Addressing Complaints on Standards-Based Grading at LVHS

Licking Valley High School is known for its tight-knit community and athletics, but if you ask any student how school is going, they will more than likely bring up their abhorred grading system.

Students like to complain about their unique grading system anytime someone asks them what their school is like: no letter grades, just colored bars, no extra credit, retakes, and no exams.

To any other student, this doesn't sound like a bad bargain. No “Dead Week” or “Hell Week” as some students from schools such as Granville and Watkins describe their exam weeks.

iiiiJazzy Hardbarger is a junior at LVHS. She along with several of her classmates, often express how they feel as if they get behind very easily in school due to the grading system. The fact that students are allowed to go back and retake tests

and quizzes causes them to spend too much time on the previous subject while the rest of the class moves forward. They then find themselves trying to catch back up with the rest of the class for weeks.

The system Licking Valley uses to grade is ‘Standards-Based Grading,’ which is actually becoming more popular in schools across the nation. This system grades students on a 1-4 scale instead of A to F. These numbers, in the high school at least, convert to letters, but according to Licking Valley High School’s principal, Wes Weaver, this contemporary grading technique is allowing more students to succeed.

Why Standards-Based?

With the original grading systems that most schools use, a student must receive an overall average of 60% in the class. This number can go down due to not completing homework, but homework isn't really what shows a student’s mastery on a subject; it’s just there to help them practice more. This also only leaves a 40% chance to pass.

Standards-Based Grading breaks down each aspect to a class; every

standard that will be assessed and taught. For example, there is a presentation skills standard, group work, and standards for every chapter the class covers. This allows students to see specifically what they did or didn't master on quizzes and tests.

As mentioned earlier, students are able to reassess due to Standards-Based Grading. Mr. Weaver at LVHS said, “There shouldn’t be a deadline for learning. Every student learns at a different pace and they should never be punished for that.”

Retakes also allow parents to hold their child accountable for their grade. It used to be easy for students to blame their teacher for grading ‘unfairly,’ but now students can go to their teacher to discuss the grade they got and then take a retake.

In a survey sent to students of LVHS, they reported that they do like the retakes, but dislike the grading system because getting a 3 on a test is practically like getting a B-, but the smallest mistake could take them from a 4 to a 3. This is an issue because a small mistake doesn't mean the student hasn’t ‘mastered’ the material, they just had a brain-fart.

Weaver says that most students were afraid of their grades dropping when Standards-Based Grading was first implemented into the high school in 2014. However, the overall course failures went from 250 to 1 after changing the grading system.

When thinking about it, it makes sense. With the traditional grading systems, there is a 59% spread for students to fail. There are no retakes, and homework is graded. With Standards based grading, a student must have an average of a

2.2 in a class that is based on a 4.0 scale. They also don't have graded homework to weigh this down and can retake any quiz or test that they don't like their grade on.

Affected in College?

The thought of retakes was intriguing to students at first, but once they hit their junior and senior years, they start thinking about college and how this will be different in real life. Will being spoiled with retakes all through high school cause them to be unprepared for college and the real world where there aren’t as many second chances? In a survey sent out to students, 60% of students responded saying that they do not feel prepared for college due to Licking Valley’s grading system.

Weaver explained that he himself was concerned about this as well, but graduates from Licking Valley who go on to college, report to him stating that they feel more comfortable than others in their class to go up to professors and ask for help from them because it was so normal at LV. Students go to teachers all the time to discuss retakes and what they are doing wrong. This is allowing for students to have better relationships with their professors in college.

Licking Valley is one of the only schools in Licking County that doesn't give semester exams for courses. This sometimes causes students at Licking Valley to stress about the thought of college exams because they have never experienced a large test that is worth the majority of their grade. They are also often are afraid that they have never been properly taught how to study for an exam and wonder how an exam affects their grade.

Principal Weaver pointed out that students who have been working hard in high school and have even the slightest bit of studying techniques will be just fine. “Everyone ends up figuring it out. It’s never really been an issue,” said a Licking Valley graduate who is studying at Ohio State University - Newark.

Weaver doesn't see a need in stressing students out like that when they have been putting the work into their grade all year. Again, “there should not be a specific date in which every student has to know the same amount of material,” said Weaver.

Mr. Weaver also explained how students complain about not taking exams because they ‘won’t be ready for college,’ but if our school did give exams, students would still complain about them. “We can’t please everyone, so we just have to go with what we think will be best for our students.

Statistics on students from LV going to college show that more students have been going back for their second year of college since the new grading system was started.

Above is a graph showing the percentage of students who enrolled for their second year of college. It shows the highest percentage of second year retention starting in 2013 through 2015, and these are the years when Licking Valley High School began implementing Standards-Based Grading.

After looking at graphs, charts, and talking with Principal Weaver, it seems that despite student complaints throughout the building, Licking Valley’s system does seem to be affecting students and graduates in a positive way. Students should take a minute and consider the benefits this system offers.

- Lizzie Hardbarger, Senior at LVHS -

For more info, email Lizzie at elizabethhardbarger@g.lickingvalley.k12.oh.us