Standard Based Grading
When your parents ask what your grades are, do you really wanna respond with colors or numbers? Here at valley, we switched from the normal letters grades to the standard based grading a few years ago. Everyone strongly disagrees with the whole system. The most surprising aspect to standard based grading is the number grade rather than the letter grade. People prefer the letter grader much rather than numbers and colors.
The website that is used for Valley for our grading is called Jump Rope. And on the website when have our classes with a bar that shows what color our grade is. Also in the system in each class there are different standards that we are graded on. Then all those scores are averaged up to get a final grade. And all the assignments are weighted differently. For an example in math if we had homework that could be weighted as a 1, to where a test could be weighted a 5. So the test would count more against your grade depending on how you did.
If I had to choose a grading system for our school it’d be the normal letter grading. Only because that’s what we grew up doing, and I feel like it’s way more simple than standard based grading. I do agree with the new grading system on one part, and that is that It’s well organized. And with the standards you can keep track on what you have mastered or what you need to work on.
To get straight forward opinions on standard based grading I asked students here from Licking valley on their intake.
Chandler Zimmerman (sophomore)
Q: What style of grading do you like best? Ex: Abc’s or 123’s
A: “Abc’s”
Q: How do you feel about Standard Based Grading?
A: “Personally I don't not like it and I actually hate it”
Q: If you could change the grading system back to abc’s would you? And why?
A: “Yes I would because it’s dumb”
Clayton Glover (Freshman)
Q: What style of grading do you like best? Ex: Abc’s or 123’s
A: “Abc’s”
Q: How do you feel about Standard Based Grading?
A: “I don’t like it and I think it’s confusing”
Q: If you could change the grading system back to abc’s would you? And why?
A: “Yes because it’s way easier”
Shawn Nethers (sophomore)
Q: What style of grading do you like best? Ex: Abc’s or 123’s
A: “Abc’s”
Q: How do you feel about Standard Based Grading?
A: “I think it’s terrible, because it doesn't change anything”
Q: If you could change the grading system back to abc’s would you? And why?
A: “Yes, because it doesn't make any sense, and it’s what we've been taught since grade school”
In conclusion, standard based grading is not liked much here in Licking Valley. My opinion on this grading system is much like the others. I dislike it very much and I'd rather have the normal alphabet grading. I think it’s so much easier and it’s what we've grown up doing. So standard based grading is different but everyone just has to get used to it.