grading high school math homework

IM 6–12 Math: Grading and Homework Policies and Practices

By Jennifer Willson,  Director, 6–12 Professional Learning Design

In my role at IM, working with teachers and administrators, I am asked to help with the challenges of implementing an IM curriculum. One of the most common challenges is: how can we best align these materials to our homework and grading practices? This question is a bit different from “How should we assess student learning?” or “How should we use assessment to inform instruction?” 

When we created the curriculum, we chose not to prescribe homework assignments or decide which student work should count as a graded event. This was deliberate—homework policies and grading practices are highly variable, localized, and values-driven shared understandings that evolve over time. For example, the curriculum needed to work for schools where nightly, graded assignments are expected; schools where no work done outside of class is graded; and schools who take a feedback-only approach for any formative work.

IM 6–8 Math was released in 2017, and IM Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 in 2019. In that time, I’ve been able to observe some patterns in the ways schools and teachers align the materials to their local practices. So, while we’re still not going to tell you what to do, we’re now in a position to describe some trends and common ways in which schools and districts make use of the materials to meet their local constraints. Over the past four years, I have heard ideas from teachers, administrators, and IM certified facilitators. In December, I invited our IM community to respond to a survey to share grading and homework policies and practices. In this post I am sharing a compilation of results from the 31 teachers who responded to the survey, as well as ideas from conversations with teachers and IMCFs. We hope that you find some ideas here to inform and inspire your classroom.

How do teachers collect student responses?

Most teachers who responded to the survey collect student work for assessments in a digital platform such as LearnZillion, McGraw-Hill, ASSISTments, Edulastic, Desmos, etc. Others have students upload their work (photo, PDF, etc.) to a learning management system such as Canvas or Google classroom. Even fewer ask students to respond digitally to questions in their learning management system.

How do teachers tend to score each type of assessment, and how is feedback given?

The table shows a summary of how teachers who responded to the survey most often provide feedback for the types of assessments included in the curriculum.

How are practice problems used?

Every lesson in the curriculum (with a very small number of exceptions) includes a short set of cumulative practice problems. Each set could be used as an assignment done in class after the lesson or worked on outside of class, but teachers make use of these items in a variety of ways to meet their students’ learning needs.

While some teachers use the practice problems that are attached to each lesson as homework, others do not assign work outside of class. Here are some other purposes for which teachers use the practice problems:

• extra practice
• student reflection
• as examples to discuss in class or use for a mini-lesson
• as a warm-up question to begin class
• as group work during class

How do teachers structure time and communication to “go over” practice problems?

It’s common practice to assemble practice problems into assignments that are worked on outside of class meeting time. Figuring out what works best for students to get feedback on practice problems while continuing to move students forward in their learning and work through the next lesson can be challenging. 

Here are some ways teachers describe how they approach this need:

• We don’t have time to go over homework every day, but I do build in one class period per section to pause and look at some common errors in cool-downs and invite students to do some revisions where necessary, then I also invite students to look at select practice problems. I collect some practice problems along with cool-downs and use that data to inform what, if anything, I address with the whole class or with a small group.
• Students vote for one practice problem that they thought was challenging, and we spend less than five minutes to get them started. We don’t necessarily work through the whole problem.
• I post solutions to practice problems, sometimes with a video of my solution strategy, so that students can check their work.
• I assign practice problems, post answers, invite students to ask questions (they email me or let me know during the warm-up), and then give section quizzes that are closely aligned to the practice problems, which is teaching my students that asking questions is important.
• I invite students to vote on the most challenging problem and then rather than go over the practice problem I weave it into the current day’s lesson so that students recognize “that’s just like that practice problem!” What I find important is moving students to take responsibility to evaluate their own understanding of the practice problems and not depend on me (the teacher) or someone else to check them. Because my district requires evidence of a quiz and grade each week and I preferred to use my cool-downs formatively, I placed the four most highly requested class practice problems from the previous week on the quiz which I substituted for that day’s cool-down. That saved me quiz design time, there were no surprises for the students, and after about four weeks of consistency with this norm, the students quickly learned that they should not pass up their opportunity to study for the quiz by not only completing the 4–5 practice problems nightly during the week, but again, by reflecting on their own depth of understanding and being ready to give me focused feedback about their greatest struggle on a daily basis.
• I see the practice problems as an opportunity to allow students to go at different paces. It’s more work, but I include extension problems and answers to each practice problem with different strategies and misconceptions underneath. When students are in-person for class, they work independently or in pairs moving to the printed answer keys posted around the room for each problem. They initial under different prompts on the answer key (tried more than one strategy, used a DNL, used a table, made a mistake, used accurate units, used a strategy that’s not on here…) It gives the students and I more feedback when I collect the responses later and allows me to be more present with smaller groups while students take responsibility for checking their work. It also gets students up and moving around the room and normalizes multiple approaches as well as making mistakes as part of the problem solving process.

Quizzes—How often, and how are they made?

Most of the teachers give quizzes—a short graded assessment completed individually under more controlled conditions than other assignments. How often is as varied as the number of teachers who responded: one per unit, twice per unit, once a week, two times per week, 2–3 times per quarter.

If teachers don’t write quiz items themselves or with their team, the quiz items come from practice problems, activities, and adapted cool-downs.

When and how do students revise their work?

Policies for revising work are also as varied as the number of teachers who responded. 

Here are some examples:

• Students are given feedback as they complete activities and revise based on their feedback.
• Students revise cool-downs and practice problems.
• Students can revise end-of-unit assessments and cool-downs.
• Students can meet with me at any time to increase a score on previous work.
• Students revise cool-downs if incorrect, and they are encouraged to ask for help if they can’t figure out their own error.
• Students can revise graded assignments during office hours to ensure successful completion of learning goals.
• Students are given a chance to redo assignments after I work with them individually.
• Students can review and revise their Desmos activities until they are graded.
• We make our own retake versions of the assessments.
• Students can do error logs and retakes on summative assessments.
• We complete the student facing tasks together as a whole class on Zoom in ASSISTments. If a student needs to revise the answers they notify me during the session.

Other advice and words of wisdom

I also asked survey participants for any other strategies that both have and haven’t worked in their classrooms. Here are some responses.

What have you tried that has not worked?

• Going over practice problems with the whole class every day. The ones who need it most often don’t benefit from the whole-class instruction, and the ones who don’t need it distract those who do. 
• Grading work on the tasks within the lessons for accuracy
• Leaving assignments open for the length of the semester so that students can always see unfinished work
• Going through problems on the board with the whole class does not correct student errors
• Most students don’t check feedback comments unless you look at them together
• Grading images of student work on the classroom activity tasks uploaded by students in our learning management systems
• Providing individual feedback on google classroom assignments was time consuming and inefficient
• Allowing students to submit late and missing work with no penalty
• Trying to grade everything
• Below grade 9, homework really does not work.
• Going over every practice problem communicates that students do not really think about the practice problems on their own. 

What else have you tried that has worked well?

• My students do best when I consistently assign practice problems. I have tried giving them an assignment once a week but most students lose track. It is better to give 2–3 problems or reflective prompts after every class, which also helps me get ahead of misconceptions.
• I don’t grade homework since I am unsure who completes it with or for the students.
• A minimum score of 50% on assignments, which allows students the opportunity to recover, in terms of their grade in the class
• Time constraints imposed during remote learning impact the amount and type of homework I give as well as what I grade
• Give fewer problems than normal on second chance assignments
• I have used platforms such as Kahoot to engage students in IM material. I also build Google Forms to administer the Check Your Readiness pre-assessment and End-of-Unit assessments, but I may start using ASSISTments for this in the future.
• The value of homework in high school is okay, but personally I skip good for great.
• Students are able to go back and revise their independent practice work upon recognizing their mistakes and learning further about how to solve the problems.
• Sometimes I select only one or two slides to grade instead of the whole set when I use Desmos activities.
• Allow for flexibility in timing. Give students opportunities for revision.
• Frequent short assessments are better than longer tests, and they allow students to focus on specific skills and get feedback more frequently.
• Especially during the pandemic, many of my students are overwhelmed and underachieving. I am focusing on the core content.
• Homework assignments consist of completing Desmos activities students began in class. Additional slides contain IM practice problems.
• I am only grading the summative assessment for accuracy and all else for completion. I want the students to know that they have the room to learn, try new strategies and be wrong while working on formative assessments.

What grading and homework policies have worked for you and your students that aren’t listed? Share your ideas in the comments so that we can all learn from your experience.

What would you like to learn more about? Let us know in the comments, and it will help us design future efforts like this one so that we can all learn more in a future blog post.

We are grateful to the teachers and facilitators who took the time to share their learning with us.

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A Beginner’s Guide to Standards Based Grading

By Kate Owens , Instructor, Department of Mathematics, College of Charleston

In the past, I was frustrated with grades. Usually they told me very little about what a student did or didn’t know. Also, my students didn’t always know what topics they understood and on what topics they needed more work. Aside from wanting to do well on a cumulative final exam, students had very little incentive to look back on older topics. Through many conversations on Twitter, I learned about Standards Based Grading (SBG) and I implemented an SBG system in several consecutive semesters of Calculus II.

The goal of SBG is to shift the focus of grades from a weighted average of scores earned on various assignments to a measure of mastery of individual learning targets related to the content of the course. Instead of informing a student of their grade on a particular assignment, a standards-based grade aims to reflect that student’s level of understanding of key concepts or standards. Additionally, students are invited to improve their course standing by demonstrating growth in their skills or understanding as they see fit. In this article I will explain the way I implemented SBG and describe some benefits and some drawbacks of this method of assessment.

I chose Calculus II to try an SBG approach because it was my first time teaching the course, so I could build my materials from the ground up. Also, unlike several other courses I teach, the student count remains low — approximately 25 per section. Before the start of the semester, I created a list of thirty course “standards” or learning goals. Roughly, each goal corresponded to one section of the textbook. I organized the thirty standards around six Big Questions that I felt were the heart of the course material. One Big Question was, “What does it mean to add together infinitely many numbers?” The list of standards served as answers to these Big Questions.  The list of standards and a description of the grading system were distributed to the students on the first day of class. During the semester, students were given in-class assessments in the form of weekly quizzes, monthly examinations, and a cumulative final examination. The assignments themselves were similar to those found in courses using a traditional grading scheme, but they were assessed differently. Rather than track a student’s total percentage on each particular assignment, for every problem I examined each student’s response and then assigned a score to one or more associated course standards. I provided suggested homework problems both from the textbook and using an online homework platform, but homework did not factor directly into a student’s grade. Instead, if I noticed a student needed more practice at a particular sort of problem, I would direct her to the associated homework problems for additional practice.

During in-class assessments, a single quiz or exam question asking a student to determine if an infinite series converged might also require the student to demonstrate knowledge of (a) “The Integral Test , ” a strategy for determining if a series converges or diverges; (b) “Improper Integrals , ” the process used to evaluate integrals over an infinite interval; (c) some method of integration, such as “Integration by Parts,” and (d) some prior knowledge about how to evaluate limits learned earlier in Calculus I. For each of these concepts, I assign a different score (on a 0-4 scale), roughly correlated with a GPA or letter-grade system. During the semester, I tracked how well each student did on each of the thirty standards.  

Since some standards appeared in a multitude of questions throughout the semester, a student’s current score on a standard was computed as the average of the student’s most recent two attempts. Outside of class, each student could re-attempt up to one course standard per week. Usually these re-attempts occurred during office hours and were in the form of a one- or two-question quiz. My rationale for continually updating student scores is that I want grades to reflect a current level of understanding since I want students to aim for a continued mastery of course topics.   Over the course of the semester, their scores on standards can move up or down several times. Students are motivated to continue reviewing old material since they know that they might be assessed on those ideas again and their previous grades could go in either direction.

At the end of the term, each student had scores on approximately thirty course standards. To determine a student’s letter grade, I used the following system:

• To guarantee a grade of “A”, a student must earn 4s on 90% of standards, and have no scores below a 3.
• To guarantee a grade of “B” or higher, a student must earn 3s or higher on 80% of course standards, and have no scores below a 2.
• To guarantee a grade of “C” or higher, a student must earn 2s or higher on at least 80% of course standards.

I adapted this system from one Joshua Bowman used. I like it because it captures my feeling that an “A-level” student is a student who shows mastery of nearly all concepts and shows good progress toward mastery on the others; meanwhile, a “B-level” student is one who consistently does B-level work. Also, this system requires students earn at least a passing grade on each course topic. In a traditional system, a student might do very well in some parts of the course, very poorly in others, and earn an “above average” grade. In the system I used, for a student to earn an “above average” grade, they must display at least a passing level of understanding of all course concepts. While students aren’t initially thrilled with this requirement, most are happy once I explain they can re-attempt concepts often   (within some specific boundaries) and so the only limit on improving performance is their motivation to do so.

There are three major advantages of tracking scores on standards. First, I can quickly assess student performance:

Second, I can give meaningful advice to students:

Third, I can determine what topics are in need of review or additional instruction:

Students have noted that SBG has several benefits for them as well. They aren’t limited by past performance and can always improve their standing in the course. Many students who describe themselves as “not math people” or those who say they suffer from test anxiety appreciate that their grades can continue to improve, thereby lowering the stakes on any particular assessment. In my office, conversations are almost always about mathematical topics instead of partial credit, why they lost points here or there, or what grade they need on the next test to bring their course average above some threshold. The change in types of conversations during my office hours has been amazing, and for this reason alone I will stick with SBG in the future. Students review old material without prompting, they feel less stress over any individual assignment, we don’t have conversations about partial credit or lost points, and they are able to diagnose their own weaknesses.

