A Beginner’s Guide to Standards Based Grading
Kate provides a wonderful overview of Standards-Based Grading, suitable for instructors who may have heard the term and are curious what it entails.
The goal of SBG (Standards-Based Grading) is to shift the focus of grades from a weighted average of scores earned on various assignments to a measure of mastery of individual learning targets related to the content of the course. Instead of informing a student of their grade on a particular assignment, a standards-based grade aims to reflect that student’s level of understanding of key concepts or standards. Additionally, students are invited to improve their course standing by demonstrating growth in their skills or understanding as they see fit. In this article I will explain the way I implemented SBG and describe some benefits and some drawbacks of this method of assessment.