EBL (Evidenced Based Grading) or Skills Testing

So far Eastmont has achieved the following "Fixes:" These are established in "15 Fixes for Standard Based Grading" though the numbers assigned do not correlate to those used in the book.

1. Accept Late work without penalty.
2. No Extra Credit
3. No academic dishonesty
4. No attendance
5. No Group Scores
6. Grades organized by Categories as stated in standard
7. Appropriate and clear performance expectations (rubrics, "I Can... Statements")
8. Grades assigned based on preset standards rather than comparing students to each other

Goals for this year:

• Don't include student behaviors in the academic grade.
• Attendance/tardies are addressed in the citizenship grade. 
• Teachers have little control over attendance. Parents often excuse excessive absences. But we can control tardies, so is it wise to put attendance into the citizenship grade mix?
• Also, attendance is the number one indicator of how students will achieve in school.
• Excessive absences are also relative to a student - to a point. Some students can recover from a week of absences where another may suffer from a day or two throughout the quarter.
• There's a recommended rubric that grades behaviors which includes organization, Assignments, Participation, and attendance. This is recommended for "grading" these items in the citizenship grade.
• Students should complete the behavior rubric throughout the year for purposes of responsibility and understanding how such behaviors affect grades.
• I'd like to include these rubrics in their portfolios that would be presented to parents at parent/teachers conference.
• Group recommended marking rubrics twice - once at midterms and once at the end of the quarter.
• The question that needs to be answered, though, is should we include 16 point rubric as participation on grades so parents can see results.
• This year's experiment: use different methods based on grade level teams, see how each method works, and then chose one method for next year.
• Rely on evidence gathered from quality and differentiated assessments. How do we address Bias and distortion.
• Barriers students bring with them:
• Language, emotions, health, handicaps, peers, motivation, anxiety, testing ability, etc.
• These are very difficult for teacher to compensate for.
• Barriers that the act of assessment brings:
• Noise, lighting, comfort (too hot/cold), lack of rapport with teacher, cultural insensitivity, lack of proper equipment (no pencils, computer, etc.)
• We can compensate for these.
• Barriers that the assessment alone brings:
• Bad questions, missing information, poor directions, confusing format, technology issues.
• These teachers should be able to compensate for.
• These are especially aided with teacher collaboration, where peer can identify test problems in advance.
• Stages in Assessment Development:
• Plan: use, targets and method.
• Develop: sample and size, select tasks and scoring method
• Critique: 
• Does assessment meet targets previously set?
• Is the weight appropriate?
• Administer
• Revise
• Did you get sufficient information?
• Was it weighted properly?
• Were there errors that needed correcting?
• Types of Assessments

• Short Answer, multiple choice, True/False, Matching, Short answer & Fill in the blank.
• Pros: Easy to score, efficient
• Cons: Information may be limited
• Extended Writing
• Essay
• Pros: More information
• Cons: Hard to grade
• Performance - portfolios, recitals, etc.
• Pros: Authentic, gives good information
• Cons: Individualized and can be hard to deliver, may also not be cost effective.
• Personal Communication - interacting with individuals or small groups
• Pros: Good for oral responders and those who have difficult time responding to larger assessments.
• Cons: Very difficult to give to a group, requires huge organization (may be impossible with larger groups
• Don't summarize evidence accumulated over time when learning is developmental. Emphasize recent achievement
• Allow students to retake tests and take the final grade
• Provide students with the best assessment that gives student information on mastery
• Does that mean we allow students to chose assessment methods?
• Can I use concept mastery time to do this?