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The purpose of this study was to explain the experiences of high school teachers and administrators in the midst of transitioning to standards-based grading practices. The researchers used a single case study methodology to investigate how teachers and administrators described their school’s implementation successes and challenges. Data triangulation occurred through analyzing semi-structured interviews, meeting agendas, handbooks, and relevant documents provided by study participants. Using Kotter’s eight steps for leading organizational change as a framework, we recommend school leaders blow off the cobwebs and get started, understand staff needs and provide teacher support, and be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

A growing number of Iowa schools are striving to improve communication of student learning by implementing standards-based or standards- referenced grading. Building upon the challenges identified by the earliest adopting secondary schools (Peters & Buckmiller, 2014), one recently published study suggests there may be a “second wave” of Iowa high schools considering standards-based grading (Townsley,

The following is a list of some, but likely not all, dissertations and journal articles investigating standards-based grading using quantitative methods. The summaries were copied and pasted from within the published abstract unless noted otherwise. While there was an increase in all grading areas, two showed a significant difference—the Physical Science course content average (p

[Note to readers: This column was recently published in Iowa ASCD’s The Source e-newsletter. My co-authors were Dr. Tom Buckmiller and Dr. Robyn Cooper, both associate professors of education at Drake University] The Second Wave of Standards-Based Grading in Iowa’s Secondary Schools In 2013, the first Iowa standards-based grading conference was held in Cedar Rapids.  At that

The purpose of standards-based grading/reporting is to communicate students’ current strengths and areas for improvement relative to course or grade-level standards. It may seem counter-productive to “go back” to using letter grades once a student’s level of learning has been described using an integer scale (i.e. 1-4) with corresponding descriptions of learning. Because some secondary schools may have a need to determine letter grades and grade point averages, the purpose of this post is to describe several ways to make this happen.