**Geduld, A. (2024, March 20). Why is a grading system touted as more accurate, equitable so hard to implement? The 74. https://www.the74million.org/article/why-is-a-grading-system-touted-as-more-accurate-equitable-so-hard-to-implement/
This article highlights the challenges and complexities associated with implementing standards-based or mastery-based grading in schools. Some of the challenges the author describes come from a lack of understanding of why these new grading systems are considered better and how they will be used, too short of a transition into new grading policies, and the need for strong teacher and parent buy-in. The author shares examples and concerns raised by parents and educators regarding the difficulty in transition.
Guskey, T. R. (2004, December). The communication challenge of standards-based reporting. Phi Delta Kappan, 86(4), 326–329. https://tguskey.com/wp-content/uploads/Grading-9-The-Communication-Challenge-of-Standards-Based-Reporting.pdf.
This piece describes challenges in communicating the meaning of new grading structures and practices to parents. The author of this piece describes this challenge and argues that even if parents do not like traditional grading methods, they are familiar with them from their own experiences as students. Based on focus group findings, the author provides guidelines for communicating grading reports to students and families, which include avoiding language that compares students to others (e.g., “average”, “below average”) and differentiating between what students have learned and how they demonstrated the learning.
McDougall, I. (2024, January 18). A systemic shift to standards-based grading: How one Arizona school empowered educators, learners and families. KnowledgeWorks. https://knowledgeworks.org/resources/systemic-shift-standards-based-grading/.
An educator from San Luis High School in Arizona describes their successful transition to standards-based grading. Despite encountering challenges along the way, the school is in its third year of transition, with plans to become fully standards-based by year four. San Luis offers an example of what this implementation can look like in practice. While it comes from a school-level perspective (as opposed to a district-level perspective), it provides examples and lessons that can inform implementation in other systems.
**This document is a priority reading.