How Do Teachers Grade & 6 Types of Tech Tools to Streamline Grading

Grading can be a huge burden for teachers. How do teachers grade all the papers, essays, and assignments? They have to read them and then determine how to assign a numerical score or letter grade based on their reading. This process can be tedious and time-consuming, taking hours away from their limited time. AI in the classroom can help streamline this process by automating grading tasks and providing more efficient ways to manage and assess student work. We address the question, how do teachers grade? to explain the grading process and offer tips for improving classroom workflows, saving time on grading schoolwork, and providing high-quality, specific, and accurate writing feedback.
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One way to improve the grading process is to use technology like grading software for teachers. EssayGrader.ai is an artificial intelligence tool that helps teachers assess student writing. The software streamlines the grading process to save teachers time and give students better feedback.

What Is Grading & Its Importance

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Generally, grading is how teachers calculate and report student performance. It typically works by accumulating points—0 to 100—for a given assignment or test. Those points correspond to letter grades, from A to F. History shows that grades are nothing new.

They’ve been a part of the education system in the United States since at least 1785. Grades have become the main criteria in schools' decisions about students. From whether they get promoted to the next class or held back to which course level a student should be taking, such as college prep, honors, or AP, grades are how many high schools tally GPA and student rank, and one of the main ways that colleges decide who they’ll even consider for admissions.

The Difference Between Grading and Assessment

Grading is evaluation, putting a value on something. It’s critical to note that grades are not the same as assessments. To talk about grading, we have to distinguish between the two terms. Assessment is feedback so that students can learn. It’s helping them see where they are and helping them move toward a point of greater understanding or mastery.

Grading doesn’t always do that, but assessment should. When I host professional development workshops to help schools rethink their assessment practices, I point out that the Latin root of assessment is assidere, which means to sit beside. Assessment is seeing where a student is with their understanding—what they don’t know, what they do know—and then using that to determine their need. Sometimes a grade does that, notes Stanford University’s Denise Pope. But many times, students have no idea what that grade means.

What Purposes Do Grades Serve?

Understanding that there are different types of grades is important. For example, there are:

Raw scores: The number of points earned on an assignment or test.
Scaled scores: The converted scores appear on report cards and transcripts.

Grades can be calculated for individual assignments and tests, larger categories of work, and, ultimately, whole courses.

There are also different grading systems, such as traditional letter grades or more modern approaches like proficiency-based grading. The latter focuses on individual skills and learning objectives rather than cumulative points.

The Multiple Functions of Grading

Barbara Walvoord and Virginia Anderson identify the multiple roles that grades serve: as an evaluation of student work, as a means of communicating to:

Students
Parents
Graduate schools
Professional schools
Future employers

About a student’s performance in college and potential for further success; as a source of motivation for continued learning and improvement; as a means of organizing a lesson, a unit, or a semester in that grades mark transitions in a course and bring closure.

Grading provides students with feedback on their learning, clarifying what they understand and don’t understand and where they can improve. Grading also provides instructors with feedback on their students’ learning, information that can inform future teaching decisions.

Grading Is Stressful

Why is grading often a challenge? Because grades are used to evaluate student work, it’s important that grades accurately reflect the quality of student work and that student work is graded fairly.

Grading accurately and fairly can take a lot of time, which is often in short supply for college instructors. Students who aren’t satisfied with their grades can sometimes protest their grades in ways that cause instructors headaches.

Reducing Grading Stress for Instructors

Some instructors find that their students’ focus or even their focus on assigning numbers to student work gets in the way of promoting actual learning. Given all that grades do and represent, it’s no surprise that they are a source of anxiety for students and that grading is often a stressful process for instructors.

Incorporating the strategies below will reduce instructors' stress and make the grading process seem less arbitrary—to instructors and students alike.

How Do Teachers Grade in the Traditional Educational System?

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Teachers evaluate student performance using traditional grading systems' letter grades or percentage scores. For example, a student who scores 81% on a test would receive a B letter grade, which signifies average to above-average performance.

