Using the Standards-Based Gradebook as a Teacher

Standards-based grades, or scores, provide a different way to assess student progress than traditional grades.

What is traditional grading?

Traditional grading involves scoring students based on points earned on assignments. For example, a student might earn a B (85) on a writing assignment. Then, at the end of a marking period, all of their scores are combined to determine the average score they received during this period of time. Each student receives one average for each class:

85+75+63+91 = 314/4 = 78.5 average

Because traditional grading is just an average of a student's scores, it doesn't highlight whether their skills are getting better, staying the same, or getting worse over time.

What is standards-based grading?

Standards-based grades give you a way to score a student's progress in meeting each specific standard within an assignment.

With standards-based grades, you can enter several scores for the same assignment. For example, for each writing assignment, you might enter five scores – one for each of the following standards:

Assignment: Esperanza Rising essay

Standard

Score

Introduce claims

3

Support claims

2

Cohesion

3
Formal style

3

Conclusion

2

You can use your Aspen gradebook to align assignments with standards, and enter scores for each of those standards. Then, for each standard, Aspen calculates an average score received as well as a Trend score, which uses the Power Law calculation.

What is the Power Law Trend?

The Power Law Trend references each score you enter for a student, and predicts the next score that student would receive if evaluated for that standard again.

For example, William Smith's end-of-term Trend score for the Comprehends the Main Idea standard is 2.7. Essentially, the calculated Trend score predicts the student would receive 2.7 the next time they are scored on this standard:

The Power Law determines, through an intricate formula, how the student is progressing in meeting each standard. It does not average the scores, which would give equal weight to a score the student earned at the beginning of the marking period and one earned at the end of the marking period. Instead, the Power Law Trend calculates a score that measures the student's progress over the entire marking period (giving more weight to later assignments).

This way, each student can receive several scores for each class – one for each reporting standard used in that class.

Tip: The more assignments you link to a standard, the better picture you'll get about student mastery of it. As you grade the assignments, a trend emerges.

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