Parents, Principals Discuss Standards Based Grading System

principals on Thursday offered the St. Charles Board of Education an update on the district's move toward implementing Standards Based Grading.

Standards Based Grading (SBG) differs from traditional grading in that students are rated on a 1-4 scale on essential skills they are expected to learn with one as the lowest and four as the highest. Traditional grading rates students on a 100 percent scale and students earn letter grades.

The district currently uses SBG at various schools from kindergarten through 6th grade. There is a tentative schedule in place that aims to have the new system implemented in all grade levels (K-12) by the 2015-16 school year.

Principals who spoke at the meeting favored the new system over the traditional method of grading. They spoke about its detailed assessment of the individual strengths and weaknesses of each student and the way it promotes students to take ownership of their work.

“I'm a big, big believer in this,” said Julie Williams, principal of .

Principals of schools actively using the new system said the majority of their teachers, after having some initial skepticism, have embraced the concept. And after some initial confusion among parents, principals said, they, too, are becoming more receptive to the idea of the new grading method.

Williams said SBG helps eliminate student tendencies to view themselves as weak at any particular subject as a whole. Instead, it allows them to pinpoint their specific strengths and weaknesses within a subject. Williams also said she has seen a better correlation between student scores on state tests and SBG results, a notion that was challenged by a Board member later in the meeting.

Does the Good Outweigh the Bad?

Board President Linda Schulte was the first to voice her reservations about making a full-scale switch to SBG. Her main concerns were the possibility of exhausting teachers and setting unreasonably high expectations on them.

“I don't know if the end justifies the means at this point,” Schulte said.

Schulte said assessing student knowledge is more concrete at the elementary level and becomes more blurred as subject matter becomes more complex at higher grade levels.

A teacher currently using the SBG system had mostly good things to say about the new system but also addressed some of Schulte’s concerns, such as an increased amount of paperwork and how to properly address each student's individual needs.

New board member voiced her opposition to SBG, and as a parent, said SBG assessment is misleading and inaccurate. She said it provides an overabundance of raw data and lacks an overall assessment that traditional grading systems are able to provide.

“There's too much information to comprehend and it doesn't give a clear picture,” Bickmeyer said. “Where is the executive summary?”

Kim Harris, principal of , responded to Bickmeyer, saying she understands inconsistencies involving SBG and, with her school in its first year of implementing the system, is almost apologetic to parents who have grown frustrated with trying to interpret it.

Another point of concern was how the new system will accurately portray student grade point averages and class rank, to which Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Danielle Tormala suggested a “hybrid” system of translating grades so that potential colleges could properly apply the information to their own standards. As an example Tormala cited the Kirkwood School District, which currently uses a SBG system.

Many agreed that the new system is not without its flaws, and that dialogue on the subject will be ongoing.

Learn more: St. Charles School District's video presentation on Standards Based Grading.