A School District's Change To Standards-Based Grading: A Conduit To Student Learning

<p>Nothing can be more important in a student’s learning process than feedback. This study looks at what is needed to effectively guide an elementary school district from a traditional letter grade system to a standards-based grading system. Survey data were collected from 91 teachers across the district in order to measure their understanding of standards-based grading. A standards-based grading pilot was conducted with six teachers from the elementary and middle school level. Four of these six teachers participated in a group interview to share perceptions of this pilot. Survey data were collected from the 54 students involved in the pilot. Findings suggest the standard-based curriculum and assessments created prior to the study by teachers provided valuable background knowledge for the change to standards-based grading. Both teachers and students found that feedback based on standards was valuable to all stakeholders. However the use of letter grades is a tradition deeply ingrained in our society: promoting an effective change in student grading requires time, information, and communication to promote an effective transformation in grading practice. </p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D. Doctor of Education

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation - Public Access

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Leadership

Year dc:date.available

2016

Author dc:creator

• Finch, Perry A.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Jack Denny
• Dr. Norm Weston

• standards-based grading
• motivation
• feedback
• learning
• change
• Educational Administration and Supervision
• Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research
• Educational Leadership
• Educational Methods

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.nl.edu/diss/222

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.nl.edu:diss-1231