reported that they consider the practice extremely valuable.

In conjunction with the recent curriculum work in English/language arts and math, the implementation of the new curriculum led to teacher frustration with our current student progress report and system of grading.

They found that the student progress report wasn't aligned to standards, yet the curriculum and their instructional focus was standards-based. Additionally, with the district's work to develop common formative and summative assessments, a logical extension of emphasis on learning targets is a move toward standards-based grading.

This year, District 205 is piloting standards-based grading at Field and Hawthorne elementary schools. Beginning in the 2018-19 school year, all elementary schools will move to a standards-based report card.

In 2019-20, after all fifth-grade students and parents have experienced a standards-based report card, the process will be replicated at the middle school level, beginning in sixth grade and expanding to seventh and eighth grade in each of the subsequent years.

Middle schools will have a hybrid report card that indicates progress toward mastering identified standards combined with a traditional letter grade and GPA.

There are several advantages to using a standards-based system of grading and reporting. First, the emphasis is on learning and mastery of standards vs. "earning" a grade. In a standards-based system, the rating a student receives is based solely on the level of mastery of the standard.

It doesn't include learning behaviors, extra credit, or other factors that can inflate a student's grade and give a false sense of achievement, or, in other cases, adversely and unfairly impact their grade.

Another advantage of standards-based reporting and grading is that it takes into account that students learn at different rates, and that mastery at the end of a unit of instruction is greater than at the beginning, and is the ultimate goal.

When a student doesn't master a standard in a standards-based system, the student receives additional support, instruction and practice until the standard is mastered. The emphasis is on actual learning and not whether or not learning happened within a contrived period of time.

Also, traditional grading systems have historically averaged grades throughout the reporting period to determine the final letter grade. In this system, learning at the beginning of the unit is weighted the same as learning at the end of the unit, even though students are being exposed to various skills and content for the first time.

This, combined with inconsistent grading practices among teachers, often does not reflect actual learning. In a standards-based system, later learning is given more weight to account for time to practice and reinforce skills.

In a standards-based system, each mastery is rated either a 1, 2, 3 or 4. A rating of 3 indicates that the student has mastered the grade level standard. That is the target for all students. A 1 would indicate that, even with support, the student has not mastered the standard.

A 2 would indicate that the student is approaching the standard but has not completely mastered it yet, and a 4 would indicate that the student is consistently working beyond the grade level standard.

A common misconception in a standards-based system is trying to correlate the 1-4 rating to the 1-4 used to calculate GPA. A 4 does not equate to an A, just as a 3 does not equate to a B and so forth.

Parent education and professional learning for teachers are critical components when moving toward a standards-based system. District 205 has been working with a consultant from the Marzano Research Group during the pilot phase. Parent and teacher learning for non-pilot schools will begin in late February.

During the Jan. 9 school board meeting, teachers from Field and Hawthorne shared their experiences. The teachers reported that they appreciate having a reporting system aligned to the district's curriculum. Additionally, although it is hard work, teachers believe their grade levels have become more collaborative and have a deeper understanding of the standards, and that students are approaching their work with a growth mindset of learning rather than being preoccupied with, "What do I have to do to get an A?"

Standards-based grading and reporting is an important component in ensuring that students become owners of their learning.

Special thanks to Mary Henderson, assistant superintendent for learning and leadership development, for her assistance with this article.

• David Moyer is superintendent of Elmhurst Unit District 205. During the school year, his column appears monthly in Neighbor.