Middle School Standards-Based Instruction

Dear Families:

Welcome to the 2016-17 school year.

We want to inform you that all middle schools in the district will be using standards-based instruction in all classes this year. The purpose for moving to standards-based instruction is that we want to make sure you are fully informed about your child’s progress. There will definitely be a change in what you see when you look at your child’s grades. The grade will give you a more accurate picture of where your children are in regards to understanding the standards. We know that letting you and our students know their proficiency on each standard will be more valuable than just seeing a percentage associated with each student’s classes. This letter will answer some of your questions. Once you read it, please bring us any questions that you may still have.

Why Standards-Based Instruction?

• We want to improve student achievement for all students in every classroom every day; and research supports standards-based instruction as a basis of communication that will help students learn more effectively through better feedback.

What is the value of Standards-Based Instruction?

• Standards-based instruction allows your child to understand his/her strengths and weaknesses and focus on growth. Standards-based scores are true representations of what your child has learned and still needs to learn. Learning is the way to improve the score.
• Standards-based scores are simple and clear. Upon looking at a standards-based score, students, parents and teachers can instantly understand at what level that student is achieving and what they must work on to raise that skill to “meeting” or “exemplary.”
• Standards-based instruction focuses on learning. Once in practice, students will know exactly what they need to learn and master.

How does Standards-Based Scoring Work?

Standards-based scoring works by isolating the skills and knowledge required for a student to understand, and then showing that mastery on a four-point scale. The difference you will see in the grading process is that the students won’t be given a certain amount of points out of a total, but everything entered in the grade book will be scored on a 4-point rubric. These scores will be grouped together by each of the standards being covered, so we can see how the students are progressing.

The scores on the 4-point rubric are:

4 – Exemplary expectations in the standard

3 – Meeting expectations in the standard

2 – Progressing towards expectations in the standard

1 – Emerging towards expectations in the standard

IE – Insufficient Evidence 8.12.16

Once again, these scores are not out of a certain point total, and you should not try to convert the rubric scores to a percent. So, for example, a 3 doesn’t mean 3 out of 4, or 75%. A 3 means that the student is meeting the expectations for that standard and is proficient in that area. We will be looking at all of the rubric scores for the student as a body of evidence for determining a student’s level of proficiency in the standards covered during the semester. Each student’s score will reflect his/her learning towards grade level standard expectations during that moment in time. The student’s final score will reflect the progress toward mastery of grade level expectations.

What this means to you?

• Important skills like effort and work ethic will be measured separately from scores and should be considered just as important a measure, which will be reflected as work habits.
• Every score is an opportunity for discussion with your child, to better his/her understanding. It should be easier to know what skills your child needs to work on in order to improve.
• All work assigned in class is a step in the direction of the standard, and considered an opportunity to practice. Students need to be given time to learn before they are evaluated against a standard. This makes the daily work of the class vitally important. Daily work is where your child learns and practices with opportunities to transfer and apply the skills they have learned.

Opens parent communication with teachers. We hope this helps you better understand this new and exciting journey. As you can see, this effort is being made to help your student perform better in school and in life. If you have any questions about standardsbased instruction, please bring them to conferences or contact your school for further details. We know that this method of instruction and scoring will give a clearer picture of what each student understands and their progress toward proficiency. It will help the students identify the areas they may need to work on so they can be as successful as possible.

Thank you for your support and patience in this process. We hope that once you get accustomed to this system, you will appreciate how informative and helpful it can be.

Regards,

Thompson School District

Standards- Based Scoring Family Letter

Standards-Based Scoring: Parent Brochure

Dear Parents,

To assist you in having meaningful conversations with your child/children’s teacher about standards-based instruction, we are sharing ten important questions that may help in your conversations. The goal is that by asking these questions, you will get a better understanding of how your child/children is/are doing in school and the opportunities and supports that are provided to ensure their academic success. 

Academic Performance Questions

1. What supports are available for my child in all subject areas?
   1. When are you providing these supports?
2. What specific exemplary opportunities (4) are available for my child to transfer and apply grade level skills to new and unique situations?
   1. When are you providing these opportunities?
3. What are you doing in the classroom to support my child’s growth?
4. What can I do at home to support my child’s growth?
5. What needs do you see for my student as a learner in and out of the classroom?

Work Habit Questions

1. How is my child progressing as a collaborator?
2. How is my child progressing as a communicator?
3. How is my child progressing as a creative problem solver?
4. How is my child progressing as an advocate for his or herself?
5. What needs do you see for my student as a community member in and out of the classroom?

Standards Based Instruction - Parent Questions

Thompson School District Upcoming 8th Grade Parents and Guardians :

We hope that you and your child(ren) have had a wonderful 7th grade year and we are looking forward to a great 8th grade year in the fall with your student(s). We wanted to take a moment to inform you about a new and exciting feature in Infinite Campus that will support you and your student(s) as they transition to high school, starting in the fall of our 2023-2024 school year. A large team of teachers and administrators across multiple schools and levels, have been meeting to discuss how we across our system are supporting students transitioning from 8th to 9th grade. As students transition from a Standards Based Grading (SBG) system in middle school, to a traditional scoring system in high school, students don’t always see the connection between the two grading systems and how their assigned work and effort affect their overall score, credits, and GPA in high school.

