Assessment Based Grading

Jon Sheehan
Jon Sheehan
Third Anniversary Name Dropper Participant Facilitator 1
in Blackbaud Student Information System™

We have not done a lot with assessment based grading. At the end of the winter term we have a two week project period where students are graded by a set of skills and a narrative from each teacher. The grading criteria for each skill is the same. We have about 25 projects.. There are seven skills and each project will choose three to assess. The problem is that not all groups will choose the same three skills. What is the best way to handle this? In a perfect world teachers would have a grading module with all seven skills present but they only choose three. I could include all seven and have N/A as a criteria for the four that are not used, but that will leave an unruly looking report card. Is there a way to do this without creating 25 separate grade plans?

Comments

  • Kristen Duval
    Kristen Duval
    Kudos 3 Second Anniversary Name Dropper Participant

    @Jon Sheehan
    Could you add all 7 but then flag them all as unrequired? If the report card is set to only display skills/ratings that have been assessed, then you shouldn't end up with multiple sets of criteria on the report card for each course that just read “N/A” as a grade.

    Do you anticipate any of these courses wanting their own specific set of criteria in the future? If so, it might be worth creating the same grade plan group 25 times, so each course has a unique assessment grade plan group. It's a lot of work up front, but the advantage is that it gives you the flexibility in future years to adjust the skills at the grade plan group level from year to year without impacting other courses. The grade plan group cannot be changed at the course level once assessments have been recorded. Often times, schools end up having to create brand new courses just to be able to change the grade plan group associated.

  • Jon Sheehan
    Jon Sheehan
    Third Anniversary Name Dropper Participant Facilitator 1

    @Kristen Duval - Thank you! That did the trick. I was able to use the new report card builder and selected “Only include skills with ratings” and it looks good. I spent some time figuring out the quirks of the report card builder but I think I can produce what we need. I appreciate your quick response.

  • Kristen Duval
    Kristen Duval
    Kudos 3 Second Anniversary Name Dropper Participant

    @Jon Sheehan
    That's great news! Happy to help :)

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