As English teachers, we’ve all been there. Staring at a daunting essay rubric, wondering if the student’s work constitutes 83 points or 84 points, a 72% or a 73%. And 130 essays later, you finally get around to posting the grades, and in come dozens of student emails asking, “How can I earn more points on my essay?” Or, you receive an email that’s somehow even worse: “What extra credit can I do to raise my grade?” a comment that implies ‘brownie points’ are more important to students than the grade-level content you’ve been teaching for the past three months.
So you might be thinking, what’s the big deal? Points motivate students to complete work, and that’s what they need to do to be successful. But the question is, do they really? The research says no. In fact, extrinsic rewards such as points are proven to reap short-term results and smother intrinsic motivation, causing undesirable long-term effects. Through a points-driven grading system, students are trained to do tasks only as much as these tasks earn them points, going no further in the learning experience. In an English class, it may look like this: A teacher awards points or prizes to students who read three or more books by the end of the school year. Research shows that, unfortunately, many of the children who achieve this goal won’t pick up a fourth book, let alone embark on a lifetime of reading; they will simply read only as far as they are rewarded.
Knowing that a points-based grading approach doesn’t increase intrinsic motivation, many districts across the country, including mine, have transitioned to standards-based grading. As an 8th grade ELA teacher, it has been challenging to implement authentic ways in which I can instill intrinsic motivation in students within a traditional grading approach, to get them to do work not only for the points but for the learning. At department meetings, we would often discuss our frustration in students submitting formative work even after the end of the unit, simply to earn points. We would discuss our frustration with students asking how they can earn extra credit points to raise their grade when they haven’t even completed the required work. We would discuss our frustration with students who wanted to do retakes after failing an assessment without working towards additional learning, in hopes that they could squeeze out a few more points. Eventually, the department – and the district – recognized that there are fundamental issues with traditional points-based grading systems, and that’s when we turned to a standards-based grading approach.
Standards-based grading is defined as a system in which student learning and performance is assessed through their progress towards learning standards rather than through traditional points-based methods. With this approach, teachers base grades solely on a student’s end of-course command of material, without consideration of attendant factors such as homework, extra credit, or “soft skill” behaviors such as punctuality, attendance, handing in assignments on time, and class participation. Additionally, students are afforded extra time and can retake assessments to demonstrate mastery or raise a grade.
Teachers like myself involved in this shift from traditional points-based grading to standards-based grading (SBG) have observed an increase in students’ growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. Below are five ways in which SBG promotes these changes in my district, ultimately helping to shape our students into life-long learners.
1) Rubrics are based on mastery of standards, not number of points. An essay rubric in a traditional grading system might have numbers at the top (4, 3, 2, 1) that are aligned with levels of achievement. Phrases like, “You got it!”; “Almost!”; and “Not quite!” may be used depending on the students’ cognitive development, or it might be left as points. These points are then divided by 100 so they can be converted into a percentage and entered into an online grade reporting system. Students then see their performance as the score they earned on the essay. Instead of seeing that they are “proficient” in a skill, they see that they earned a 75%. This not only diminishes their self-confidence but also shifts the focus from the student’s learning to the number of points they earned.
A standards-based grading approach addresses this issue by basing rubrics off of course standards rather than points. As shown in the example below, state standards, rather than numbers, are at the top of my rubrics, and students’ grades are measured through language such as “mastery, proficient, developing, and emerging.” Their final essay grade, then, might be “proficient” rather than a 75%, boosting a student’s self-confidence and promoting a growth mindset. In an SBG system, students no longer ask, “How can I earn more points on my essay?” and instead ask, “How can I achieve mastery of this standard?” Below is what a section of a standards-based rubric for an 11th grade informational essay might look like.
2) Revision policies encourage continued learning. Traditional grading systems promote a fixed mindset in that they typically don’t allow for revision or retake opportunities. Even those that do often have certain stipulations. Before my district’s shift to standards-based grading, our revision policies on our syllabi might have read, “You can only retake this test if you scored below an 85%”; you can only retake this test within 5 days of the original due date”; “you can only revise this essay if you turn it in on time.” But those policies make students believe that, if they haven’t learned the material by a predetermined date of an exam, then they will never have the opportunity to learn it. A standard-based grading approach, on the other hand, promotes a growth mindset in that students are encouraged to continue learning content even after the assessment is administered, and then they are given opportunities to demonstrate that new learning. Their “grade,” then, always reflects their current knowledge of the content, as opposed to what they showed they knew back in the first ten weeks.
3) Written feedback is prioritized. In a traditional grading system, teachers spend more time calculating points than providing written feedback to students on how they can improve their performance. However, research shows that narrative feedback, without a percentage attached to it, motivates students to improve their performance. It also helps to boost a student’s confidence, as they are presented with ways they can improve their learning rather than a fixed score of 75%.
4) Students have more autonomy over their grades. The unfortunate reality of a traditional grading system is that, even though teachers feel that they have little direct influence over a students’ grades, teachers really do control them, and many use the threat of the zero to instill fear in students when expectations are not met. However, because standards-based grading demands the students take charge of their own learning, students feel they have more autonomy over their grades. Rather than begging the teacher to give them more points on their essay, they are scheduling times to meet with teachers during study hall and advisory periods to work one-on-one to achieve mastery.
5) Students are in competition with themselves, not others. Traditional grading systems promote performance-avoidance and performance-approach goals. The students who complete tasks are doing so to outperform peer groups, achieve the appearance of superiority, and receive extrinsic rewards. Students who don’t complete tasks often avoid them to evade embarrassment, shame, or self-doubt. A standards-based grading approach, on the other hand, promotes mastery-approach goals, where students want to complete tasks for the purpose of self-improvement and learning as much as possible. When students see their performance reflected by mastery-based language as opposed to points, they are (a) less likely to associate their grades with feelings of shame, and (b) less likely to see grades as a competition between peers, where they are all trying to earn more points than one another.
In moving from a points-based grading system to SBG, teachers shift students’ focus from earning points to learning skills. This approach promotes intrinsic motivation, helping students become more engaged in their own growth and development. By focusing on mastery of content rather than just behavioral compliance or points, students understand that learning is a process. Standards-based grading empowers students to take control of their own learning and develop a growth mindset that will serve them beyond the classroom. Ultimately, it moves us closer to an education system where students are inspired to learn for life, not just for a grade.
Angela Purtell is in her 4th year of teaching English and works at the Spencerport Central School District in Monroe County. Angela currently teaches eighth grade ELA but also has experience with grades seven, nine, and eleven. Angela is a NYSEC Early Career Award winner and recently completed her graduate program at SUNY Brockport where she studied research-based practice and assessment in English education. Angela is passionate about fostering a love for literature and writing, and she strives to create engaging and inclusive classroom environments where students can thrive.