The Science Goddess wants assistance in establishing grading patterns for her standards based classes.

I feel comfy with the mechanics of the day-to-day process of formative and summative assessment. I'm not worried about providing constructive feedback to students on assignments. I am, however, a bit stymied as to how to distill this information into a final grade for a report card. This is where I'm really calling upon you for ideas.

This is an interesting problem, how to translate assignment grades into a course grade that reflects standards based instruction. She offers her reasoning.

I suggested something different. It's consistently unpopular with teachers with whom I've shared it. However, non-educators almost to the person say, "Of course," or something to that effect.

In a nutshell, here's my observation: State academic standards indicate the minimum learning each student should demonstrate. A score of 100 percent indicates a grade of "C." A grade of "A" indicates that the student has demonstrated superior learning beyond most other students across the country.

Somehow, this early meaning of standards based instruction has slipped from the dominant view of teachers.

How would you grade student performance in a standards based science class? I know many science based engineers read this blog. Please share your ideas with The Goddess.

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