During the 2020-21 school year, HHS teachers will continue our measured and purposeful integration of standards-based grading procedures. In general, the purpose of adopting a standards-based grading model is to provide students (and families) with more accurate, objective, and useful feedback regarding the student’s progress in academic and personal growth.
In addition to continuing to use our academic (or “product”) grade, HHS is currently piloting a “process” grade. This separation of an academic grade from a behavior/character grade is essential to provide useful and productive feedback. Dr. Thomas Guskey, education researcher and leading advocate of standards-based grading, defines a process grade as follows:
Process Grade: Process criteria describe student behaviors that facilitate or broaden learning. These may be things that enable learning, such as formative assessments, homework, and class participation. They also may reflect extended learning goals related to collaboration, responsibility, communication, perseverance, habits of mind, or citizenship. In some cases process criteria relate to students’ compliance with class procedures, like turning in assignments on time or not interrupting during class discussions.
Beginning the mid-term week of October 5, 2020, your student may be asked to self-assess their academic and personal growth using our HHS process grade rubric. If your student’s teacher is participating in the process grade pilot project, the teacher will then review your student’s self-assessment and record the process grade into Infinite Campus. This cycle would be repeated a second time prior to the end of the academic term (mid- to late-November).
The HHS process grade communicates how your student performed while conducting his/her learning through four indicators (see complete rubric below). The four indicators used at HHS are:
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Academic Conduct
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Work Completion
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Working With Other Students
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Working With Adults
Please click to enlarge image.
Students will self-identify their progress on each indicator by grading themselves as: Exceeds (4); Meets (3); Partially Meets (2); Does Not Meet (1); and No Evidence (0). This method provides students with an opportunity to take ownership for their behavior toward learning and will lead to reflective conversations between the teacher and your student regarding areas of strength along with areas in which to grow.
The process grade for each of the four indicators will be recorded on your student’s end-of-term report card, but the process grade will not affect your student’s grade point average (GPA). The process grade is for honest feedback and reflection only.
As both HHS and HMS take the next measured and incremental steps towards full implementation of standards-based grading, we will as educators continue to refine and adjust our grading models to best address the needs of our students and to reflect our community.
