The Influence of District Support During Implementation of High School Standards Based Grading Practices
The important components of district support to facilitate a fundamental change in teacher grading practices are not known. This mixed methods case study explored a school district’s organizational development as standards-based grading (SBG) practices were partially mandated in high schools. The overarching goal of this study was to understand the influence of support on teachers’ ability to implement reform and how institutional reforms impact the relationship between grading practices and external measures of student learning. Twelve implementing teachers with various levels of support were interviewed and surveyed. Focus groups of leaders and PD materials provided additional insights. Comparisons of assigned grades before and after the initiative’s partial implementation were made and correlations between assigned grades and state assessment scores were analyzed. There were three types of support that were most influential to teachers feeling supported during implementation: having a collaborative team of teachers implementing SBG together, attending district-led SBG PD, and being provided an SBG-configured grade book. Helpful characteristics of SBG PD were purposeful grouping strategies, content matched to readiness for change, and discourse-centric delivery. Adopting SBG practices led to moderated grades— generally increased course GPAs for core subjects, decreased for non-core subjects. In Algebra I and English I, grades were better aligned with state test scores after implementation, but the reform did not improve overall student achievement. Supports necessary to implement effective organizational reform in schools, specifically those that require change to deeply embedded teacher practices such as grading, include a clear vision for change, trusting relationships between and among actors and agents that are developed over time and through collaborative discussions that recognize the emotional journey teachers must go through to change. The working environment of teachers must also support the change.
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