SBG: Converting to a Percentage Grade

Like most of us, my district requires that we assign a grade at the end of each quarter. Not just a letter grade, but a percentage.  Before I started using a standards-based assessment system, my quarterly percentage would be a mix of homework, quizzes, tests, classwork, etc.  Not very indicative of what a student learned, but boy did it measure how well a student “played school.” This year, I have come up with this conversion for my required percentage grade:

• 90% of the quarter grade comes from being proficient on my core learning targets (proficient learning targets/total learning targets)
• 5% of the quarter grade comes from mastering the core learning targets (mastered learning targets/total learning targets)
• 5% of the quarter grade comes from being proficient with my “synthesis” learning targets (same calculation)

A student can demonstrate proficiency with a core learning target on a weekly quiz, in a conversation with myself, or various other ways that could be classified as “formative assessment.”  Students demonstrate mastery on core learning targets when they repeatedly are successful on multiple types of assessments, both formative and summative.  Finally, students will also encounter “synthesis” learning targets.  These are multiple core learning targets all rolled up into one non-routine, complex problem.  I included these to assess students’ abilities to apply their knowledge of how the core learning targets go together.

While I am still convinced that this isn’t a perfect system, I am excited to see how it plays out this school year.  Alright, I’m open and ready for critiques.