In order to meet the needs of our students, the committee reviewed the current conversion chart that is currently being used for any middle schooler taking a high school course. Ex: An 8th grader who is enrolled in Algebra 1, uses the conversion chart below to report for both middle school and high school scoring.

Traditional Grade (HS)	Standards Based Grade (MS)	Progression of Learning
A 90-100%	3.1 - 4.0	Exemplary
B 80-89%	2.6 - 3.0	Meets
C 70-79%	2.0 - 2.5	Progressing
D 60-69%	1.6 - 1.9	Progressing
F 0-59%	1.0 - 1.5	Emerging
	IE	Insufficient Evidence

The team determined that using the above scale to convert standards-based grades into letter grades, and to show them side by side, would be a good way to show students and guardians how students’ scores would convert if they were in high school. Here is an example of what you will see in Infinite Campus/Parent Portal when you login to see your student’s progress.

Here is an example of what you will now see as a parent/guardian in IC: You will notice that the 1-4 scoring system is still being used to score assignments, but overall scores are reported both ways. In the above example the score in the parenthesis () is what their SBG would be, along with the letter grade that corresponds with the converted number. This scoring process will be for any 6th, 7th or 8th grade student enrolled in an 8th grade course, along with those students who are middle schoolers taking a high school level course. Here is what an overall score would like when scores are posted at progress, semester, or end of the year:

The Middle School Grading Practices Committee believes that reporting grades in both standards-based and letter grade form will help students realize how important their commitment to their education is and that completing their assignments is a habit necessary prior to high school. We also know that this is only one step in the right direction and we know that our committee’s work is not done yet. We look forward to seeing this change in the fall and want to make you are aware of it prior to the year ending. You will also receive information on this during Back to School Night in the fall and look forward to seeing you in attendance. Have a great summer break and thank you for your continued support.

2023-2024 School Year Communication

Standards-Based Grading for 8th Graders

How will a student's progress be measured?

A Body of Evidence captures a student's true understanding of standards

• Mode
  • Most frequent score of the last 5 scores
• Average
  • Students receive and average for each standard and an overall standard for the class
• Teacher Expertise
  • A teacher looks at the body of evidence including daily practice to determine overall understanding of standards.

Measurement of Student's Progress

MIDDLE SCHOOL - A Guide to Scoring, Report Cards, and Transcripts Written for Students and Parents

Thompson School District is committed to providing an accurate picture to communicate student growth and student achievement by giving students clear, specific feedback on their growth toward the mastery of grade level content and standards. The purpose of this document isto explain how those practices work and how our schools communicate the information on parent portal, report cards and transcripts.

Academic Scores and Work Habits Practices:

All standards-based scoring courses have an overall final course grade that is generated from academic scores that are recorded throughout the course. Academic scores are communicated separately from work habit practices (Collaboration, Communication, Creative Problem Solving, Self-Agency) on parent portal, report cards and transcripts.

• Academic Scores: Each course in Thompson has specific content standards, aligned to state standards as competencies. Course competencies answer the question: What is it we want our students to know and be able to do? Each competency is broken down into a smaller subset of specific skills, concepts, and learning targets for which evidence is collected.
• Work Habits: Throughout the year, teachers monitor and assess students’ work habits of collaboration, communication, creative problem solving and self-agency. These practices measure a student’s ability to effectively communicate, creatively solve problems, contribute to his/her community, manage their learning, produce quality work, and responsibly use information. These scores are communicated separately on report cards and the final transcript.

Awards of Excellence:

• Honor Roll: Honor roll will be determined by the End of Year overall academic Grade Point Average (GPA). Please see below on how the overall GPA is calculated. Each school publishes the Honor Roll based on the following criteria:

4.0 End of Year GPA Honor Roll

3.5-3.99 End of Year GPA Honor Roll

3.0-3.49 End of Year GPA Honor Roll

• Eligibility: A student is not eligible to participate in athletics if he/she has a standards-based scoring average of a 1.5 or lower in work habits in 2 or more courses.
• Don Evans: Students who have earned a 4.0 overall End of Year GPA in 6th, 7th and 8th grade will be eligible for this award during their 8th grade year.

Scoring:

All assignments are scored on a 4.0 rubric using the scores of 4, and 3.5 (Exemplary), 3 (Meets), 2.5 and 2 (Progressing), 1.5 and 1 (Emerging). A score for each standard and a course grade is determined by averaging all of the evidence. A Grade Point Average (GPA) value for each course will be calculated at the end of the year. An overall GPA will continue to be calculated by taking the total grade points and dividing them by the total credit hours.

 

Middle School Grading Policy

Parent Portal View Example

Standards-Based Scoring Presentation