Students typically know what to aim for regarding letter grades and percentage scores. An A is always better than a B (or 90% is better than 80%). A grading system relies on teacher discretion, so one teacher’s B may not reflect the same level of performance as another teacher’s.

Assessments Teachers Use in Grading

Teachers use many types of assessments to determine students' final grades.

Quizzes and tests measure student performance on specific content.
Essays and projects often gauge how well a student can apply learned knowledge.
Participation and attendance can also be indicators of student success.

How Are Assessments Weighted?

Not all assessments carry the same weight when determining final grades. For example, a student may receive a score of 80% on a quiz, which counts for 10% of their final grade.

They may also score 70% on a project, which accounts for 30% of their final grade. They might get a 90% on a test, which counts for 60% of their final grade. The more significant the assessment, the more it affects the student’s overall performance.

Teacher Discretion in Grading

Teacher discretion plays a vital role in traditional grading systems. Grades vary from teacher to teacher, and there are often subjective components within a single classroom. For example, a student’s participation or effort can impact their grades.

A student who scores 80% on a test may receive a higher grade if the teacher knows they studied hard and even came for extra help. A student’s grade may suffer if they do not attempt to improve their performance, even if they achieve the same score.

Feedback in Traditional Grading Systems

Teachers provide feedback to students under traditional grading systems to help them improve. Often, this feedback comes in the form of comments on assignments. For example, an English teacher may note ways to improve a student’s writing on a scored essay. Teachers also include comments on report cards to summarize a student’s performance.

5 Essential Features of a Good Grading System

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1. Grading Systems Need to Be Fair

Fair grading systems mean there is a rationale behind the value of an assignment, how many points/how much weight it has in the grade book, and that there are clear criteria for its evaluation. This might mean teachers have developed a rubric, checklist, or explicit expectations that have been shared with students in advance.

When students demonstrate a misunderstanding with incorrect or incomplete responses, teachers should be able to identify where they lost points and why. Suppose students or families ask questions about how an assignment has been graded, and the teacher who designed the task cannot answer them. In that case, it’s a sign that this assignment needs more attention to determine the clear expectations and criteria for success.

2. Accurate Grading Is Essential

Accurate grading systems use consistent measures over time and have a method for translating those measurements into the school’s selected grading metrics. The teacher has to think through how their assignment will ultimately contribute to this evaluative measure whether the school is using:

Letter scale (A, B, C, D)
Numeric scale (1, 2, 3, 4),
Traditional percentage (90%, 80%, etc.)

If I grade daily assignments with ✓s and +s, I have to devise a way to translate those symbols into numbers on the final grade. If I don’t or don’t do so consistently, my grades do not accurately represent what students know and can do.

Ensuring Accuracy in Task Design and Grading

Accuracy also counts when it comes to task design. If I set out with a policy that all classwork is equal to 10 points, but on Monday, the classwork is worth 10 points with five questions, and on Wednesday, the classwork is worth 10 points with 20 questions, we may have an issue of accuracy in the grading process.

The best way to design an accurate grading system is to plan the tasks that best represent student learning and identify their value and weight as they relate to how students demonstrate that learning. Implement a system that easily translates learning into the metrics and measures your school has selected.

3. Grading Needs to Be Consistent

Students (and their families) look to their grades to measure their progress in real-time. Especially with grade book software that allows:

Students
Parents
Teachers

Consistent grading practices are critical for keeping students engaged and on track when logging in day or night to track their progress.

When the grade significantly lags in real time, students can get a false perception of their performance, which may impact their day-to-day choices. Some grades may appear high when slipping below the passing line, while others can take a nosedive overnight and unnecessarily sound the alarm bells.

The Impact of Inconsistent Grading on Student Motivation and Trust

When students’ grades change faster than soap opera characters can die and come back to life, it can create similar conflict and tension. The hardest scenes to watch are when students become so frustrated that they can’t see the impact of their hard work on their day-to-day grades, and they lose trust in the system; this is when a cycle of failure can set in.

