Approach

Why the District is Moving to Standards-Based Practices

For the past few years, leaders and staff have been studying the research on grading practices. There are several studies on Standards-Based practices and the District has focused on research from Thomas Guskey and Tom Schimmer. The anchor text for the District’s research on grading practices is Grading from the Inside Out: Bringing Accuracy to Student Assessment Through a Standards-Based Mindset by Tom Schimmer. Standards-Based Practices allow teachers to more precisely communicate levels of student learning. View a timeline of implementation.

Teachers are able to better meet each student’s needs for struggling learners and learners who need enrichment. Parents will know how their child is progressing toward learning the standards in each subject area and whether their child is "on target" with standards. Benefits of Standards-Based Practices include: 

  • Accuracy and consistency of grades

  • Clarifying learning for students

  • Providing more accurate feedback

  • Focusing on specific skills and student learning

  • Providing multiple opportunities for students to be successful

What Standards-Based Practices Look in the Classroom

  • Assessment is more frequent and varied so teachers can better monitor student learning.

  • Students may be reassessed after more learning has occurred.

  • Teachers use the most recent student-generated evidence to report how much a student has learned.

  • Students are assigned practice in order to monitor student progress in their learning. 

  • Non-academic factors, such as effort, attitude, participation, and behavior are communicated separately from the students’ academic grade.

  • Students are held accountable to complete their assessments.

What Standard-Based Practices Frisco ISD Teachers are Currently Implementing 

  • Consequences for turning in work late are separate from the grade.

  • Bonus points and extra credit are no longer given on assignments. 

  • Grades reflect the student’s current level of learning/understanding within a grading period.

  • Students may be offered an opportunity to reassess up to a 90%.

  • Homework is assigned for practice.

How Standards-Based Practices are Reflected in the Gradebook

  • Early grades may be adjusted based on grades earned later in a grading period. You may see improvements in your students overall grade at the end of a nine week period.

  •  You might see multiple grades reported for a single assessment event. An assessment may cover three different topics, so three grades over each topic is reported. This still averages as normal into the overall grade, but helps provide more specific feedback to students on what they have and haven’t learned so far.

  •  In the example below, the student would have traditionally received an average grade of 78% on the assessment.  However, by reporting the grade broken out by performance on the 3 different topics on the Unit 1 assessment, the student can see they excelled on Topic #1 and need to work more on improving with Topic #3. Similarly on the Essay, by seeing that Skill #3 is the lowest, the student knows what to focus on to improve.

Traditional Grading Practices Standards-Based Practices
Grade Book Record Grade Grade Book Record Grade
Ex: Unit 1Assessment
Multiple Choice		  78% Standard / Skill #1
Standard / Skill #2
Standard / Skill #3		 92%
82%
61% 
Ex: End of Unit Assessment Essay 88% Standard / Skill #1
Standard / Skill #2
Standard / Skill #3		 90%
97%
78%

The Purpose of Homework is Reframed with Standards-Based Practices

  • Homework is an opportunity to practice a skill and demonstrate mastery.

  • Homework is used as a progress check for learning to help teachers properly respond to student needs.

Standards-Based Practices Research

  • Guskey, T. R. (2015). On your mark: Challenging the conventions of grading and reporting. Solution Tree Press.

  • Guskey, T. R. (2020). Get set, go!: Creating successful grading and Reporting Systems. Solution Tree Press.

  • Learning - grading - leadership - assessment. Thomas R. Guskey & Associates. (2020, August 28). Retrieved February 25, 2022, from

  • Marzano, R. J. (2006). Classroom Assessment & Grading that work. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

  • O’Connor, K. (2002). How to grade for Learning: Linking grades to standards (2nd ed).  Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

  • Schimmer, T. (2016). Grading from the inside out. Solution Tree Press.

  • Wormeli, R. (2020). Resources for Practical and Compelling Educational Change. rickwormeli. Retrieved February 25, 2022, from