Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Opinions On "Standards Based Grading"?

Well, NO, actually-- this grading was extremely common in primary through at least the mid 1980's. All of my 'report cards' from before 7th grade have exactly that notation on them.

On the other hand, what IS new is continuous "re-evaluation" which is really a kind of shorthand for allowing all kids to reach 'benchmark' by the end of the marking period, no matter how they get there. There is another, darker side to some of those practices, too; in SOME cases, this means the exact same assessment is being given over and over-- yes, really. So "retaking" an assessment may become conflated with 'memorizing the right answers to THAT assessment' and not with "student has learned the concepts now, as demonstrated by a fresh assessment of the student's current level of understanding." (This distinction, by the way, is astonishingly difficult for some educators and administrators to grasp, believe it or not, but my DD definitely noted that this was a thing even as early as 7th-8th grade, and we refused to permit her to "retake" the same assessments for better grades, at least until it became obvious that school was "the game" and we were placing her on an uneven playing field next to peers who were more than happy to play it that way.)



THAT practice, I must say, is not particularly healthy for gifties as it encourages perfectly hideous work habits (procrastination, much??) and may even encourage some pretty bad classroom behaviors if those children are spending much of that marking period bored out of their minds while their peers are learning the material.



On the positive side, I can also see how this COULD stave off some of the worst elements of perfectionism in children who are prone to it already. Being grade-point junkies is best saved for late in secondary, IMO. I wish that my DD had never learned that "100%" was 'the best' grade-- at least not prior to high school.