Students who don’t get consistent feedback on their progress can begin to feel that the work isn’t worth their time, reduce their effort, and subsequently see their grades slip. As they get increasingly discouraged, they may miss their chance to turn things around before it’s too late. While we can advise and support students in understanding the grading system and keeping track of all of their assignments, our teachers are responsible for:

Designing
Assigning
Assessing the tasks

To ensure clarity and consistency in our practices.

4. Transparency in Grading Is Key

Fair, accurate, and consistent grading methodologies should also be transparent to students, colleagues, parents, and school leaders. If we want students to succeed, we should speak up about reaching academic goals! Creating transparency is about being clear, explicit, and forthcoming about what needs to be done to succeed.

Transparent grading practices include providing explicit grading criteria and guidelines in advance. This might be a rubric that students review alongside a teacher at the beginning of a project, a checklist of expectations and their point value, or even including the number of points possible/earned on each assignment.

Empowering Students Through Transparent Grading Practices and Self-Assessment

Students who don’t understand how their grades are calculated are less likely to see the connection between their hard work in school and their grades, which means they’ll also struggle to see the connection between their grades and future opportunities in life.

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We can be proactive by being transparent with our students about our grading practices and policies, but we can also empower them to be their advocates. By engaging students in keeping their grade books, self-assessing their progress, assessing peers in group work, and hosting grading conferences, we can take the mystery out of the marking period and give our students the information and tools they need to maximize their grades.

5. Grading Should Focus on Students

When the class is over at the end of the semester or school year, the grade is the only thing that’s guaranteed to remain. For high school students, grades represent their identity as learners as they share their transcripts with potential colleges, write their GPA on cover letters and resumes, or seek scholarships and grants.

Grades are high-stakes, and as teachers, we have much power over how students move through school and how they are perceived. Grading is often perceived as something for the teachers’ benefit or parents, but it is all for students.

Leveraging Grades as a Tool for Student Engagement and Empowerment

When we position students as the ultimate stakeholders for grades, we can leverage grading systems to increase students' investment, empowerment, and agency over their learning. When grading becomes a way for us to encourage our students with actionable feedback and notes about how they can adjust their performance to reach their goals, the grading process ceases to be tedious recordkeeping. It becomes a critical conversation about content knowledge, critical thinking skills, progress, and performance over time.

9 Pros and Cons of Traditional Grading Practices

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1. A Way to Assess Academic Performance

Letter grades can be a progress check so everyone can easily track their education journey. A high letter score can determine if a student comprehends and applies the information to their studies. It also makes assessing academic performances more universal because everyone can understand their education based on a letter format.

2. Tool for Motivation and Goal-setting

When educators assign grades, students are held accountable for their academic performance. It can also allow students to self-discover by identifying their strong suits. The traditional grading scale can inform them what they’re succeeding at and what they can improve on.

3. Necessary for College Admissions

Letter grades act as a practical way of communication between colleges. College admission committees can recognize student understanding based on the grade point average (GPA) system, allowing them to look over thousands of applicants in a fraction of the time.

4. Opportunity for Educators to Give Feedback

For educators, school letter grades may measure their student's progress. One teacher favors the traditional grading system because it gives their students a chance to measure their progress and set personal goals for themselves to continue their academic success.

When results are easy to calculate, educators can decipher where a student may have a problem. As a result, they can offer feedback based on knowing exactly where things have gone fuzzy.

5. Stress on Students

It’s also believed that poor letter grades can make students feel unmotivated or even abandon their education if they consistently struggle to succeed by the scale’s standard. A student who typically does well with the grading scale may not do well on one assignment, leading to panic and self-doubt in their future education endeavors. Letter grades can also create unhealthy classroom competition, leading to stress and an unhealthy community between students and teachers.

6. Limited Assessment Scope

The National Education Association reported that high test scores only sometimes equal understanding of the material. While a student may excel on a test, it doesn’t mean they would automatically do well on a written report, and vice versa. Even if students are less skilled at writing or test-taking, it doesn’t mean they aren’t advancing their learning.