With that said, the SBG system also has some disadvantages. First, it takes a thorough and careful explanation to students about the way the system works, why it was chosen, and why I believe it is to their benefit. Student buy-in is critical and it isn’t always easy to attain. I have found that spending a few minutes of class time discussing SBG every day for the first one or two weeks is more helpful than giving a lot of explanation on any particular day. Students need some time to think about what questions and concerns they have, and I encourage them to voice these in class whenever they like. Initially, students think that this system will be too much work for them, or that their course grades will suffer since past strong performance could be wiped out in the future. (In contrast, by the end of the semester, almost all students say they really appreciated this method and felt they learned more calculus than they would have in a traditionally graded course.) Second, several students complained that their grades were not available through our online learning management system; I still haven’t found a way to convince our online gradebook to work in an SBG framework. Instead, students must come to my office to review their scores with me outside of class time. Third, choosing both the correct number of course standards as well as a thorough description of each standard has been challenging. It’s difficult to balance wanting each standard to be as specific as possible while keeping the total number of standards workable from both my viewpoint and that of the students.

After several semesters of using an SBG framework, I believe the benefits to the students outweigh the disadvantages.  At this point, I don’t have any firm data about student learning outcomes, but I do have some anecdotal evidence. The feedback from my students about this method of grading and, in particular, the details of my implementation has been very positive. I have received several e-mails from former students who, even semesters later, realize how much SBG changed their perspective on the learning process, or who wished their new instructors would switch to an SBG system. Comments on my student evaluations have mentioned that they feel their grade accurately reflects how much calculus they know, rather than how well they performed on a particular assignment, or how much they were punished from making arithmetic mistakes. As one student noted, “this class was not about how well you could take a test or quiz or do homework online that sucked. It was about the amount of calculus you understood and your effort to be better at it.” As a calculus instructor, this describes my exact goal for my course.

If you are interested in trying an SBG approach in your own courses, here are four questions to jump-start your journey:

• What are the core ideas of your course? What concepts or ideas do you want students to master?
• How many standards do you think you can track? You need them to be specific enough that students can understand exactly what each one means, but you also need to have few enough that your grading workload is manageable. I have 30 for a 16-week semester.
• Will you allow re-attempts? What kinds of limits will you set, if any? I found that limiting students to re-attempting only one standard per week was essential in cutting down my grading workload. This limit also gave students the opportunity to focus on one topic at a time, rather than re-attempting several at once just to see what would stick.
• How will a final assessment, project, or exam count? In my course, a student’s course score on each standard is a weighted average: 80% comes from their pre-final exam score and the remaining 20% comes from the score earned on the final itself. In this way, the final exam contributes about 20% to the student’s letter grade in the class, a figure in line with what is commonly used in my department.
• How will you convert all the scores on standards into a letter grade?

Online SBG Resources

• Twitter hastags: #sbg, #sbgchat, #sblchat
• http://tinyurl.com/SBGLiterature , Scholarly articles related to SBG (list maintained by Matt Townsley)
• http://thalestriangles.blogspot.com/search/label/sbg , SBG blog posts by Joshua Bowman (@Thalesdisciple)
• http://shawncornally.com/wordpress/?p=673 , Standards-Based Grading FAQ by Shawn Cornally
• http://blogs.cofc.edu/owensks/tag/sbg/ , my own blog posts about SBG
• https://plus.google.com/communities/117099673102877564377 , a newly formed Google Plus community for anyone interested in conversations about standards-based or specifications-based grading

19 Responses to A Beginner’s Guide to Standards Based Grading

Hello – I am a senior studying math education at the University of Illinois. I will be student teaching Algebra 1 and Geometry next semester, both of which use Standards Based Grading methods. To be honest, prior to reading your blog post I did not have a very positive opinion of SBG. To me, it seemed like too discrete a way of assigning students an assessment score. However, the comment you stated that I really liked and will stick with me is, “I want grades to reflect a current level of understanding since I want students to aim for a continued mastery of course topics.” This really got me thinking, since I remember all the times both in high school and college when I thought, “If only I had another chance…I really knew that material, but I wasn’t in the right mindset in that moment.” You’re right…SBG allows this to happen, and from a student’s perspective, I can see why this would probably be preferred. It seems like it’s worked really well at the college level with your Calculus students. My one worry is that since I will be using this with freshmen/sophomore students in high school, they will avoid doing well on exams from the start since they know they can just retake it if they don’t do well. While it is clear your students’ motivation increased with your SBG implementation at the college level, I’m not so sure about how to make it work so effectively next semester with my high school students. Do you have any advice on strategies I can use to make it seem like the optimal strategy and have students get the most out of it?

Hi Cam! Thanks for your comment. I hope to throw together some of my thoughts in reply, but please ask me again if I miss a key concern or question.

As it turns out, many of the educators pioneering non-traditional grading approaches are in the K12 community. For example, Frank Noechese (@fnoschese on Twitter; website https://fnoschese.wordpress.com/about/) is a Physics teacher at a secondary school whose standards-based grading philosophy inspired me to make the leap. I have joined a Gooogle+ community of standards-based learning educators and we would love to have your insight as you navigate your own path — join us at https://plus.google.com/communities/117099673102877564377 . Indeed, as the community formed, a few people in the K12 community were happy to sign up. Their experiences will possibly be more aligned with what you’ll see next year than my own. I consider myself a relative newcomer to the SBG/non-traditional grading movement.

As far as your specific concern: “[T]hey will avoid doing well on exams from the start since they know they can just retake it if they don’t do well.” I was worried about this, too. What I found is that limiting the number of standards that could be attempted weekly helped quite a bit. I have 30 standards per 16 weeks, and at a one standard per week cap, students realize they must get close to mastery on at least some topics. Additionally, after the first exam, I try to encourage students as much as possible to come to my office, even if they believe they aren’t ready to re-attempt yet. Sometimes I find that what they are lacking isn’t mathematics, but instead confidence; after a brief chat, I can tell they know the material, and what they seek is encouragement instead of insight.

I think at the heart of your concern is something every educator must face — occasionally we all have students who, for whatever reason, don’t put 100% of their effort into their studies. I wish SBG was a magic wand for this issue, but it isn’t. In my experience, a student who earns a C-minus in a traditional course is very likely to earn a C-minus in my standards-based course for exactly the same reasons. As an instructor, my target is those B or C level students who have a lot of motivation & work ethic (but perhaps who lack confidence) to improve their standing. If a student is determined to fail a course, there isn’t much I can do — but if a student really wants to learn and demonstrate mastery of the material, I see it as my job to cheer them on as they work toward this goal.

I hope that this helps and that you’ll come join our Google+ community and conversation; or find me on Twitter: @katemath.

I am also a senior studying Math Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I will be student teaching next semester in a high school in Champaign that also uses SBG.

I think it’s really interesting that you were able to implement this at the college level. I’ve only heard of this being used in K-12 like you’ve mentioned in your reply to another commenter. Do you feel that this method of grading can be applied more widescale at the college level? I feel like for students who were recently introduced to SBG from a traditional style and then going back to traditional in college is unhelpful to students in the long run. What are your thoughts on this?

Hi Peter, I am hoping to develop an SBG approach in many of my college courses. Next semester, I’ll be implementing an SBG system in a very different course — “College Algebra”, which is the lowest level mathematics course offered at the College of Charleston. My process of switching to an SBG philosophy has been strongly supported by the advice, knowledge, and experience of several online colleagues. I have found that asking lots of questions has led to many fruitful conversations about these issues, so I encourage you to keep asking whatever pops to mind.

As far as students switching from SBG to traditional (or the other direction), this is something I have also wondered about. My own conclusion is that my students face a similar transition between any two instructors. For example, one instructor might focus a lot on grading homework, whereas another doesn’t grade homework but has daily graded quizzes. These challenges are common in every college experience, regardless of grading approach or philosophy. My own experience makes me believe that I should do what I feel is in the best interest of my students, even if this is a different approach than the one taken by my colleagues. I believe that having an open and honest dialogue with both groups — both my colleagues and my students — is important.

Lastly, I’ve received a lot of feedback from prior students that my SBG implementation has changed the way they approach their education for the better. They value our conversations on what it means to learn, on why I think the SBG approach is in both their interest and my own, and also on how their education is essentially their responsibility. It is my job to give them a clear picture as to what they know, where they can improve, and support that improvement whenever possible; it is their job to “do the work,” face the challenge head on, and strive to do the best that they can. I hope to be more of a cheerleader or coach for them, rather than a judge & jury. Students seem to agree that an SBG philosophy allows me to do this and they appreciate the extra work it takes, on their side and my own.

Come join our Google+ community if you’re interested in perspectives apart from my own! We are looking forward to continuing this conversation.

I have been slightly exposed to standards based grading in my last two years of college, and I like it for a few reasons. Namely, I like that it allows for better understanding of individual progress in actual learning than traditional grading, and that it redefines success by allowing students to retest and continue to demonstrate learning and improvement. You also mention several disadvantages, but many of them are results of SBG not being “mainstream”. Clearly, this post shows that standards based grading is a success for Calculus II, and probably for most other math courses, so why is it so difficult to facilitate a switch to SBG several orders of magnitude larger than a single classroom? I understand that education reform is slow to begin with, and gets slower the more you try to reform, but don’t many educators share your perspective on SBG? I know that as a student, I would appreciate standards based grading far more, as it just feels more like learning than traditional grading does. As a future teacher, I want to afford my students this opportunity, but I fear the community and department backlash for being a “new teacher” with new tools. Is there a strategy better than just buckling down and grading in this manner regardless of what anyone else says?

Hi Kyle, I am in the process of planning for next semester. I’ll be teaching several sections of our “College Algebra” course for the first time, and I’m developing an SBG-approach for this class. The class will be quite different than Calculus II. First, there will be many more first-year students. Second, many of them won’t be in science or mathematical majors. I am excited to see how they respond. Third, I’ll have many more students than I did in Calculus II. I’m hoping that it goes well; I plan to blog about what I learn at my own blog (http://blogs.cofc.edu/owensks) and also share my experiences with our Google+ community (https://plus.google.com/communities/117099673102877564377).

You mention: “I fear the community and department backlash for being a “new teacher” with new tools.” I’d be lying if I said this hadn’t crossed my mind as well, especially considering that this semester (Fall 2015) I faced my Third Year Review as part of our Tenure & Promotion process. With that said, I believe it’s my job to use my best professional judgement to figure out what I think is best for my students — meanwhile focusing on being completely transparent about the hows & whys of my choices, whether to my department, my administration, or my students. For me, I can’t imagine going back to a traditional grading philosophy because of the experiences I’ve had in my SBG courses. In outlining the “hows and whys” in my T&P documents, I found that my colleagues were very supportive of my non-traditional approach. After ten years in the university classroom, I have found all the departments I’ve worked with to be places that welcome innovation, so long as that innovation is well-supported by strong professional judgment and honest, ongoing conversations.

Come join our Google+ community and see if everyone else will echo my experience. (I’d be curious to know what they have thought throughout their careers!) Check out https://plus.google.com/communities/117099673102877564377 .

The SBG system is a great step forward in the way teachers and professors approach learning. Speaking from personal experience, this system of grading allows for students to learn at their own pace, to be in charge of their own mastery of the material, and ultimately reinforces the subject matter. With this system, it also prevents one “bad day” from tanking the students grade. Of course their are limits to where and how the SBG system can be applied, but for Calc II, it worked beautifully. Dr. Owens was able to teach one of the best — and yet one of the hardest — classes I’ve ever taken, while allowing me to learn at a rate that suited me and promoted my learning. At least for every math class I have ever taken, SBG would’ve improved the experience by promoting learning as opposed to memorizing.

I have been exposes to SBG along with the concept of visual learning and I have fallen in love with the idea of both of these, but I am getting nervous implementing them in my classroom. I appreciated that you highlighted the pros and the cons that you discovered. The thing that encourages me the most about your review is that you said in your office, discussion went from partial credit to math topics. Isn’t that what the discussions should be? Student learning seems like it would increase so much if students were concerned about learning, not their grade. I think the fact that you said student buy-in is crucial and your four questions are exactly on point. One thing I am really nervous about is the amount of time it seemed as though you put in – and you mentioned that it was for smaller class sizes. Do you have any advice for SBG in a high school with 35 kids to a classroom and 6 difference classes? I think it would be a great benefit to my students and school to move toward SBG but I am afraid to take that first step.

Hi Ali, I was nervous too, before my first SBG class. I think this is just part of the process we all go through when making big changes to our courses. As far as particular advice about your high student count (35*6), I would suggest designing a system that is easy (perhaps Pass/No Pass?) and somewhat automated — for example, if you have access to test generation software, using that to create multiple versions of a single re-assessment rather than having to write each one individually. You’re welcome to join our Google+ community (the link is above) and there you might find people whose SBG experience is more akin to your situation & who can offer even more insight than I can. Good luck 🙂

This is amazing! I do have one question for you: How do you go about recording your grades? What gradebook program do you use?

Same question. Also, on the retakes … were there problems about access? I mean, that some students could make the office hours and others could not?

