Oxford+Hills+High+School


 * Started looking at standards…
 * Last year we started using them
 * Admin instituted more restrictions about how we use them
 * No homework grade in standards
 * Homework is its own standard... Can only be 10% of students’ grades
 * Teachers decide what they do within standards
 * We don’t have Ds… to pass, students need to get a C
 * Students have to pass every single standard
 * Seen a huge increase in failure rate (40%) -- summer school will be huge, but they only need to make up that standards… Principal says that this is known research but that it will improve in years 3-5.
 * We’re calling is standards based reporting
 * We’re looking at things like trending
 * We decided that we’re not having 0s… the lowest grade is a 50
 * The things I grade truly have to be about assessing… summative stuff…
 * Someone else gives lots and lots of opportunities… while others don’t give many opportunities
 * Only allowed to have five standards (up to 5)
 * Hundreds of assignments due at end of semester… seniors have handed in stuff all at the end. Had to make several different types of test because of test security. You have to give them two quarters to make up work.
 * It forces differentiation…
 * Every grade is a progress grade basically until the very end
 * Kids know the material better…
 * Traditionally kids have shut down at the end of year… it’s forcing kids to work harder.
 * Every kid leaves health class with the same content
 * In your dept. you must teach the same thing
 * Big differences between math and English, between content knowledge and process based.
 * Parents are confused, but they look and see why you got the F.
 * Driven from our elementary level first.
 * Our middle schools have not done it, so parents are confused
 * Teachers are working harder than the kids. Teacher has to develop seven different tests. But there is a feeling like its going to get better.
 * Kids have lack of urgency… b/c they can hand it whenever you want.
 * District initative… task force all levels, started at MS and HS the same time, outside consultants generated what was happening.
 * Elementary went 1-4 first.
 * Discussions in PLG setting. What does standards based look like at dept. What are out standards.
 * Pilot year was breaking grading into standards.
 * This year was implementation… we have found limitations with IC because we are having to post in five different places…
 * Grade for each standard and overall course grade….
 * Equal percentage for each standard, but one standards will take more time
 * I still do what I’ve always done
 * It’s a major distraction for me and kids.
 * Why do I have a a failing grade but a b in class?
 * We had nine standards and had to fight to get it down to four, and I put every thing in to one standards.
 * We have to play games with the grading program … have to fudge… move assignments around in a standard so that a kid doesn’t fail that standard.
 * Kids that deserve As are getting As, kids who deserve Fs are getting Fs.
 * An assignment that was worth 2 grades, now it is worth 20 percent
 * If someone writes a paper and presents… that is multiple standards, so that is confusing.
 * I count things as I want to make things come out the way they want. Spanish teacher has to put things into five different categories.
 * English dept. has had standards categories for a long time… reading, writing, presenting, research
 * It’s made us have to have conversations about what are you doing for research.
 * Problem with IC… in a current grade book, teachers have one screen but in standards-based you have 4 to 5 screens.
 * You’re creating four separate classes for one class.
 * This doesn’t get at the true system… work ethic issues, attention issues, this system does nothing to help you do that. Year long averages don’t work for the adolescent brain.
 * Behaviors is only 10% and should be more.
 * Interventions become very important… bring urgency to the table when there is no urgency
 * We train kids how to learn…we have kids who show up every single day with out materials… standards based grading doesn’t help with that
 * Revolutionary discussion is not about standards based grading… it’s about getting kids to learn….
 * Common assessments worked, but the grading system did not.
 * Difference between grading based on standards and standards based grading… we think grading based on standards is good.
 * You’re going to have to live with a high failure rate… No, you can let kids fail standards and pass the class. You define what passing and what failing is as a school.
 * Architects were not happy with the variation in grades… one teacher in a dept. giving all As and another with all Fs… Standards based grading hasn’t fixed it.
 * You can weight assignments, standards can have different weights, folders within standards have different weights….
 * Do not change your grading scale… it’s all arbitrary and it adds a layer of complication that is other worldly.
 * Colleges don’t understand 1-4. As long as you got class rank and sat, colleges will be okay.
 * Talking about common assessment, the things we’re teaching, show the things we’re doing is the way to improve school.
 * All teachers need to be in the development of standards and rubrics…


 * Shifted grading system this year … 78 in all four standards to pass the class… mass failure… have to pass four classes in order to pass class.
 * You can’t get a 90 in one and a 70 in one standard and pass.
 * A kid can fail my class b/c of one standard… if a kid takes summer school they can focus on that standard. .. Can do two presentations and then out of summer school…
 * Content based courses… kid won’t get to certain content till the end of year.
 * Process based course… kids who meet standards early will continue to be challenged through differentiation. You can always go deeper.
 * Behavior standards… if someone doesn’t do a homework, it goes in behaviors… we have a rubric for it, but not every is doing it.
 * No kids are turning things in on time.