‍Alternative modes of assessment can lead to better results for students, demonstrating they know the material they’re being taught. Examples could be offering students the option to record and present a video instead of a live presentation or to have hands-on projects to demonstrate they’ve learned the information and can respond to it creatively.

7. Impressionistic Grading

As students and teachers get to know one another, they begin to realize that grades can greatly influence some students’ behavior. Some teachers may use impressionistic grading practices, where they approximate (or sometimes change) grades in the grade book based on an impression of a student’s attitude. A hardworking student may get a few extra points for effort, even if they don’t merit it, while a student with good scores but lower attendance may lose a few points to encourage them to be on time more often.

Impressionistic grading mutates the process of evaluating student learning into evaluating student identities. While the original intent may be positive, the impact certainly isn’t. It leaves students confused about how their effort and mastery of the content measure up with their grades, overinflating some who could use actionable feedback to improve and deflating others by misrepresenting their knowledge and skills.

8. Overvaluing Certain Assignments

Another grading pitfall teachers experience is that their grading system may have fatal glitches that inappropriately overvalue some assignments. This often happens when grades are weighted—a common scenario: a school’s policy values classwork, tests, and long-term projects evenly. In turn, the grading categories may look like:

30% classwork
30% tests & quizzes
30% projects
10% homework

This means that no matter how many assignments are in a given category, they can only equal up to their portion.

A teacher who gives daily classwork and only one test may end up with 30-60 grades in the classwork category and only one grade in the test/quiz category. Mathematically, a single test may be equal to 60 classwork assignments. This is a major disproportionality. One could make a case for such a significant value on a single assessment, and if so, great! But more likely than not, this imbalance is an accident that’s discovered too late or not at all.

9. Falling behind

The third most common grading pitfall is when teachers feel so much stress and pressure with the other job components that meaningful grading and recordkeeping go to the wayside. The attendance record and the grade book are two legal documents the teacher is responsible for and are required by law to be kept accurate.

Falling behind the grading grind means that when grades are due, teachers may realize it’s the end of the marking period. They don’t have many recorded grades in the system, resulting in individual assessments carrying the weight of the grade disproportionately to their academic value. If a 6-week marking period ends with ten grades in the grade book, each assignment equals 10% of the student's grade, and 80% of the work students completed is unreported.

Moving Away From Traditional Practices

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Averaging Scores Over Time

Most grade books average scores over time. We teach for a semester and evaluate students at different intervals. For a student who comes in with strong skills, this feels like fine practice. But think about this scenario:

Marisa came to class with super-strong skills and aced the whole year.
Jacob’s performance was fine to start, improved over time, and ended up at the same place as Marisa.
Elias’s and Taylor’s journeys were more of a struggle, but they worked hard, and you did a fantastic job teaching them!

If all four students have the same level of understanding at the end of the semester, shouldn’t their grade reflect their current level of knowledge?

Everyone learns at a different pace: Should we penalize students who had a bad foundational experience or may have experienced some trauma that caused a temporary dip, or should we just take more time to learn something new? No. All four students deserve the same grade if they demonstrate the same level of understanding.
Grade books communicate teacher values: Over the past few years, teaching students a growth mindset has pervaded teacher blogs and speeches. However, how teachers typically grade completely undermines the talk about a growth mindset.

If our grading practices don’t promote, encourage, or reward growth, we don’t value it. How do we show kids that their growth matters? We eliminate averaging scores over time and do something else instead.

Implementing Continuous Assessment and Retake Policies

This is how my practice has evolved: I consistently update old performance scores with new and more accurate ones. Students get unlimited retakes on assessments. I require them to practice essential content and demonstrate continual retention of that content. I tell students that learning doesn’t stop after an evaluation.

Viewing Assessments as Progress Markers Rather Than Final Judgments

An assessment isn’t a final judgment, it’s a progress marker. I believe that every student can succeed in my class. I tell them, I will not give up on you just because you don’t know how to do something yet. I stick to that statement, and it’s reflected in my grade book.

