Developing Standards-Based Report Cards

Thanks to an administrator that has a great deal of educational literature I was able to get my hands on the book, Developing Standards-Based Report Cards by Thomas R. Guskey and Jane M. Bailey. As I'm reading I'm trying to remain open minded about a lot of things; for instance, the use of points and what those points really mean, and how standards-based grading can become a more accurate reporting system from teachers to parents?

So I've only just begun reading the book, but I feel I need to make some major notes and refer to a lot of the author's ideas. This just allows me to better organize my thoughts and my rambling before I write my program design and review of literature. Guskey and Bailey give educators some great guiding premises that I feel need to be discussed or at least pointed out:

1. Developing a standards-based report card is primarily a challenge in effective communication.
2. Accurate interpretation is the key element in effective communication
3. Consistency is essential to accurate interpretation
4. Developing a successful report card involves a series of trade-offs
5. Report cards should be descriptive, not restrictive
6. No report card is perfect
7. Developing a standards-based report card requires teamwork, broad involvement, and initial training or study.

All of these thoughts are great, but are a bit a overwhelming to start. The first two premises talked about communication and this is truly a key component of adequate and effective assessment. I'm looking forward to educating my students and parents about what our students are expected to learn and how they should be able to demonstrate that learning. With this type of grading I feel that I will be making a bunch of rubrics, but that's okay - it will hold the students accountable... but it will also hold me accountable. I'm sure that I, like many teachers early in their careers, fudge the lines and give scores that aren't because of content knowledge, but because they try hard. Yeah we mean well, but by giving the score they achieve/earn will allow the rubric to help the student see the work expected and how they can show what they know.

Number 5 - descriptive, not restrictive means that as educators our jobs are to teach our content, assess that learning has taken place, and communicate that with parents. In music our standard could relate to singing a melody on pitch without accompaniment. The student can meet the standard a majority of the time, but has tendencies to go perhaps under or over the pitch. That is where our rubric and grade reports can show parents specifically why the student achieved which score.

Number 6 allows us to be human. No matter how we try to develop the perfect assessment and the perfect report card we just can't. On the plus side, knowing this helps us strive for perfection, which in theory should help our students and our instruction. 

Thanks for reading this musings! Chapter 2 will be coming soon. Please consider following me on social media - @traviszinnel on Twitter. I would appreciate any followers and any insight in SBG and other grading practices. 

Guskey, T., & Bailey, J. (2010). Developing standards-based report cards. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin.