Grading Changes at Grades 3-5

The change to assessing student work both by a standards based rubric of 1-4 and a letter grade has begun. This undoubtedly will be confusing for a little while as the two systems are not alike. The standards based score states if a student has mastered the work at a particular time. The grade letter score indicates the overall average work presented over time.

Okay that’s confusing and I wrote it. Here is an example.

Student 1 received a standard grade of "2" based on the rubric below.

1. The student’s work does not demonstrate mastery of the standards.

2. The student’s work demonstrates partial mastery of the standards.

3. The student’s work demonstrates adequate mastery of the standards.

4. The student’s work demonstrates superior mastery of the standards.



The same student received a "C" letter grade indicating their body of work on the assignment or course met between 70% and 80% of the criteria for that work based on the scale below.

90 – 100 A

80 - 89 B

70 - 79 C

60 - 69 D

59 or below F



It could be possible that over a grading period or project a student masters the standard at the very end but did not do well during the grading period or unit. In that case a student could see a final standard score of "3" and yet have a letter grade of "D" for the bulk of the work was not satisfactory. Likewise a student could grasp the standard early on in the grading period or unit and do well on all the assigned work. Their standard grade could also be a 3 but their letter grade could be a B or higher.



Again I realize this is a bit confusing, we are trying to indicate to everyone both does the student understand the standard and do they indicate appropriate work along the way to that understanding.