Mandatory retakes are assigned and completed during class if a student scores below proficient on a standard. Students are given individualized opportunities to practice and reassess after learning more. I only keep the most recent reports of demonstrated proficiency. This also requires retention of content knowledge, which has always been a problem in math classes.

Adding Elements Other Than Content Understanding Into Grading

I’ve had students who passed my class but knew they understood little of the content. I’ve also had students who I knew understood the material pretty well but got a really low grade.

How? Students with inflated grades might have tutors who do their homework, so they collect the busywork points and copy work or use Photomath to complete assignments. With a 60/40 split of assessments and classwork/homework, a student could fail every test (averaging 33 percent) but do all of the work and still pass. The student doesn’t know the content, but they’ll pass. It’s worrisome when grades don’t accurately reflect that a student needs extra attention.

Focusing Grades Solely on Demonstrated Proficiency

A student with good content knowledge and a poor grade is likely in this predicament because they don’t demonstrate good student behaviors. Instead of grades reflecting these behaviors, it’s more accurate for them to focus on content knowledge.

I base 100 percent of a student’s grade on demonstrated proficiency in learning targets like:

They don’t get points for their work? Nope.
Do they still do work? Yeah.
Do some kids have missing assignments? Yup.

I report those work habits in the online gradebook to parents so they can support their kids, but those points don’t affect the numerical grade (positively or negatively). There’s no more point-grabbing; students do the work because we’ve built a work culture that yields results. I constantly talk about the correlation between practice and performance. Kids understand this connection thanks to the following:

Sports
Dance
Video games
Other hobbies

Reporting Opaque

Scores like Quiz 4B: 71%: I’m incredibly transparent with students and parents about their grades. I report on students’ current level of understanding on specific learning targets that are based on learning progressions designed with my colleagues. Using my professional judgment of student understanding, I score assessments on a proficiency scale:

4—Nearing Mastery (A)
3—Proficient (B)
2—Emerging (C)
1—Not Yet (D)
0—No Evidence of Learning (F)

If an assessment covers four learning targets, the assessment results in four separate scores in my grade book:

Target 1: 4 (A)
Target 2: 2 (C)
Target 3: 2 (C)
Target 4: 1 (D)

Balancing Professional Judgment with Traditional Grading Metrics

Everyone transparently sees where this student is excelling and where they are struggling. If this is the only thing in the grade book, the student’s overall grade would be a C (9 / 4 = 2.25). That feels accurate to me. If I graded this test based solely on percent correct (assuming each target had four problems), the student would have 9 / 16 (56%), traditionally an F. That feels inaccurate to me.

Based on my professional judgment, this student has passing knowledge on three out of four topics and an excellent understanding of one. Do they deserve to fail with that level of demonstrated knowledge? This way of reporting grades to students allows them to take more ownership of their learning path. They can track their progress, set goals, and see how they advance.

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What is Standards-Based Grading & 7 Reasons for SBG

Standards-based grading (SBG) is an educational system that focuses on the effectiveness of instruction and the mastery of skills or standards for a specific subject. It is an innovative approach to education that is often paired with a positive environment for actively engaged learners.

In SBG, teachers can track the progress of each student, and they can also help them in maximizing their potential as learners. According to Joe Feldman, founder of the Crescendo Education Group and the author of Grading for Equity, standard-based grading allows students to understand which learning targets they have already mastered and which standards still need improvement. This is possible because students are given a specific grade for a learning standard they should master at the end of the term. Throughout the term, teachers track students' progress in each learning standard and provide appropriate feedback to improve mastery of skills.

Aligning Educational Materials with Standards-Based Grading

The standards-based approach ensures that students can demonstrate mastery of skills at the end of the course. Because this approach relies on attaining standards and learning targets, educators must align learning materials, such as projects, performance tasks, and assignments, to the standards and objectives they want their students to master (Power School, 2021).