Hi Kevin. I didn’t have any access problems. I tried to schedule my office hours around times I knew the students would be free. Occasionally, I’d set up an appointment to meet with someone if they really had a conflict. In cases of a busy week, our admin assistants help us proctor, so rarely (once or twice) I left a re-assessment quiz with them for a student to take during normal business hours. I didn’t like this option since I always wanted to sit down and chat with the student before they tried another problem, just to help clear up any underlying misunderstandings of the material.

Since writing this post, I’ve started using our online LMS gradebook. It isn’t a great fix. For example, since students take quizzes a different number of times, this data can’t really be stored in the gradebook. We have a D2L product. I did figure out how to do a “Selectbox” grade, so I have my EMRN system there. I have one column per standard and I update the dropdown menu each time a student makes an attempt at a standard. I also save some data in Excel on my office computer where I feel like I have more control over how calculations are handled.

Hope this helps!

Hi, I am a high school math teacher that teaches a variety of classes from Algebra 1 to co-teaching Dual Credit College Algebra. I really am interested in SBG because it sounds like it focuses more students on math topics instead of their grade all the time. I come across the topic of grades almost every day and I really feel like students are so wrapped up in the grade that they aren’t really learning as much; instead they are trying to memorize. I already implement a rework process within my regular grading system because I really like to see my students find their errors and learn from them. However, I don’t know how well SBG would work in the high school setting. Is SBG something that should be implemented school-wide to help the students understand the process or will in not matter if I am the only one in the high school to implement this? How many of your colleagues use this same system?

Hi Kristie,

So far, none of my colleagues in my department are using an SBG approach. However, there are a few folks around the university who are trying either specifications grading or SBG outside of the math department. I think your students would benefit from this approach even if you’re the only one using it.

Thank you for sharing!! I have just started my 3rd year at a High School and am teaching a new prealgebra course with students who have failed math classes in the past. I felt the SBG would be a good way to get these students back into a growth mindset. So far they have fought against it quite a bit, but mainly because they don’t like change. They also seem opposed to not having extra credit opportunities. I am curious, do you have any thing in SBG that is similar to extra credit?

I felt like EC wouldn’t really fit a SBG approach where learning must be shown. Sinced once you show you have mastered a standard, your grade will reflect that growth and the EC would not be needed.

Kate, This post is one of the most concise and comprehensive sources on Mastery-Based Grading I’ve read. And I’ve read a lot, because I am currently creating my Mastery model. Right now I am struggling with balancing my general and specific outcomes. This is why I am especially interested in your 6 Big Questions and how your specific standards answer these questions. Here is my question: Have you used these Big Questions in your grading in any way? How were they present in your system? In other words, did they play any other role other than helping to create a meaningful structure of the course (which is already a lot!)? Thank you!!!

One of the big struggles with moving to an SBG system is you really have to figure out what it is you want your students to learn. For me, using Big Questions has been really helpful in my course prep because it focuses my attention on what the point of the course is. Also, in past semesters, I’ve often asked students on the final exam “What were the Big Questions in this course?” and I’ve been really impressed with their responses.

I realize that my students will probably, at some point, forget how to do things I’ve taught them (think: quotient rule! integration by parts!). And I think I’m OK with this. What I would like them to remember from my course, even if they forget the details about the methods we’ve implemented, is what kinds of questions we were asking. So in my instruction and documentation, I try to make clear “This is the Big Question we’re struggling with right now”.

So, specifically: 1. I don’t think the Big Questions really are part of their grade (although sometimes I ask my students if they remember them or not). 2. They are present in my system as an organization tool, both when I’m writing my standards at the start of the course, and also as a structure within the semester to bring the conversation back to “What are we even trying to do today?”

I hope this helps!

Thank you Kate, it definitely does! And I can see how important it is for a Calculus course. My general outcomes/big questions for a high school Algebra 2 course may not be so profound, although just like in Calculus, I’d like my student to internalize big ideas about relationships between real world processes, functions, equations, graphs etc. rather than necessary particular types of equations and graphs. So I can totally accept your philosophy and practice! Thanks again, Yelena

This sounds great for math or science classes. I teach high school history, and we focus on citizenship along with reading and writing using evidence to support claims. I find that many of my students come to ninth grade without any knowledge about their country due to more emphasis on reading and math. Elementary grades have stopped teaching history to make sure kids are reading better (and they are not) or working on new math techniques. In using standards based grading for history, how will I be able to assess students’ knowledge based on the state standards accurately. Much of history is based on knowledge. One cannot write about history without learning the basics. When a student reaches the high school level, they should be able to read and write in an acceptable manner, but we all know students are passed on, and I believe part of the problem is this re-do until they get it. I do not think all students will always get it. Life does not always offer second chances, but that is what we are teaching them. That is why we have students who fail, especially when they try college. I know this will not be read or responded to, but I am very skeptical of passing everyone.

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Maneuvering the Middle

Student-Centered Math Lessons

Grading Math Homework Made Easy

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Grading math homework doesn’t have to be a hassle!  It is hard to believe when you have a 150+ students, but I am sharing an organization system that will make grading math homework much more efficient.  This is a follow up to my Minimalist Approach to Homework post. The title was inspired by the Marie Kondo book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up .  Though I utilized the homework agenda for many years prior to the book, it fits right in to the idea of only keeping things that bring you joy.

One thing is for sure, papers do not bring a teacher joy.

For further reading, check out these posts about homework:

• The Homework Agenda Part 2 (Grading Math Homework)
• Should Teachers Assign Math Homework?

I am also aware that homework brings on another conversation:

• what to do if it is not complete AKA missing assignments

Any teacher will tell you that a missing assignment is a giant pain.  No one enjoys seeing the blank space in the grade book, especially a middle school teacher with 125+ students. (Side note, my first year I had 157.  Pretty much insane.)

Grading Homework, Yes or No?

Goodness, this is a decision you have to make for you and the best interest of your students. In my experience, I would say I graded 85% of assignments for some type of accuracy.  I am not a fan of completion grades.  The purpose of homework is to practice, but we don’t want to practice incorrectly.   Completion grades didn’t work for me, because I didn’t want students to produce low quality work.  

Students had a “tutorial” class period (much like homeroom) in which they were allowed 20 minutes a day to work on assignments.  I always encouraged students to work on math or come to my room for homework help.  Yes, this often led to 40+ students in my room.  But, that means 40 students were doing math practice.  I love that.

I also believe that many students worked on it during that time because they knew it was for a grade.  This helps to build intrinsic motivation.  

Grading math homework:  USING THE HOMEWORK AGENDA

During the warm up, I circulated and checked for homework completion. Students would receive a stamp or my initials on their Homework Agenda. Essentially, the Homework Agenda (freebie offered later in this post) is a one-pager that kept students homework organized. As a class, we quickly graded the homework assignment. Then, I briefly would answer or discuss a difficult question or two.  To avoid cheating, any student who did not have their homework that day were required to clear their desk while we graded.

I would then present a grading scale.  This is where I might make math teachers crazy, but I would be generous.  Eight questions, ten points each.  Missing two problems would result in an 80.   I tried to make it advantageous to those who showed work and attempted, yet not just a “gimme” grade. 

Students would record their grade on their Homework Agenda. They would repeat this for every homework assignment that week. A completed Homework Agenda would have 4 assignments’ names, with 4 teacher completion signatures, and 4 grades for each day of the week that I assigned homework.

Later in the class or the following day as I circulated, I was able to see on the front of the Homework Agenda how students were doing and discuss personally with them whether or not they needed to see me in tutorials.   I was able to give specific praise to students who were giving 110% effort or making improvements. 

This is why I love the Homework Agenda.

“There is no possible way, I could collect the assignments individually and return them in a timely fashion. I tried that my first year and there was no hope. Since using it, I am quickly able to provide individual and specific feedback in a timely manner. It opens up conversations and helps be to encourage and be a champion for my students. ”

On Friday, I would collect the Homework Agenda.  If during the week you were absent, had an incomplete assignment, or didn’t complete one, Friday was D day.  It was going in the grade book on Friday.

Here is my weekly process:

• Collect homework agendas
• Have frank conversation with students who did not have it
• Record grades on paper (mostly to make putting it in the computer faster because they were ordered)
• Record grades in computer
• Send the same email to parents of students that did not turn in the agenda – write one email, then BCC names.
• List names of missing assignments on post-it note next to desk (official, I know)
• Pull students from tutorial time (homeroom) who owed me the homework
• Follow up with any students who were absent Friday and still needed to turn in their homework to me

What About the Missi ng Assignments?

Yes, there will be missing assignments.  Yes, students will come to Thursday and have lost their precious agenda.  However, it won’t happen often to the same kiddo.  My least organized student, who carried everything in their pocket, could fold that agenda up and hang onto it for a week.  It was too valuable.  Too many grades, too many assignments to redo.

We all know that it is much more work when students don’t complete their assignments.  It would be a dream world if everyone turned in their work everyday.  Unfortunately, we all live in reality.

We can vent our frustrations over students not doing work, which is legitimate.  We can also work towards solutions. 

The reality is that not every student has a support system at home.  I would love for us to be that voice of inspiration and encouragement.   Sometimes that voice sounds like tough love and a hounding for assignments and just being consistent that you value their education and you are not willing to let them give up on it.

They will appreciate it one day and you will be happy you did the extra work.

Want to try the Homework Agenda?  Download the template here, just type and go!

This post is part 2 in a two part series.  To read part 1, click here.

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Reader Interactions

42 comments.

February 29, 2016 at 2:39 pm

How do you prevent kids from cheating and writing a better grade than deserved? And you said 8 questions 10 points each, so do you then give them 20 points for attempting for making it an even 100?

March 1, 2016 at 2:46 am

Hi Lisa, thanks for the question. You make a great point about students wanting to write a better grade than they earned. The first few weeks, I really talk about what it means to be honest and check over their shoulders. As I walk around to check I will make sure everyone is marking their assignment correctly. I even will flip through what has been turned in on Fridays and double check or “spot” check. After several years of doing this, I can only count a handful of times when I had to deal with a situation. You would be surprised! Yes, I tried to make everything easy to grade as well as giving points for effort, especially if the assignment was difficult. Hope that helps!

May 20, 2016 at 10:03 pm

So do you have students turn in all the papers on friday as well or just the agenda? How do you spot check if you only collect the agenda?

May 20, 2016 at 10:38 pm

Hi Heather! Yes, I have students turn in their work with the agenda. If it was a handout/worksheet I provided, I just set the copier to staple it to the back. If it was something out of a text book, they would staple it to the agenda. Hope that helps!

June 4, 2016 at 9:42 pm

The ‘initials’ box on the homework agenda is for you to sign when checking who has it done? Or is the person correcting the paper initializing it?

Do you take off points for students not having an assignment done by the time Friday rolls around? Also, what does the small 1’s and 2’s in the corner of your gradebook mean?

June 5, 2016 at 6:56 am

Hi Alysia! I use the initials box to sign or stamp that it was complete before we graded it. I think you could have the student grading do that, but then you wouldn’t have a good grasp on how kids were doing throughout the week. I really liked going around at the beginning of class and touching base with students/seeing who needed extra help. Yes, I took off points for turing it in late. We had a standard policy on our campus that I followed. Also, by not having initials, it was by default late because it didn’t get checked when I came around. This section of my gradebook was during review for state testing, so the 1’s and 2’s were a little incentive I was running in my classroom. Review can be so boring and tedious, so I tried to spice it up with a sticker/point system for effort and making improvement. Hope this helps!

August 15, 2016 at 6:27 pm

I’m a bit confused how you assigned a grade to the homework assignment. First, you mentioned each problem was assigned 10 points. How did you determine how many points students would receive for each problem? If I read your blog correctly it sounds like you had the students score the assignment, how did you instruct them to score each problem? With 10 points for each problem it seems like there is a potential to have a wide range of scores for each problem based on who is grading it. Also, did the grader score it or did the student give their own work a grade? Sorry for all the questions…thank you!

August 16, 2016 at 6:43 am

Hi Tanya! In my example, there were eight problems but I only counted each as being worth ten points. That would be twenty points left over for trying/showing work/etc. As for marking it, each problem incorrect would be ten points off. Hope that helps. You could have either the student self grade or do a trade and grade method, whichever you felt more comfortable with.

November 28, 2016 at 1:28 am

Can you explain your grading system in the photo on this page where it reads, “Grading without the stacks of paper”? What do the small 1, 2 and 3’s mean? I assume your method on this posting is to avoid the complicated grading, but you’ve got me curious now about what method you were using in your photo. Thanks for clarifying this for me.

January 2, 2017 at 9:48 pm

The small numbers in the corner were used for an incentive. This photo is from a state assessment prep and I used various points for incentives to keep working!

December 26, 2016 at 7:31 pm

I like the idea of trade and grade. Right not I just check hw for completion and they get 5 points for doing the assignment. I treat this like extra credit for them. Most of them will at least attempt the problems and show their work. We also talk about just writing random numbers and how that will get no points.

December 26, 2016 at 7:34 pm

Ugh! The name is Celeste

March 11, 2017 at 7:25 pm

We aren’t allowed to do trade and grade due to privacy issues and legal issues. Otherwise, I do like this idea.

April 1, 2017 at 2:33 pm

I have heard that from other teachers. You could have them check their own, too.

May 30, 2017 at 3:19 pm

Do you allow them to redo and make corrections to their work for credit back? Or does the grade stand no matter what? This is why I go back and forth between correctness and completion. While they need to practice correctly, I don’t like being punitive for getting the answers wrong when they are learning the material for the first time. I want them to practice, and practice correctly. But I also want them to be motivated to persevere and relearn until they master the material.

June 4, 2017 at 6:10 am

Yes, it depended on the school policy but I would typically drop the lowest homework grade at the end of the grading period. If a student is willing to come in and work on their assignment (redo, a new one, etc), then I was always thrilled and would replace the grade! We want kids to learn from their mistakes. 🙂

June 4, 2017 at 1:48 pm

Regarding grading homework, my students have three homework assignments each week, with between 8 and 13 practice problems per assignment. I go through each problem and award 0-3 points per problem. 0 points if they did nothing. And then 1 point for attempting the problem, 1 point for showing necessary/appropriate work, and 1 point for a correct answer. This way, even if students get the problem wrong, they can still get 2 out of 3 points. If a student got each problem wrong, but were clearly trying, I would give them an overall grade of 70%.

June 20, 2017 at 8:13 pm

Great ideas! Love that!

August 31, 2019 at 8:27 am

Are you grading that, or the students?!?!

March 15, 2024 at 10:44 am

It depends! Usually I had my students grade!

June 15, 2017 at 4:54 pm

Do you staple the agenda to a homework packet to hand out on Monday?

June 20, 2017 at 8:07 pm

Yes! Well actually, I would copy it all together or if it was out of a text book, they would staple their work.

June 19, 2017 at 12:16 am

Our district insists that we MUST allow students an opportunity to complete assignments, and we have to accept them late. They do not specify how late though. I was bogged down with tons of late work this last year, and hated it. Can you please share with me your secret of how you handle late work, how late can it be, how much credit does it receive, and how do you grade it? That would help me tremendously. Thank You!

June 20, 2017 at 8:00 pm

We always had school policies for the amount of credit a student could earn, so I would follow that for credit. As far as actually collecting and grading, I did the following: 1. If it was late, I didn’t sign their assignment sheet. Instead I wrote late. 2. They had until Friday, when I collected the assignment sheet and homework to complete it. 3. On Friday, I would collect everything complete or not, and put grades in the grade book. Then, I would send an email to parents letting them know. Usually, kids would then be motivated to come to tutoring to complete any missing grades. I tried to not take any papers other than the Assignment Sheet and its corresponding work.

August 11, 2019 at 2:47 pm

If the students came in the next week and finished the missing assignment, would you give them full points or would they still lose some points for turning the assignment in late?

March 15, 2024 at 10:47 am

Hi, Jackie! I would go with your school’s grading policy.

August 12, 2018 at 1:55 pm

I really hate taking late work but when im forced to I tell my students that the highest grade they could receive is 5 points lower than the lowest grade fromthe student that turned it in on time.

July 17, 2017 at 3:30 pm

What percentage of their overall grade is homework? We are only allowed to give 10% which is why I only grade for completion and showing work. Maybe I’m not understanding correctly, but you have 80 points per assignment roughly?

August 11, 2017 at 5:26 am

Yes, I really tried to be generous and would give points for showing work/effort, to make the grading scale easy. Thanks!

July 30, 2017 at 9:07 pm

Love all the ideas. One question though – do you have any problems with kids not having their homework done, but making note of the correct answers while the class is grading and then just copying those answers later?

August 11, 2017 at 5:18 am

I would suggest to monitor and ask them to have a cleaned off desk if they did not have their assignment. Thanks!

August 22, 2017 at 11:37 am

What does your class look like on Fridays? If you only assign homework M-Th, when do your students get practice on the material that you teach on Friday?

September 2, 2017 at 9:01 pm

Hi Briana! I didn’t assign homework on Fridays, and really tried to plan for a cooperative learning activity if possible. This way we could practice what we did all week.

August 5, 2019 at 9:21 am

I love the idea of the homework agenda. I tried passing out papers and filing them but it was to time consuming. If students are allowed to take the packet back and forth every day what keeps them from sharing their answers to other students from another class period throughout the day? I love that you can put notes/reminders at the bottom of the agenda page.

June 11, 2018 at 11:07 am

Hello! Do you have a editable copy if your homework agenda anywhere? It seems like an interesting concept. I would love to see the overall layout.

March 15, 2024 at 10:13 am

Yes! You can get it here: https://www.maneuveringthemiddle.com/math-homework/

June 13, 2018 at 7:39 pm

What are your procedures for the agenda for those students who were absent the day you graded?

Hi, Brittany! What a great question. I would just collect any absent students’ packets when they return and grade them on my own.

December 2, 2018 at 11:21 am

I often give homework on Quizizz or EdPuzzle which scores for me. The kids who cannot do the assignment at home due to computer or internet issues can do it in tutoring. (I offer before school, after school, and lunch opportunities for tutoring.)

December 9, 2018 at 9:16 pm

How do you set up your homework agenda? In the date box do you put the due date? Or the date they receive the assignment? Do you have an example homework agenda?

December 22, 2018 at 11:34 am

Hi Alyssa! Yes, check out this blog post for more ideas and a sample: https://www.maneuveringthemiddle.com/math-homework/

August 20, 2019 at 11:41 pm

How and when in this process do you grade the homework for accuracy? At your quick glance at the start of class? On Friday after you collect the agenda and associated work? What mechanism do you use to provide constructive, timely feedback to the students?

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Keep Your Calm with These 15 Time-Saving Tips for Grading

Help! I’m up late grading EVERY night, and I’m exhausted.

When you have a mountain of assignments to grade, sometimes even the best Netflix marathon can’t keep you from feeling overwhelmed. If you’re exhausted from staying up late correcting papers every night of the week, put down the red pen and read these teacher-tested tips for making it faster and easier to grade tests, quizzes, essays, and more.

1. Stamp student assignments.

Ellen L.G. Lucy , who’s been teaching for 35 years, says the best teacher tool she ever bought, at the recommendation of a colleague, was a rubber stamp from Vistaprint that says “Seen by Mrs. Lucy.” She stamps papers that she has perused—not corrected completely—so students and parents are aware. If you don’t want to buy a stamp, take Melissa Redden’s advice: Just put a large check mark on the paper in a noticeable color. “I tell parents at the beginning of the year the only grade book grades will be a number grade with a circle around it,” says Redden.

2. Color-code essays.

Students in Jamie Hales ’ class color-code their essays before turning them in. She has them underline their main idea in one color, evidence in another color, and key vocabulary in a third color. “It forces them to make sure they have everything required before turning it in,” says Hales. “I can scan the essays to make sure the colors are all there.”

3. Use a scanner.

For grading multiple choice and true/false questions, you can save yourself hours of tedious work with a scanner. At only three pounds, Apperson’s DataLink 1200 is portable, so you still can do your grading at home if you run out of time at school. The best part is that it comes with DataLink Connect , free software that instantly spits out reports on student performance. So, instead of sorting through every quiz or test, you can quickly look over the report to find common errors and areas you may need to review in class the next day (and quickly get back to watching your favorite shows!).

4. Pass out colored pens.

Have students grade their own multiple choice quizzes and worksheets with a brightly colored pen, like red or green. Ronni Jones says she has her students place their pencils on the floor and asks her most trusted students to act as monitors. She likes the system because it provides kids with instant feedback. “You still have to check to be sure they’re being honest,” says Heather Galiszewski, who also uses this strategy. “I tell my students that if I see anything other than a red pen in their hands, they get an automatic zero.”

5. Grade one section at a time.

When Rebecca Bolton is grading assignments or tests, she first grades all multiple-choice questions for every student. Then she moves on to the second section and so on. She says it typically takes only about two minutes per student to grade her physics exams.

6. Stop using an answer key.

If you’re grading assignments, not formal assessments, correct one paper against another. Ellen L.G. Lucy learned this technique from a teacher friend. For example, put any two students’ papers side by side; find where the answers differ; and then check to see which one is correct. Lucy says this technique catches most errors.

7. Provide an answer blank.

“When I first started teaching, I thought I needed to look at every process on every problem for every student,” says math teacher Cindy Bullard. She started adding answer blanks so she could quickly focus on the areas where students need support. “If they have right answers, a quick scan tells me if their process and notation are correct,” says Bullard. Wendy Badeau uses a similar strategy to save time, which she learned from a fellow teacher: She asks her students to write any multiple-choice or true/false answers in the margins of their papers. “I can line up four or five papers and grade them all at the same time.”

8. Trade and grade.

Sarah Mattie has students write their ID numbers, instead of their names, on assignments. That way, when she asks students to trade papers and correct them, it not only saves her time, but it also keeps grades confidential.

9. Don’t grade everything.

Take a hint from Caitlin Valesco and give a completion grade on bellwork or work that is guided and/or done with a partner. Rather than collecting this work to correct, Valesco simply walks up and down the aisles with a clipboard and checks that the assignments have been completed. Kimberly Darron grades homework for completion by using a bingo dauber color-coding system: green dot for 100 percent complete; blue dot for 50 percent complete; and red dot for 0 percent complete. Darron says she also uses this system to grade journal entries when she’s just scanning for content completion.

10. Spot check during lessons.

Ellen L.G. Lucy often provides students with whiteboards and markers (or has them use the whiteboard app on their iPads) to have them work through math problems and hold up their answers. “The nice thing about this is you can quickly see who is understanding the concept by not only accurate answers but by who holds up their whiteboard the quickest,” says Lucy. Sarah Mattie also uses whiteboards for vocabulary assessment. She asks students to write down the words and hold them up.

11. Alphabetize assignments.

One of the student jobs in Anita Schmuecker’s classroom is to put all turned-in papers in alphabetical order. She says it helps her quickly enter the scores after she grades them.

12. Cut down on grading long assignments.

On longer assignments, Michelle Turner chooses a random 10–15 questions and grades those rather than the entire assignment. She says she chooses a different set of questions for each student.

13. Give verbal feedback.

“I’ve started providing more verbal feedback to students,” says Christa Barberis. “Assessment needs to be something students can work with, and it needs to be authentic,” says Barberis. She typically provides feedback on one aspect of the assignment in which a student did well and one aspect that needs improvement.

14. Use voice typing to dictate your comments.

When Sancha De Burcha needs to write extended feedback on assignments, she uses Google Docs’ voice-typing feature. She downloaded the app for her phone, which allows her to simply dictate her comments rather than write or type them. Bonus of using this method: You end up with a digital record of the feedback. De Burcha cautions, however, that you need to check for typos.

15. Mark all papers before entering grades.

Many teachers mark a single assignment and enter it into the grade book immediately. Mary Elizabeth Allcorn says she saves a lot of time by marking all papers first. She then sets up her grade book and inputs all of the grades at once.

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Getting Started With Standards-Based Grading

An approach to grading that deepens learning by highlighting strengths and identifying areas for improvement.

A student scans their report card: A in science, Bs in math and history, C in language arts. Receiving an A in science communicates to the student that they are doing well and have reached a level of mastery; the other grades indicate areas to work on. But which parts within language arts, specifically, need work? Traditional grading can leave students and families confused and frustrated, as they give few pointers about which concepts need attention and rarely offer a clear pathway for improvement.

One way to provide transparency in grading and improve student learning is to utilize standards-based grading (SBG). SBG provides transparency to families on their student’s strengths in a subject area and gives guidance on which standards need improvement.

According to research, standards-based grading creates a more equitable learning environment , as students are given clear learning targets and rubrics that they can use to reach mastery of classroom content. SBG empowers learners not just to learn concepts but to master them, perpetuating deeper learning of content.

Research studies also show that using standards-based grading helps ensure that grading and reporting is more meaningful, accurate, and fair . Additionally, SBG ensures that homework, behavior, attendance, notebooks, and group work are not factored into a student’s grade. Standards-based grading allows students to be graded solely on mastery of course content, which can improve student motivation and help with equity .

Implementing SBG at the Classroom Level

The greatest front work in the classroom for effectively launching SBG is defining standards and creating rubrics for them. Once the standards are defined, the rubrics act as a communication tool for a student’s level of performance and provide feedback and a path to reach mastery.

Mastery is usually measured on a 1–4 or 1–5 scale, with each level of mastery clearly defined on the rubric. During the grading term, student learning on the target is recorded. Teachers track student progress, give appropriate feedback, and adapt instruction to meet student needs.

The key difference between traditional and standards-based grading is that SBG is responsive to learning. When students begin a new target, teachers present an introductory lesson and base materials for the target. As students progress, they are offered more complex material, working their way up the rubric to mastery.

SBG is similar to a staircase, with students climbing up one step at a time until they reach the top. After receiving instruction, some students progress immediately up the stairs, but others need more time. Teachers regularly provide feedback, reteach, and offer additional opportunities to reassess, so that every learner has the opportunity to reach the top.

It’s also essential to build in time for redos and reassessment of standards. By building in redo time during warm-ups, using classroom centers, or as a built-in grade-improvement day, students have the time and space to get feedback, practice concepts, and reach mastery. This built-in time also sets the foundational message that it values the time that individuals need to learn concepts, reducing anxiety and sending a clear message that the teacher values deeper learning over basic understanding.

SBG is powerful because it provides a framework to measure student progress regularly. When teachers continuously understand students’ mastery, they can better adapt instruction to meet students’ needs. SBG causes education to be more effective and engaging. The grade book provides clear communication of students’ level of understanding on standards and clarifies what concepts the student needs help to master.

Piloting Standards-Based Grading

Start with those interested in rethinking grading practices. Creating teams of teachers and leaders with this common goal provides a platform for collaboration. This collaborative effort will help with decision-making for building consistency and fidelity across classrooms, schools, and the division. It also serves as a natural way to build capacity. When making widespread changes such as moving to SBG, starting small and providing structures and platforms for collaboration is critical.

Two critical structures include SBG coaches and a universal platform for reporting student growth. A coaching structure to consider is utilizing a division lead coach, a lead school-based coach, and a grade-level coach who facilitates communication and provides implementation support. A universal platform for reporting student growth builds fluidity in communication and trust among stakeholders.

Barriers to SBG and Solutions

Before starting SBG, it’s crucial to know some of the barriers and how to avoid having to stop before you begin. Create provocative strategies to ensure stakeholder buy-in while developing a pilot program and increasing  capacity among staff.

1. Collaboration. Create a shared space for resources, ideas, and opportunities for collaboration and discussion for teachers and leaders.

2. Standards. Create common standards in reader-friendly language based on state requirements using teachers’ and instructional leaders’ teams. Substandards are helpful for clarity. Be prepared for multiple iterations and revisions over time.

3. Grade reporting. When the goal is to empower students to take ownership of their learning, it’s critical to provide transparency to guardians, increase honesty in skill-mastery reporting, and reduce teacher time.

Before getting started, create a conversion rubric for letter grades with a team that represents multiple grade levels to avoid having report cards with changes that may confuse or concern stakeholders. This provides a method to report both scores and letter grades.

The time has come to empower families and students with grading that guides the learner to deeper understanding and mastery. Standards-based grading goes beyond completing assignments and emphasizes growth and quality. It values the individual student’s needs and responds to those needs to guide every learner at their own pace. Standards-based grading gives every student a clear path and the time they need to succeed, improving the outcomes for every learner. 

High School Math (Grades 10, 11; and 12) Free Questions and Problems With Answers

High school math for grades 10, 11, and 12 math questions and problems to test deep understanding of math concepts and computational procedures are presented. Detailed solutions and answers to the questions are provided.

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• find quadratic functions given their graphs.
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• Tutorial on Compound interests and Problems on Compound Interests with Detailed Solutions .
• Parabola Problems with Detailed Solutions
• Find Domain and Range of Relations , examples and questions with detailed solutions.
• Find The Domain of Functions with Square Root , examples with detailed solutions and graphical explanations.
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• Find the Inverse of a Relation Examples and Questions with Solutions and detailed explanations.
• Find The Inverse Function Values from Tables Questions with detailed Solutions and explanations.
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• Prime Factorization of Monomials Examples and questions with Solutions and detailed explanations.
• Find Greatest Common Factor of Monomials Questions with Solutions and Answers .
• Factor Polynomials by Common Factor Questions with detailed Solutions.
• Factor Polynomials by Grouping - Questions with detailed Solutions .
• Factoring of Special Polynomials Questions with Solutions and Answers .
• How to Find Lowest Common Multiple (LCM) of Expressions? Examples and questions with detailed solutions and explanations.
• How to Add, Subtract and Simplify Rational Expressions - Examples With Detailed Solutions and questions with Detailed Solutions .
• How to Multiply, Divide and Simplify Rational Expressions - Examples With Detailed Solutions and questions with Detailed Solutions .
• How to Simplify Rational Expressions (More Challenging) - Examples With Detailed Solutions and Questions with Answers
• Special Angles in the Unit Circle .
• Trigonometric Identities and the Unit Circle questions with Solutions.
• Sequences and Summation
• Arithmetic Sequences and Sums
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• Units Conversion and Calculators
• Convert Units of Measurements

Grade 10 Math

• Grade 10 Math Practice Test and solutions
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• Roots of Real Numbers and Radicals - Questions with Solutions
• Introduction to Polynomials
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• Multiply and Simplify Monomials
• Algebra Questions with Answers for Grade 10
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• Linear Programming .

More Middle School Maths (Grades 6, 7, 8, 9) - Free Questions and Problems With Answers Home Page

When Math Happens

Standards-based grading.

The following links are a snapshot of how Standards-Based Grading works in my classroom.

Free Online Workshop

• Link to Workshop

Vision / Summary

• Introduction & Vision
• SBG Summary: A Year in Review

Detailed Breakdowns

• Creating Concept Checklists
• Creating Quizzes
• Grading Quizzes
• What Does the Gradebook Look Like?
• Retake Policy
• Student Learning Folders
• Using Formative Assessment
• Unpacking Quizzes
• Growth Wall
• Concept Checklists
• Concept Quizzes
• Grade Sheet Template
• Quiz & Retake Analysis Handouts
• Frequently Asked Questions

Below are resources that are helpful for exploring, implementing, and creating a vision for Standards-Based Grading.

• The Comprehensive Math Assessment Resource (Dan Meyer)
• 7 Reasons for Standards-Based Grading (Patricia L. Scriffiny)
• Improving the Way We Grade Science (Clymer & Wiliam)
• The Spirit of SBG (Frank Noschese)
• Standards-Based Grading (Shawn Cornally)
• Standards-Based Grading Implementation (Jason Buell)
• How Deprogramming Kids From How To Do School Could Improve Learning (Katrina Schwartz)
• My Assessment System (Dylan Kane)
• The Emotional Weight of Being Graded (Linda Flanagan)
• Math Class Doesn’t Work. Here’s the Solution (Jo Boaler)
• Standards-Based Grading: Bridging the Gap (Evan Weinberg)
• On Retakes (Dylan Kane)
• Effort vs. Luck (Kelly O’Shea)
• Best Practices for Standards-Based-Grading (Hanover Research)

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26 thoughts on “ Standards-Based Grading ”

THANK YOU for putting together such a thoughtful and thorough SBG system. I have been researching on this and your system (especially the autocrat tutorial!) has me sold on switching to SBG next year. There have been murmurs in my district about implementing SBG but there hasn’t been any support. Your site provides great resources and I’ll definitely bring it back to my district.

Thanks again.

Hey thank you so much for the kind words! I really appreciate it. Just a collection of stuff I’ve found from great resources around the web. Good luck with the switch, and feel free to email me any questions at any time.

This was a great resource for me when I transferred my grading system to standards based grading. Thanks!

Thank you for the kind words! I really appreciate it. I’m glad it was helpful, and I’d like to hear if you have feedback for improvement. Thanks again!

This is an incredible blog. I love SBG and am so happy to see your organized system that is so thoughtful. I want to use AutoCrat!!!!!

Thank you so much for the positive feedback, Megan! I really appreciate it. Let me know if you have ideas for improvement. I really like autoCrat! Great tool.

I am gearing up to make the switch to SBG with my gifted 6th and 7th grade math. Thanks for all of the great resources. Question: When do students retake quizzes? At the end of class? Before/After school? On specified days? Also, do quizzes become increasingly more difficult? (I thought I read that somewhere…) I am a little overwhelmed with the logistics.

Thank you for the kind words! I’m excited that you’re making the switch. Students retake quizzes before/after school or during lunch. However, I’ve found it’s most helpful to put old concepts in new quizzes in order to have a “built-in” retake. So, if I taught solving equations earlier in the grading period but am now quizzing over a new concept, I’ll have questions about the new concept with one or two solving equations questions mixed in. This really helps the students who either can’t come in during non-school hours or who aren’t confident enough to come see a teacher (very intimidating for some kids).

Also, I usually keep my quizzes at the same difficulty level in order to help kids show progress, but I have no problem with the difficulty level increasing. I think that may be a good idea for a student who is trying to retake to get a grade from 90 to 100. A good challenge is helpful for that student. For my less confident, more struggling students, I like to keep the same difficulty level in order to not crush their spirit.

As for logistics, I like to just make a digital copy of my original quizzes and then change the numbers from there. This helps save time.

I am beyond thankful for your thoughtfulness, profound insights, and the ways you clearly value the dignity of children throughout all your systems. I’ve been doing SBG for the past couple years and yours is the most comprehensive resource I’ve come across. Just so you know, I’ve been giving presentations/PDs regularly and am directing folks in droves to your site. Hope that’s okay!

That being said, I have a question about your “Grading System” google doc. How does the “70% Concept Quizzes, 30% Daily” part work out? What constitutes the Daily portion? Is that part still about content mastery, or is it more about class participation? I’ve had my grade book set up where their grade is 100% decided upon based on their content mastery, and I’ve been wrestling over whether to include any type of class participation…

Your thoughts are much appreciated!

Wow! Thank you so much for the incredibly kind words! It means so much, and I really appreciate it. I’m glad the site has been useful, and you are always welcome to share or use anything here. I’ve relied heavily on so many other blogs (especially the ones linked on this page) and want to continue in their footsteps with sharing.

As for the 70-30 system, I stole it from Niles New Tech and started using it at the beginning of my journey through SBG. The 30% Daily pretty much just comes down to work ethic and teamwork. I give a weekly daily grade on Fridays based on the effort and teamwork I saw from each student during the week. I rate them similarly to how I rate their quizzes.

I also wrestle with how much percentage to put in this category though because I ultimately want the system to be based on content mastery. I’m intrigued by going 100% like you are. The only things that are keeping me in the 70-30 category are (1) remaining in compliance with district rules and (2) I like to reward the kids who are working hard but not necessarily performing highly on their quizzes. In addition, the daily percentage helps differentiate the kid who works super hard to make an A versus the kid who isn’t a hard worker but naturally talented. I’d like to reward the effort over the natural talent without effort.

Let me know if that helps. Thanks so much again for the kind words and questions!

Thanks for your response, Dane.

So when you’re giving them that weekly daily grade, do you do it publicly? Or do you just post the grade online/in your gradebook and hope the student checks it? I love the idea of giving them that feedback on their teamwork and effort every Friday, but I’d be frustrated if that feedback is going unnoticed by the students and just getting plugged into my gradebook. I guess my question here applies to all the grades you give out…you don’t actually write grades on student work when you pass it back, correct? How does that work logistically and how do students respond?

Sheesh, sorry for the multi-layered question, but I also have one more on this idea: When you say “district compliance”, do you mean ed. code and the requirement to have one grade entered per week?

Haha I really enjoy the questions! Keep them coming.

I do not give the weekly daily grade publicly. I do just post it in the online gradebook for the kids to see (my students are pretty good at checking frequently so they see it). However, now that you’ve mentioned it, I like the idea of having a little mini-conference with each kid to discuss why I gave them the daily grade I did. This could lead to a better relationship as well as better character development. I need to start trying that. Thanks for the idea!

I still like not writing grades on papers though. This has really helped with kids comparing each others’ grades and making hurtful comments to other kids. Also, one thing I make sure to do is not post a grade where they can see it (online gradebook) until after we have gone over the quiz/work together. I read a good book by Dylan Wiliam that said research has found that kids totally ignore feedback once they see a grade. The students get a little frustrated with not seeing grades immediately, but over time, after I continue to reinforce why I don’t put them on there, they get over it and actually like it. I’ve received notes from former students that said they like how the class was set up to make everyone feel equal and not get people called out. But again, I like your idea of doing some kind of individual debrief to better reinforce progress and relationship building.

As for district compliance, yes, I meant the requirement to put in one grade per week. Also, my district requires every teacher to use a certain percentage breakdown for major grades and daily grades. We are not allowed to do a full 100% for any category.

The book looks awesome…I started reading what I could from the preview on Amazon.

I like the idea of a mini-conference too. I’m thinking of trying to get to each kid once a grading period (5 weeks).

I have another question now: How do you do your letter grades? Is it just a straight average with standard cutoffs (e.g. A = 90-100, B=80-89, etc.)?

Because my class is 100% content, I’ve been trying some sort of balance between average of scores (1-4) + minimum score on any concept (e.g. a B means you have a 3.2+ average, and your lowest score on any standard is a 2). I’m curious, though, how you set up the letter grades because I’m having trouble getting kids away from their comfort of the letter-grade label. At the same time, I would like students to understand the grading system as well as possible, given the fact that so often students feel like grades are something that’s done TO them rather than something they have control over.

My letter grades are just a straight average with standard cutoffs. A = 90-100, B = 80-89, C = 70-79, and F = 69 and below. My SBG scale goes from 5-10 partly because it’s easy to make it fit the 50-100 scale.

The way I’ve tried to de-emphasize grade mindsets with the kids is to reinforce often with words and actions that I’m not too concerned about grades but instead focusing on how we can improve. One way I try to do this is by putting this image in front of them before every formal quiz.

My words alone don’t get the job done though. I have to back it up with my practices. Not putting grades on papers has helped. Also, I make sure not to put a grade in the online gradebook they can access until we have gone over the quiz as a class. This encourages them to analyze their work and also prevents kids from peeking.

One thing that has really helped is to give ungraded quizzes somewhat often. I saw a bunch of kids have “aha” moments when I first did this. One day, I decided to just have them try some quiz type problems and told them that I won’t grade it but will only look at their work to see common mistakes and thought processes in order to help us get better. One kid even said out loud, “it’s because he just wants to see what we know.” It was a big moment of trust building and confirmation for that class and me. So, I highly recommend providing opportunities for kids to be given chances to show what they know with no grade attached. This really helps emphasize that grades aren’t the biggest concern but learning and improvement is. It doesn’t connect with everyone, but I think it helps a lot of kids.

Different strategies work with different kids, and it takes a while to reinforce and build trust. I feel like I have to repeat my intentions often, but over time, most of the kids seem to buy in. The aha moment above didn’t happen until second semester of the school year we were in. So, it can take a while for sure.

Dane, I want to thank you for the information you have put here. I have been mulling over a switch the SBG in my classroom for a while. I teach 7th grade Math and Algebra 1. It seems to fit extremely well in the Math classroom.

I have a few questions for you. What does a normal class period look like in your room? How long do the quizzes take? I think I read that you don’t give quizzes on every concept, but I’m assuming that there are times that quizzes are given over more than one concept?

My Algebra class is currently running on the Flipped Classroom template. The students watch a video created by me about the topic they will be working for the next class period. They asked questions at the end of the video, while it is fresh in their mind (using a website called Edpuzzle). We address those questions at the beginning of class, and then students spend a majority of class working through problems on that topic. At the end of the class, they are quizzed on that specific thing. At this point, I only have 2 questions on the quiz. However, I am realizing that if I move to SBG then I will need to up the number of questions on the quiz if there is more than one standard covered in a section. What are your thoughts on how SBG would fit into a Flipped Classroom situation?

Thanks again for the website, and the great resources. I will be pointing these things out to my principal for her review.

Hey Allen! Thank you for the kind words!

A normal class period is pretty traditional in my room. I try to get the kids interested with some kind of hook, estimation, or intriguing situation, and then I direct teach a lot of the time. I try to give as many group/partner opportunities as I can as well.

As for the quizzes, it depends on the class. Some classes take the whole 50 minute period to finish, and others probably take half the class. I usually have just 4 questions on the actual quiz, and then I provide an optional challenge for the kids who want to prove that they deserve a 100 without having to retake.

For most quizzes, there are multiple concepts assessed. This helps with the possibility of quizzing too often, and it also allows me to bring back concepts we have already covered in order to re-assess progress and basically provide a built-in retake. This saves a lot of time and also gives kids an opportunity to show progress without having to come in before or after school (as we know, this isn’t always possible for many kids due to circumstances outside of their control).

That’s a really cool setup you have! I think SBG can definitely fit because like you said, if fits really well in the math classroom. One thing I wish I knew when I first starting using SBG is to not feel pressure to quiz too frequently. I read a quote later on that said not to grade kids on something until learning has occurred. This was huge for me, and now I try to give as many days as possible for the kids to process through what we’re learning before giving a quiz. This has been helpful with morale and performance because if I quiz before they’re ready, many will get discouraged and be tempted to check out.

Overall, it’s definitely a feeling out process when making the switch, but the kids like it and respond well. They can see good intentions, and it’s also okay to let them know why you’re changing. They definitely like the why behind SBG.

Thanks again for the positive feedback! Let me know if you have other questions at any time.

Dane, Somehow, someway, my math department is taking on SBG in a very similar way to your approach. I think that we all tend to end up with very similar “best practices” since students everywhere react similarly to certain practices. Originally we required students to do a specific set of homework problems in order to earn retakes of assessments, but we found that the students who never did their homework were most likely to need those retakes. So we decided that we needed to allow everyone multiple opportunities and that they needed to be built into future assessments. Then, we had to battle the need for students to retain information. If we allowed for students to get the highest grade possible on the first assessment, then they could opt to never be assessed on it again. Our precalculus team decided to level their questions, so the first assessment only has basic level questions and if a student gets that completely correct they have only earned an 80% on that concept (we call them long-term learning targets). The second assessment has basic and medium level so students can choose to answer the basic again or try the medium. If they get a medium level question completely correct they earn a 90% on that concept. The third and last assessment contains basic, medium, and advanced level questions and the only way to earn a 100% on a concept is to get an advanced level question completely correct. Students only earn one score per concepts, the higher score prevails. We also use rubrics to assess in most courses and are going that direction for all courses within the next year. Other courses have not become this sophisticated and they offer two or three built in opportunities per concept and students have to either remain the same or increase their score to keep the highest score. If their performance decreases then their scores are averaged. As I said, we are definitely fighting the battle of retention and making sure that students learning something well over time not just for tomorrow’s assessment. We also make sure to have all of our classwork and homework resources posted online and aligned to the concepts that will be assessed so that students can go back to areas of weakness and practice more. Our next level of work in precalc is to make sure students know what we mean by basic, medium, and advanced level problems. This is an informal conversation in class and sometimes after we do a problem students are surprised that I consider it a basic level. We have found that the transparency of this system and clear communication can either be the key to making it work or its total demise. However, students are definitely thinking more about their strengths/weaknesses than their overall course grade. They are able to ask specific questions instead of saying that the whole unit is confusing. Students who tend to have been low achievers usually have at least one concept that they shine on per assessment instead of seeing an overall failing grade on their paper. The advantages of this system definitely outshine those of our previous point-based, quiz-test-quiz-test system. We have increased the rigor of our curriculum and students are learning a lot about math and about learning! All the best in your endeavors!

Wow! Thank you for the detailed breakdown of what y’all are doing. I love it! Great to hear that we’re on the same page.

As for retention, I’ve been trying to do as many spiraling handouts as possible to try to keep the kids fresh with concepts. I have a really good crop of kids, so most of them aren’t giving up after mastering concepts. I also don’t give homework, so I think that’s helped them stay motivated to do in-class assignments since they don’t have to do anything at home.

Thanks for making another great case for SBG! I’m really happy to hear that it’s going well. Keep up the awesome work!

I am so happy to have found your blog. You have answered some big questions for me as I moved towards piloting SBG in my classroom this year, and especially helped me envision what this whole process might look like. I appreciate the work you put into this blog, thank you.

I do have a question: for each assessment on a concept (Say the first quiz opportunity, and then later a test) how are you recording these in the grade book? In my mind each concept would have two entries (Midpoint: quiz, Midpoint: Test …or something.) I understand your policy that a quiz re-take can potentially replace the previous quiz grade in the grade book. My question is: Is this what the test result on a concept does? It seems that after each testing opportunity, you update the grade book for that one concept entry whether it was a test/quiz etc. Am I thinking about this correctly?

one more thing 🙂

You mentioned that your students record and update scores in their own copy of the concept check sheet. Can you expand on the role this plays in your classroom with your students?

Check out this post from today and let me know if it answers your question. Thanks again!

Thank you for the kind words! I’m glad the resources have been helpful. Great questions as well!

In my version of SBG, I only give quizzes for the concepts. Those are the major assessment grades. The only tests I give are once a grading period district tests. These are cumulative exams that are required for every teacher in our district to give.

So, in the gradebook’s major grade columns, I have one major grade for each concept on the concept list. One grade for Midpoint, one for Angle Pairs, and so on. I don’t have a midpoint quiz and a midpoint test. Here’s more about what it looks like in the gradebook.

For retakes, we just retake the quizzes for an opportunity to replace those quiz grades. Also, the district tests that I mentioned are only allowed to be retaken for up to a 70.

Let me know if that helps!

Just wanted to say I absolutely love what you have done here! I would love to try out what you have done for Geometry this year and implement this into my classroom. I look forward to seeing what you do with the Algebra concepts, as it looks like it is a hard work in-progress! I do teach Algebra and Geometry to 9th graders (Geometry students being 1 year advanced).

Couple questions….What textbook does your district use? We use Big Ideas and it seems as though our “Essential Standards” that we want kids to get are spot on with what you have.

Also, as far as your quarterly tests….are those made by you or given by the district? You mentioned they are multiple choice. Just wondering what those look like. Thanks for all you do! Must’ve taken a ton of time and thank you for sharing!!

Thanks so much for the kind words! I really appreciate it. Feel free to take whatever you like! After reflecting on the Algebra 1 curriculum, I realized I went too fast, so it’ll be edited throughout this school year.

We use Big Ideas as well, so I’m glad it’s matching what you have!

The quarterly tests are made by the district and are all multiple choice. Usually it’s questions taken from our released state exams. I think they also pull from our textbook and PSAT practice tests. Pretty much just a normal comprehensive exam over everything that was learned during the nine week grading period.

Thanks again for the encouragement! Hope you have a great year!

Hi I am a first year teacher and I have always wanted to implement SBG and Mastery since I assisted at a school that did this. Being new I had 0 resources and your info is a GAME CHANGER.

I have a question, our grading policies are 50/50 for minor and major grades. To put more into the minor category what would you recommend to put in there? We do interactive notebooks as well so I was leaning towards notebook checks? I teach 7th grade so organization is a HUGE goal.

Also, if I am reading this correctly “homework” ceases to exist?

Thank you for the kind words! I really appreciate it and am glad the site has been helpful.

Good question about minor and major grades. I’ve found that having minor grades weighted to more than 30% can over-influence grades in either the positive or negative direction. So, when I’ve been in places that require more than 30%, I’ve taken quiz averages and used them as minor grades as well. This may or may not be against the rules in your district, so you’ll want to double check.

I’m also intrigued by lagging assignments . If I have to take a grade over something other than quizzes, I at least want it to be over something that students have had time to learn. I really prefer not to grade students over material they’re still learning unless it’s a completion grade or something not dependent on right or wrong answers.

Also, to answer your question about homework, you’re correct. I decided not to give homework after trying it early on in my career. I found that it inevitably put obstacles in the way of a certain percentage of students, and many of their grades were not reflective of their learning because of it. I know many people use homework in a really helpful way though, so I don’t want to discourage it if you find a method that works for you.

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High school geometry

Unit 1: performing transformations, unit 2: transformation properties and proofs, unit 3: congruence, unit 4: similarity, unit 5: right triangles & trigonometry, unit 6: analytic geometry, unit 7: conic sections, unit 8: circles, unit 9: solid geometry, review articles.

clock This article was published more than  1 year ago

A deep dive into whether -- and how -- homework should be graded

Homework has been a source of contention since it was first assigned in U.S. public schools in the 1800s. By 1900, it had become so unpopular in some circles that an editorial by Edward Bok, the influential editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal, had this headline: “A National Crime at the Feet of American Parents.”

“The child is made to study far, far beyond his physical strength, and consequently his mental good,” Bok wrote, arguing that kids under age 15 should be outside playing with friends after school and should go to sleep after dinner. Homework was banned for a while in public schools in Boston, the entire state of California and other places, and from 1900 to 1940 progressive education scholars tried to get it abolished everywhere.

They ultimately lost, but debate over the value of homework for students, especially young ones, continues today, along with a relatively new wrinkle: Should homework be graded? It’s part of a revolution in grading that has quietly been underway for years in some districts but that gained attention when more districts began looking at changing grading systems during the coronavirus pandemic.

This article looks in depth at the controversy over grading homework. It was written by Rick Wormeli, a former National Board Certified teacher in Virginia who now consults with schools and districts on classroom practice and grading systems. He is the author of “ Fair Isn’t Always Equal: Assessment and Grading in the Differentiated Classroom, Second Edition. ”

Teachers second-guess letter grades as they search for a fairer way

By Rich Wormeli

Some school districts in our area are considering proposals to revise their policies for reporting homework completion and students’ timely adherence to deadlines so that these reports do not count in final, academic grades of subject content. A few in these communities are pushing back on this idea, declaring that such policies do not teach responsibility, with at least one observer calling the suggested policies, “dumb,” and, “a formula for disaster.” (See, Mathews, “ Abolishing grades on homework will hurt the neediest kids ,” Washington Post, Dec. 26, 2021, and his follow-up piece on the same topic on April 3, 2022). To these individuals, I offer a deeper dive, as the new policies are legitimate.

Everyone in a student’s academic life agrees that grades should be accurate reports of student proficiencies regarding what is being taught: One student’s grade in science reflects her understanding of photosynthesis, and another’s grade in Algebra reflects his skills in graphing inequalities. With accuracy like this, we can provide helpful feedback and make effective decisions regarding students’ current and future learning.

If we include reports of elements not indicative of the proficiencies we claim to report, we distort the truth about students’ learning. We are an ethical profession, however; we don’t lie to students or their parents. It makes sense, then, to remove any practice that falsifies grade reports and to do more of those things that assure truthful reporting.

With integrity paramount, we cannot conflate the report of doing things (compliance) with the reporting of learning things (mastery or proficiency), as doing so distorts the accuracy of the report of either one individually. During the years of my teaching in Loudoun and Fairfax County schools, some students demonstrated 75 percent proficiency in the previous year’s material, but the previous year’s teachers recorded an A or 100 percent on their report cards because these students completed homework on time, maintained organized notebooks, and worked collaboratively. These elements counted 25 percent of the grade. They were helpful things, of course, but they were not evidence of what teachers claim to be reporting.

Study provides rare control group review of standards-based grading craze

In addition, we do not want to give students a false sense of competence in their learning as this creates embarrassment later when they, their parents, and future teachers think students are competent, but it turns out to be a mirage. These individuals are left gawping at what others in their courses easily understand and do. This can happen when we buffer grades with elements such as “completed homework,” and adding extra points to an assignment’s score because the student brought in extra canned food for the canned food drive.

So, what does this mean for modern grading practices? It means we report elements like homework completion and timely adherence to deadlines separately from subject proficiency on the report card. We are careful not to blur the lines between reporting students’ compliance with tasks with students’ proficiency in Latin declension or proper weightlifting techniques.

Work on homework assignments is not evidence of final level of proficiency. Instead, it provides feedback and informs where we go next in instruction. No professional in any field would accept weaving in reports of their first, inexact, attempts in learning with the final report of their solid competence at the end of their learning journey and proven licensure, as it would create a false report of current proficiency. If we wouldn’t tolerate this inaccurate reporting in working world evaluations, what makes it legitimate in our schools? The grade at course’s end should be an accurate report for the subject proficiencies demonstrated at that point, not a report of the road students traveled to get there.

Consider, too, that homework assignments are used as coaching and practice tools for students as they learn content and skills. Any assessment of learning along the way such as we get when looking over students’ practice work is a one-moment-in-time progress check as students grow towards demonstrable competence. Here, we provide timely feedback, and students self-monitor their learning rather than depending exclusively on others to tell them how they are doing. As a result, students own their learning, and learned helplessness and making excuses fall away.

We don’t want to invoke self-preservation here, which happens often with adolescents. If our first steps with a topic are allowed to significantly alter the final report of our competence in that topic, we self-preserve, protect ego, and essentially give up, letting you think we can do it but that we choose not to, or were irresponsible. For many of us, it’s better you think me competent than give you proof that I’m incompetent and don’t belong. Interestingly, teachers are actually more demanding of students by maintaining students’ hope in their learning potential. Invoking self-preservation with high stakes homework, however, lets students escape the burden of their learning and growing maturity.

To provide gravitas and help educators and communities avoid deflecting on this issue, consider the many court cases speaking to this concern, with brief statements from two of them included here (taken from Guskey and Brookhart, “ What We Know about Grading ”):

• Smith v. School City of Hobart (1993): “A federal judge rules that grade reductions for nonacademic reasons result in, “clear misrepresentation of the student’s scholastic achievement, … Misrepresentation of achievement is equally improper … and illegal whether the achievement is misrepresented by upgrading or downgrading, if either is done for reason that are irrelevant to the achievement being graded. For example, one would hardly deem acceptable an upgrading in a mathematics course for achievement on the playing field.”
• Court[s] … have relied on grade accuracy to mean “the extent that it permits someone to estimate the extent of a student’s knowledge and skills in a given area” (Chartier, 2003, p. 41)…[I]ncluding factors such as ability, effort, improvement, or work completion in grades may not be legally defensible.”

Finally, let’s look at the research on teaching accountability and whether counting practice (homework) and penalties for late work in academic course grade teaches students self-discipline and responsibility. Consider (from Guskey’s “Five Obstacles to Grading Reform”):

[N]o research supports the idea that low grades prompt students to try harder. More often, low grades prompt students to withdraw from learning. To protect their self-images, many students regard the low grade as irrelevant or meaningless. Others may blame themselves for the low grade but feel helpless to improve (Selby & Murphy, 1992).

To those expressing concerns about teaching responsibility, I invite you to study the research and many resources on how adults cultivate such maturity in their students. Policies such as one grade lower for each day late and counting homework completion in the final performance of proficiency don’t hold up under scrutiny. Tom Schimmer, author of “ Grading from the Inside Out ,” and former teacher and principal, wrote :

One of the biggest misunderstandings of standards-based grading is that the non-achievement factors don’t matter; they do. Achievement grades are the reason students will ultimately gain entry into college; their habits of learning are the reason they will graduate from college. It is not okay for students to turn work in late. But it’s equally not okay to distort achievement levels as a result of lateness.

He also wrote that having such a factor contribute “to a student’s achievement grade would be inequitable and even unethical.”

Students are behind in math and reading. Are schools doing enough?

All of us want students to develop self-discipline, perseverance, time management, consideration for others, and to start projects the week they are assigned instead of five weeks later, the night before they are due. If we look closely, though, we find that none of the research on how to teach these skills calls for counting homework in the final academic grade or by recording unrecoverable zeros and F’s when work is not completed or not completed on time.

What we find instead are robust and practical insights for building executive function skills, fostering independence, asking students to self-monitor their own learning, building agency (voice and choice in learning), and facilitating students’ growing self-efficacy.

For example, consider these major executive function skills promoted in “ Smart, but Scattered for Teens” : response inhibition, working memory, emotional control, flexibility, sustained attention, task initiation, planning/prioritizing, organization, time management, goal-directed persistence, and metacognition. Do we see anything here that would contribute positively to homework completion and student success? Yes, all of them. Let’s overtly teach these skills instead of scolding from afar in the mistaken assumption that lowering grades helps students mature.

Reporting homework separately is making sure homework “counts,” putting homework completion on its own radar, and giving it increased importance, not less. This is raising expectations, not lowering them. It’s a teacher cop-out when we assign unrecoverable zeros and F’s to work not done on the timeline we declared, as students don’t have to do it now. The message is clear here: This work is skippable and not important. If it’s worth assigning, however, it matters: It’s not busy-work, it’s not skippable. The consequence for not doing your work is giving up other activities and doing the work.

Admissions officers and military recruiters over the decades share repeatedly that they like to see work habits such as homework completion and timely adherence to deadlines reported separately for all four years of high school. This allows them to trust the academic grades as more accurate indicators of students’ real learning and to gauge the candidate’s mettle for their upcoming program. To reinforce the life lesson that hard work often results in higher achievement, report homework completion separately from academic performance and ask the student to note the correlations: higher completion rate yields higher performance, lower completion rate yields lower performance.

Also note that sometimes we get students who do little or no homework, yet they perform among the highest in the class. There is no cheating here; the students have after-school responsibilities that are simply more urgent: Taking care of aging parents or younger siblings, working after school in order to help the family pay for food and rent, or getting extra assistance in another course. When such a mismatch happens, we have to question the value of students doing those homework assignments: Did they really matter to students’ success, or were they merely busy work, making school about compliance, not learning?

Mathews, in his 2021 Post column on the subject, quotes Wakefield High School teachers’ criticism: “ [T]he Spring 2020 virtual learning experiment during the [coronavirus] pandemic taught most of us that students do not, will not, complete work if it is not for a grade,” and he repeats the statement in his April 3, 2022 , update of the controversial topic. But let’s consider the spring of 2020 when schools first closed at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Remember the panic we were feeling? We were in free fall, wondering which end was up. Students were navigating the loss of normalcy, removal of expected rituals and experiences, fears over others seeing their home lives via Zoom, inappropriate learning conditions at home, caring for parents and grandparents, increased opioid and alcohol use in self or family, wild mood swings, dramatic changes in sleep, isolation/loneliness, going through puberty, limited access to technology/resources/food, jobless parents due to economic downturn, transportation challenges, limited skills in executive function, depression/anxiety, and were dealing with increasing biases, racism, and political hostilities.

On top of this, Arlington County educators and other teachers around the nation were on a steep learning curve, barely ahead of their students on how to make virtual instruction work. Many of us were not very effective at it; we didn’t have the tools and know-how to make learning engaging via the camera lens in spring 2020. It’s a credit to teachers and students that everyone did as well as they did. Using that time of angst with all that was happening on both sides of the camera as conclusive proof that students will only do homework when it is graded, however, doesn’t make sense: It’s a flawed understanding of proper research practices to make such a claim.

In that same April 3, 2022 update, Mathews says that providing feedback on homework, not grades is a, “a lovely image, but … is at odds with modern adolescence. The distractions of teenage life are at war with the notion that students will do better if teachers remove deadlines.” Actually, none of the standards-based learning advocates, as Mathews cited, including Joe Feldman, Emily Rickema, and Ken O’Connor, advocates for removing deadlines. Deadlines still matter, and students are taught diligently how to meet them. Punitive and distorted grade reports, however, are not the way to teach it.

Second, let’s do a deeper dive into what we know about today’s adolescents before we make such generalizations based on what a few teachers say. Adolescents do respond well to classrooms of agency, developmentally appropriate instruction, complex, demanding instruction, and hope. This means we require students to do the heavy lifting to analyze their practice work against standards of excellence and use that knowledge to inform next steps in learning while being assured that these assignments are only progress checks, not the ultimate judgment of competence. When early attempts at mastery are not used against them, and accountability comes in the form of actually learning content, adolescents flourish. No research in our profession concludes that knowingly falsifying grade reports is an effective way to help students mature and deal with the distractions of teenage life.

Let’s implement the practices that lead to student success. Coercive efforts such as counting homework completion and timeliness in an academic grade are about control, not learning or student maturation. Work completion and timeliness are deeply important virtues, of course, but conflating them with academic performance provides a false sense that students are learning and maturing. Homework completion should count 100 percent, and timeliness of assignment submissions should count 100 percent. Yes, quote me correctly, both should count 100 percent — of their own columns on the report card. They should count 0 percent, however, of the report of what students know about mitosis or coding in Python.

Accountability can be defined as entering mutual ethos with one another: I’m looking out for your success as much as you are looking out for mine. As teachers, that means we come prepared to teach diverse students substantive content and skills, and we hold ourselves accountable to powerful ethics as professionals. We study the role of homework in student learning, and we don’t undermine its positive effects by conflating what should be practice with high stakes, final designations of competence. In this, our students are well served.

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The Algebra Problem: How Middle School Math Became a National Flashpoint

Top students can benefit greatly by being offered the subject early. But many districts offer few Black and Latino eighth graders a chance to study it.

By Troy Closson

From suburbs in the Northeast to major cities on the West Coast, a surprising subject is prompting ballot measures, lawsuits and bitter fights among parents: algebra.

Students have been required for decades to learn to solve for the variable x, and to find the slope of a line. Most complete the course in their first year of high school. But top-achievers are sometimes allowed to enroll earlier, typically in eighth grade.

The dual pathways inspire some of the most fiery debates over equity and academic opportunity in American education.

Do bias and inequality keep Black and Latino children off the fast track? Should middle schools eliminate algebra to level the playing field? What if standout pupils lose the chance to challenge themselves?

The questions are so fraught because algebra functions as a crucial crossroads in the education system. Students who fail it are far less likely to graduate. Those who take it early can take calculus by 12th grade, giving them a potential edge when applying to elite universities and lifting them toward society’s most high-status and lucrative professions.

But racial and economic gaps in math achievement are wide in the United States, and grew wider during the pandemic. In some states, nearly four in five poor children do not meet math standards.

To close those gaps, New York City’s previous mayor, Bill de Blasio, adopted a goal embraced by many districts elsewhere. Every middle school would offer algebra, and principals could opt to enroll all of their eighth graders in the class. San Francisco took an opposite approach: If some children could not reach algebra by middle school, no one would be allowed to take it.

The central mission in both cities was to help disadvantaged students. But solving the algebra dilemma can be more complex than solving the quadratic formula.

New York’s dream of “algebra for all” was never fully realized, and Mayor Eric Adams’s administration changed the goal to improving outcomes for ninth graders taking algebra. In San Francisco, dismantling middle-school algebra did little to end racial inequities among students in advanced math classes. After a huge public outcry, the district decided to reverse course.

“You wouldn’t think that there could be a more boring topic in the world,” said Thurston Domina, a professor at the University of North Carolina. “And yet, it’s this place of incredibly high passions.”

“Things run hot,” he said.

In some cities, disputes over algebra have been so intense that parents have sued school districts, protested outside mayors’ offices and campaigned for the ouster of school board members.

Teaching math in middle school is a challenge for educators in part because that is when the material becomes more complex, with students moving from multiplication tables to equations and abstract concepts. Students who have not mastered the basic skills can quickly become lost, and it can be difficult for them to catch up.

Many school districts have traditionally responded to divergent achievement levels by simply separating children into distinct pathways, placing some in general math classes while offering others algebra as an accelerated option. Such sorting, known as tracking, appeals to parents who want their children to reach advanced math as quickly as possible.

But tracking has cast an uncomfortable spotlight on inequality. Around a quarter of all students in the United States take algebra in middle school. But only about 12 percent of Black and Latino eighth graders do, compared with roughly 24 percent of white pupils, a federal report found .

“That’s why middle school math is this flashpoint,” said Joshua Goodman, an associate professor of education and economics at Boston University. “It’s the first moment where you potentially make it very obvious and explicit that there are knowledge gaps opening up.”

In the decades-long war over math, San Francisco has emerged as a prominent battleground.

California once required that all eighth graders take algebra. But lower-performing middle school students often struggle when forced to enroll in the class, research shows. San Francisco later stopped offering the class in eighth grade. But the ban did little to close achievement gaps in more advanced math classes, recent research has found.

As the pendulum swung, the only constant was anger. Leading Bay Area academics disparaged one another’s research . A group of parents even sued the district last spring. “Denying students the opportunity to skip ahead in math when their intellectual ability clearly allows for it greatly harms their potential for future achievement,” their lawsuit said.

The city is now back to where it began: Middle school algebra — for some, not necessarily for all — will return in August. The experience underscored how every approach carries risks.

“Schools really don’t know what to do,” said Jon R. Star, an educational psychologist at Harvard who has studied algebra education. “And it’s just leading to a lot of tension.”

In Cambridge, Mass., the school district phased out middle school algebra before the pandemic. But some argued that the move had backfired: Families who could afford to simply paid for their children to take accelerated math outside of school.

“It’s the worst of all possible worlds for equity,” Jacob Barandes, a Cambridge parent, said at a school board meeting.

Elsewhere, many students lack options to take the class early: One of Philadelphia’s most prestigious high schools requires students to pass algebra before enrolling, preventing many low-income children from applying because they attend middle schools that do not offer the class.

In New York, Mr. de Blasio sought to tackle the disparities when he announced a plan in 2015 to offer algebra — but not require it — in all of the city’s middle schools. More than 15,000 eighth graders did not have the class at their schools at the time.

Since then, the number of middle schools that offer algebra has risen to about 80 percent from 60 percent. But white and Asian American students still pass state algebra tests at higher rates than their peers.

The city’s current schools chancellor, David Banks, also shifted the system’s algebra focus to high schools, requiring the same ninth-grade curriculum at many schools in a move that has won both support and backlash from educators.

And some New York City families are still worried about middle school. A group of parent leaders in Manhattan recently asked the district to create more accelerated math options before high school, saying that many young students must seek out higher-level instruction outside the public school system.

In a vast district like New York — where some schools are filled with children from well-off families and others mainly educate homeless children — the challenge in math education can be that “incredible diversity,” said Pedro A. Noguera, the dean of the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education.

“You have some kids who are ready for algebra in fourth grade, and they should not be denied it,” Mr. Noguera said. “Others are still struggling with arithmetic in high school, and they need support.”

Many schools are unequipped to teach children with disparate math skills in a single classroom. Some educators lack the training they need to help students who have fallen behind, while also challenging those working at grade level or beyond.

Some schools have tried to find ways to tackle the issue on their own. KIPP charter schools in New York have added an additional half-hour of math time to many students’ schedules, to give children more time for practice and support so they can be ready for algebra by eighth grade.

At Middle School 50 in Brooklyn, where all eighth graders take algebra, teachers rewrote lesson plans for sixth- and seventh-grade students to lay the groundwork for the class.

The school’s principal, Ben Honoroff, said he expected that some students would have to retake the class in high school. But after starting a small algebra pilot program a few years ago, he came to believe that exposing children early could benefit everyone — as long as students came into it well prepared.

Looking around at the students who were not enrolling in the class, Mr. Honoroff said, “we asked, ‘Are there other kids that would excel in this?’”

“The answer was 100 percent, yes,” he added. “That was not something that I could live with.”

Troy Closson reports on K-12 schools in New York City for The Times. More about Troy Closson

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Province Introduces New High School Graduation Requirements for a Stronger Ontario Diploma

Suite of reforms will modernize requirements for a secondary school diploma for the first time in 25 years

May 30, 2024

Table of Contents

Quick facts, additional resources, related topics.

TORONTO — The Ontario government is modernizing the Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) requirements for the first time in 25 years, and launching consultations with parents, job creators, educators and stakeholders on what skills students need to be better prepared for life beyond the classroom through the reintroduction of modernized home economics education.

The province is introducing a suite of reforms to ensure Ontario’s diploma embraces the back-to-basics agenda, including:

• A new financial literacy graduation requirement to ensure students exit Ontario’s school system with both literacy and practical financial literacy skills.
• Consulting on important life skills and the return of home economics education.
• Ensuring new teachers hold basic competency in math . Teacher applicants to the Ontario College of Teachers must pass the Math Proficiency Test beginning in February 2025.
• For the first time in 13 years, a wholesale revitalization of guidance and career education to support students’ understanding of local labour market needs and pathways to good careers.
• Up to $14 million in 2024-25 to launch career coaching for Grade 9 and 10 students and to explore new opportunities into STEM and skilled trades.
• Return of the student exit survey to benchmark success and garner feedback on the impact of reforms with an emphasis on guidance.

“Too many parents, employers and students themselves tell me that students are graduating without sufficient financial literacy and basic life skills,” said Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education. “As we go back-to-basics in the classroom, we will introduce Ontario’s first financial literacy graduation requirement, along with the return of modernized home economics education. By elevating life skills in the classroom, along with better career education and higher math standards on educators, we are setting up every student for life-long success. Our bottom line: ensuring students graduate with practical learning that leads them to better jobs and bigger paycheques.”

Ontario will be introducing a new financial literacy assessment as a graduation requirement to ensure students have the skills and knowledge to create and manage a household budget, save for a home, learn to invest wisely, and protect themselves from financial fraud. Starting in 2025, students will be required to score 70 per cent or higher to meet the financial literacy graduation requirement in their Grade 10 math course. Furthermore, the province will standardize making EQAO Grade 9 Math scores 10 per cent or more of a student’s final mark, a practice already used by the majority of teachers.

Students will also benefit from modernized career education programming in their schools with more exposure to the skilled trades and priority economic sectors. The government is investing up to $14 million in 2024-25 for career coaching for Grade 9 and 10 students in the publicly funded education system. In partnership with the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, this funding will also provide resources and tools to help at-risk youth, individuals in youth justice facilities, and students in other publicly funded educational settings outside of regular classrooms. Through shared agreements with school boards and other existing structures, this career coaching will help young people succeed and become positive members of their communities.

“All children and youth in Ontario deserve to have the resources and supports they need to succeed and thrive,” said Michael Parsa, Minister of Children, Community and Social Services. “Today’s announcement is an important step as we work to empower youth-at-risk and those involved in the justice system with the tools they need to get their life on the right track. Together, we can help them build a brighter future for themselves and their communities.”

The government is also working with the Ontario College of Teachers to support aspiring guidance counsellors by revising Additional Qualification guidelines. New changes will update guidance counsellor qualifications and impose annual training to deliver meaningful value to students. School boards will be required to provide opportunities for guidance counsellors to keep current on labour market trends and work with local employers to support skilled young people to find career opportunities in the communities where they were raised.

Ontario will begin consultations this fall with parents and experts on what practical life skills students should learn in school to build a strong foundation that sets them up for success. This can include the mandatory inclusion of life skills like nutritious cooking, changing a tire, sewing a button, using first aid, personal responsibility and basic economics, all of which can prove valuable throughout a student’s lifespan. This places an emphasis on personal development, decision-making and intrapersonal skills, all of which are in demand by employers across the economy.

• The last major overhaul of the Ontario Secondary School Diploma was in 1999 with the removal of OAC (Grade 13) and introduction of community involvement hours.
• According to a 2022 Royal Bank of Canada poll, nearly 83 per cent of young Canadians reported needing more information and support on money management, and 68 per cent reported feeling overwhelmed and needed help.
• Ontario is Making It Easier to Enter Skilled Trades by introducing new policy and legislative measures to attract more young people to the skilled trades, including adding a new apprenticeship pathway and an online job matching platform.
• The Ontario government has opened grant applications for the Ontario Learn and Stay Grant for the 2024-25 academic year . Postsecondary students who want to pursue a career in nursing, paramedicine or medical lab technology can now apply for the grant.

"Our government recognizes the need to prepare the next generations of Ontarians with the right tools necessary to help build the best possible financial future for themselves and our whole province. We will not take the wellbeing of young Ontarians for granted. This is a step in the right direction to ensure our children and grandchildren learn the basics of financial literacy and responsibility that will help them prepare for the future." - Peter Bethlenfalvy Minister of Finance

"Ontario’s new financial literacy graduation requirement is a major step forward for our high school students. By prioritizing financial education, we are equipping our next generation with the foundation they need to make informed financial decisions, build a secure future and contribute to a robust and resilient economy. " - MPP Billy Pang Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Education

"Modernizing the Ontario Secondary School Diploma requirements will provide secondary school students with a more relevant and comprehensive education that better prepares them for the challenges of the future. This approach will benefit students by contributing to the development of a more skilled and adaptable workforce, incorporating life skills such as financial literacy into graduation requirements that will prepare students to become well-rounded adults. These skills are crucial for personal and professional success." - MPP Natalie Pierre Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Education

"Financial literacy is an essential life skill that gives young people the tools they need to plan for the future. Part of that planning also involves preparing for their careers, so it’s equally important that school counsellors work collaboratively with local employers to provide students with the most informed guidance possible." - Goldy Hyder President and CEO, Business Council of Canada

"The Canadian Foundation for Economic Education (CFEE) would like to commend the Minister, and the Ministry of Education in Ontario, for taking a leadership position on such important areas of learning for our children’s future – their financial literacy and capability, their essential life skills that will be addressed in a long-needed new approach to home economics, and their ability to navigate a pathway to a career for which they have interest and passion and that can lead to meaningful employment or self-employment. We have long needed such leadership, not only in this province but throughout the country. We wish the Minister and his team much success and will do all we can to support their efforts." - Gary Rabbior President, Canadian Foundation for Economic Education

"The Ontario Chamber of Commerce has long advocated for a stronger talent pipeline between our education system and key industries with market need — and for graduates with financial literacy and life skills. Today's announcement promised to give Ontario's young talent a greater understanding of diverse career pathways and the skills to succeed in the economy of the future." - Daniel Tisch President and CEO, Ontario Chamber of Commerce

"CPA Ontario applauds the Ministry of Education for taking important steps to prioritize financial literacy among Ontario’s high school students. Making financial literacy a graduation requirement will empower our youth with essential life skills and help them navigate an increasingly complex economy. With our mandate to protect the public, we understand the vital role financial literacy plays in securing Ontario’s future." - Carol Wilding President and CEO, Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario

"We applaud the government and Minister Lecce for these positive steps that will help students succeed in school, in their careers and in life. These are valuable and much needed skills that will greatly benefit those in secondary school and help them deal with the changing times and economy." - Ian Howcroft CEO, Skills Ontario

"By introducing a financial literacy graduation requirement, the Ontario government is taking a bold step to equip students with an essential life skill. It will ensure high school students have the knowledge they need to successfully manage their finances, from budgeting to investing. We will need a future workforce that is financially savvy and resilient, capable of making informed decisions and contributing to a stronger economy." - Giles Gherson President and CEO, Toronto Region Board of Trade

"The new OSSD requirements in financial literacy, the consultation on a new life skills course and a refreshed approach to career exploration and work readiness support youth to gain the skill set and mindset they need to realize their boundless potential. JA’s approach to immersive, experiential learning brings curriculum off the page and into real world application. We look forward to collaborating with the ministry and our educator partners to fuel student success in these subjects." - Jennifer Holmes Weier President & CEO, JA Central Ontario

"By equipping our youth with financial knowledge, we are empowering them to navigate life's financial landscape with confidence and competence. This investment in their education not only secures their future but also lays the groundwork for a stronger, more prosperous Ontario. As a financial wellness educator, I echo the sentiments of Minister Lecce and commend the Ford government for championing this essential step towards equipping our students with the tools for lifelong success." - Saijal Patel Founder & CEO, Saij Wealth Consulting Inc.

"JUMP Math looks forward to supporting all efforts to further Ontario students’ financial literacy skills, foundational skills and broaden their pathways into STEM and skilled trades to support our provincial labour market needs. We also welcome the opportunity to expand new Ontario teachers’ math knowledge through our suite of evidence-based math education tools and resources." - Ken Aucoin CEO, JUMP Math

"FIRST Robotics Canada enthusiastically supports the Ontario government's initiative to modernize the Ontario Secondary School Diploma requirements. Integrating financial literacy, life skills and enhanced STEM education will equip students with essential tools for success in a rapidly evolving technological landscape. These reforms will not only foster critical thinking and innovation but also prepare students for meaningful careers, driving economic growth and prosperity. They also align well with the goals we have at FIRST Robotics Canada with respect to STEM skills and the Skilled Trades, effectively preparing our students for the future!" - Arti Javeri Vice President, Partnerships, First Robotics Canada

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Elektrostal

Elektrostal Localisation : Country Russia , Oblast Moscow Oblast . Available Information : Geographical coordinates , Population, Area, Altitude, Weather and Hotel . Nearby cities and villages : Noginsk , Pavlovsky Posad and Staraya Kupavna .

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Elektrostal Demography

Information on the people and the population of Elektrostal.

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Geographic Information regarding City of Elektrostal .

Elektrostal Distance

Distance (in kilometers) between Elektrostal and the biggest cities of Russia.

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Geographic coordinates of Elektrostal, Moscow Oblast, Russia

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Coordinates of Elektrostal in decimal degrees

Coordinates of elektrostal in degrees and decimal minutes, utm coordinates of elektrostal, geographic coordinate systems.

WGS 84 coordinate reference system is the latest revision of the World Geodetic System, which is used in mapping and navigation, including GPS satellite navigation system (the Global Positioning System).

Geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) define a position on the Earth’s surface. Coordinates are angular units. The canonical form of latitude and longitude representation uses degrees (°), minutes (′), and seconds (″). GPS systems widely use coordinates in degrees and decimal minutes, or in decimal degrees.

Latitude varies from −90° to 90°. The latitude of the Equator is 0°; the latitude of the South Pole is −90°; the latitude of the North Pole is 90°. Positive latitude values correspond to the geographic locations north of the Equator (abbrev. N). Negative latitude values correspond to the geographic locations south of the Equator (abbrev. S).

Longitude is counted from the prime meridian ( IERS Reference Meridian for WGS 84) and varies from −180° to 180°. Positive longitude values correspond to the geographic locations east of the prime meridian (abbrev. E). Negative longitude values correspond to the geographic locations west of the prime meridian (abbrev. W).

UTM or Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system divides the Earth’s surface into 60 longitudinal zones. The coordinates of a location within each zone are defined as a planar coordinate pair related to the intersection of the equator and the zone’s central meridian, and measured in meters.

Elevation above sea level is a measure of a geographic location’s height. We are using the global digital elevation model GTOPO30 .

Elektrostal , Moscow Oblast, Russia