This system uses standards-based scales that range from 1 to 4, which reflect the student’s mastery of each learning standard. A score of 1 indicates that a student has a limited understanding of the concept taught in class. On the other hand, a score of 3 indicates that a student could master a learning standard, while a score of 4 shows that a student could go above and beyond the skill expected of them to master. This grading scale is illustrated in the chart below.

Effective Communication of Proficiency Scores to Students and Parents

Teachers need to communicate with their students what each proficiency score means. For younger students, teachers should explain to the student’s parents what each score means and how they can help their children demonstrate mastery of the expected learning standards for the subject.

Standards-Based Grading vs. Traditional Grading

Several differences exist between standards-based grading and traditional grading. These include which assessments are graded, the criteria for evaluating performance, and the basis for a student’s final grade.

One major difference between the standards-based and traditional grading systems is the type of assessments that teachers grade. The traditional grading system relies heavily on students' grades on each assessment method. These include:

Quizzes
Projects
Long tests

All assessments are graded and recorded in the teacher’s grade book. The standards-based grading scale relies on mastery of learning targets and performance standards. However, only select assessments are graded and recorded.

Comparing Traditional and Standards-Based Grading Systems

In the traditional grading scale, students pass or fail each assessment based on a percentage system. For example, a student who received a grade of 65% failed the evaluation.

In a standards-based grading system, students pass or fail assessments based on criteria or rubrics given to them ahead of time. This means the students have understood the skills and competencies they must master before the assessment period.

The Impact of Extra Credit on Traditional Grading vs. Mastery-Based Assessments

The traditional grading system gives students a holistic view of their performance through a single letter or numerical grade. All assessment scores that have been graded and recorded are averaged and converted using a percentage system. Students are often given assignments with extra credits to increase their grades. This poses a problem because the student's grades no longer accurately represent how much they have learned from class.

The standards-based grading system needs to give students extra credits. In this educational approach, students are given multiple opportunities to practice the skills they should master in class. Practice assignments are not graded to accelerate learning and skill mastery. Only the most recent assessments will be the basis of the student’s final grade because these provide evidence of mastery of learning standards.

How Reassessments Improve Final Grades in Standards-Based Grading

In an Insight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching article, associate professor Michael Scarlett noted that Providing individual and group reassessment opportunities represented another significant improvement afforded by standards-based grading.

While not all students took advantage of opportunities to reassess, those who did benefit from the opportunity to review material and demonstrate their understanding differently. In almost all cases, reassessment led to higher scores for students. Because the higher, most recent score was used to determine the final grade, this final grade was a more accurate representation of the student’s level of understanding. In standards-based grading, students' final grades are based only on their learned competencies.

How does standards-based grading benefit students?

Standards-based grading has numerous benefits for students. This section will present the advantages of a standards-based classroom for learners.

1. Students Become Intrinsically Motivated to Demonstrate Mastery of Competencies

Students become intrinsically motivated to learn in a standards-based learning approach. Because students do not worry about achieving a high grade at the end of the semester, they focus on understanding each instructional material in class. They also learn to take ownership of their learning, as shown by how they want to meet all learning standards set for them to achieve.

According to Feldman (2019), students learning in a standards-based classroom are more engaged in their learning environment because they clearly understand the skills they need to master in class. They also acquire the habit of assessing their competencies to ensure that their performance will meet the standards set by their teachers.

2. Students Are Provided with Appropriate Feedback that Will Improve their Skills

In a standards-based learning approach, teachers must provide their students with quality feedback to improve student learning. Unlike the traditional grading system that only provides students with a single numerical or letter grade, the standards-based grading system requires teachers to provide their students with meaningful and appropriate feedback that will accelerate mastery of learning standards.

The research results of Hany et al. (2016) stated that most teachers who participated in the study believed that standards-based grading allowed students to identify their growth areas and improve their competencies.

3. Students Can Track their Progress

In a standards-based grading approach, students understand the meaning of each score they receive. Because there are rubrics that explain the meaning of each proficiency score, students can easily monitor which standards need to be improved further and which learning standards have already been met.

Unlike in the traditional grading system, where students receive a letter or numerical grade without any explanation, students and their parents understand why each score was given to them in a standards-based grading system (Power School, 2021). As such, students monitor their progress and become accountable for their learning goals.

How does standards-based grading benefit instruction?

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We already know how using learning standards in class benefits students. Now, we will discuss how a standards-based grading system will benefit teacher instruction.

1. Instruction Becomes More Engaging and Meaningful

The activities presented in class should be aligned with the learning standards set for the students. As such, teachers should provide the students with different engaging materials that will continuously capture their interest and enthusiasm.

In standards-based classrooms, teachers keenly understand how student mastery is demonstrated. They can easily identify if there are more students at level 1 or 2 mastery than those in level 4 or 5. In such instances, teachers can quickly adapt to the needs of the students to accelerate the demonstration of mastery of skills. For example, differentiated learning activities can be provided so that students can be helped to reach the next proficiency level in class. This approach will make learning more engaging and exciting for the students. Teachers can use standards-based learning to fine-tune their SAMR modeling in schools heavily reliant on online education.

2. Quality Education Becomes a Standard

In a standard-based educational approach, students must meet the standards set in the curriculum. Heidi Diefes-Dux, a professor from Purdue University, stressed that students are taught that they are expected to submit assessments and perform with excellent quality before they can achieve proficiency in a specific standard.

Teachers are expected to deliver quality instruction for their students to demonstrate mastery of learning standards. Both teachers and students should have a mindset of quality and proficiency to ensure that mastery and proficiency will be achieved.

3. Parents Better Understand the Meaning of Grades

In standards-based grading, parents are provided with an accurate and meaningful explanation of the meaning of their children’s grades. Standards-based reporting reflects students' progress in each learning standard, and parents begin to understand how their children have mastered their lessons by looking at each standard’s proficiency scores.

By looking at proficiency scores, parents will understand which learning standard their children need help with. Parents can help their children to become more proficient in a specific standard by providing additional activities at home.

Seven Reasons for Standards-Based Grading

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1. Grades Should Have Meaning

A: This means the student has completed proficient work on all course objectives and advanced work on some objectives.
A B: This means the student has completed proficient work on all course objectives.
A C: This means that the student has completed proficient work on the most important objectives, although only on some objectives. The student can continue to the next course.
A D: This means the student has completed proficient work on at least one-half of the course objectives but needs to include some important objectives and is at significant risk of failing the next course. The student should repeat the course if it is a prerequisite for another course.
F: This means the student has completed proficient work on fewer than one-half of the course objectives and needs help to complete the next course in sequence.

2. We Need to Challenge the Status Quo

Many of my notions about grading at the beginning of my career didn't stand up to real scrutiny. The thorny homework issue is one example of how the status quo must change. I once thought awarding points to students simply for completing homework was essential.

I believed students would only do homework if it were graded. And yet, in my classroom, students who were learning sometimes earned low grades because of missing work. Some students knew very little but were good at playing school.

Transitioning from Graded Homework to Homework as Practice

Despite dismal test scores, these students earned decent grades by turning in homework and doing extra credit. They would often go on to struggle in later courses while their parents watched and worried.

Over the past three years, I have radically changed how I formally assess homework—I don't. Students need to do homework closely tied to learning objectives, allowing them to see those connections (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001).

Using Systematic Feedback to Enhance Homework Relevance

Systematic and extensive feedback on assignments sends students the message that they can and should do homework as practice. A typical homework assignment for my students consists of a small collection of problems, each linked to a learning objective. I make those connections for my students, but eventually, they make them independently.

When I assign homework, I discuss with my students where and how it applies to their assessments. My goal is to get students to ask themselves constantly:

Do I know this?
Can I do this?

Surprisingly, my homework completion rates have remained steady over the past three years.

Homework Completion Rates and Encouraging Self-Directed Practice

Some students don't do all of the homework I assign, but they know they are accountable for mastering the standard connected to it. Of course, not every student who needs to practice always does so, but I am amazed and encouraged that students ask me for extra practice fairly regularly.

3. We Can Control Grading Practices

One of the biggest sources of frustration in schools today is the sense that we are at the mercy of factors teachers cannot control. We cannot control:

Student socioeconomic levels
School funding
Our salaries
Our teaching assignments
Increasing class sizes
Difficult parents
Host of other important issues.

We can control how we assess students. When I approached my principal and district officials about using an experimental grading system, they all supported and encouraged me.

Several colleagues have been intrigued and want to implement standards-based grading in their classrooms. If a teacher must use a point system to satisfy an administrative mandate or a particular grade book, that teacher can still use a standards-based system.

Avoiding Confusion with Non-Traditional Grading Scales

The crucial idea is to use a system not based on the inappropriate use of averages. The system must allow students to maintain their level of understanding with their attendance, effort, or other peripheral issues. Avoiding point values that might appear in a traditional percentage-based system is helpful because parents and students can get confused if they see numbers that look like what they've seen in the past but refer to a different scale.

Teachers who have to assign points can avoid this confusion by using completely different numbers. For example, a point value in the range of 1 to 10 would not have the strong associations of a point value of 85 and thus would not be as easily misinterpreted.

4. Standards-Based Grading Reduces Meaningless Paperwork

Since I adopted standards-based grading, my load of meaningless paperwork has been drastically reduced, which provides time for more important considerations. Standards-based grading enables me to get the most from every piece of paper students turn in.

Writing feedback only on selected homework problems saves me time when marking papers and gives me a sense of where students learn. These homework assignments and other formative assessments help me judge the progress of the group as a whole before deciding how to proceed.

Ensuring Assessment Validity and Reliability

I assess student mastery of any objective once I am confident that a reasonable number of students will score proficiently, and that makes each assessment mean much more. Students still struggling after a significant portion of the class has demonstrated mastery can retest individually. The bottom line is that when I review any set of papers, I walk away knowing much more about what my students know than I ever did.

5. It Helps Teachers Adjust Instruction

Imagine two different grade books for the same set of students, as shown in Figure 1. Which one better illustrates what students know and still need to learn?

The standards-based grade book provides information to help the teacher adjust instruction. Two objectives (1 and 3) may require more class instruction. The notations for Objective 2 suggest that the class only needs practice, and one student needs some reteaching.

Enhancing Student Awareness and Challenge through Standards-Based Grading

Students can also see much more information about their learning. In the traditional grade book, Amanda would assume she is in great shape, but standards-based grading reveals that she has not mastered a crucial concept.

Gifted and talented students can be challenged in a standards-based classroom if they show early fundamental skills and concepts, concentrate on more challenging work at higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy, or seek connections among objectives.

Accommodating Diverse Learning Needs within a Standards-Based System

Students who struggle can continue to retest and use alternate assessments until they show proficiency, and they are not penalized for needing extended time. I guide students with special needs to modify their work and, if needed, develop different ways.

This system easily accommodates their working styles. King styles can be easily accommodated in this system because modified assignments and assessments require no special adjustments in the grade book. The grade book simply shows where they are in meeting the standards without referencing how they demonstrate their learning or what modifications need to be made.

6. It Teaches What Quality Looks Like

In the adult world, everything is a performance assessment. If adults on the job make poor decisions or cannot determine the quality of their work, the results are generally undesirable.

Quality matters and the ability to measure the quality of one's work is a learned skill. So, how can we teach this essential skill? One way to teach quality is to demand it.

Ensuring Quality and Accountability through Standards-Based Grading

We must create an environment where standards can and must be met. Students cannot submit substandard work without being asked to revise it if we base our grades on standards rather than attendance, behavior, or extra credit.

Which often has nothing to do with course objectives); we can help students grapple with quality and walk away with a higher degree of self-sufficiency. We can and should report information about student performance in areas like attendance and effort, but we can report it separately from academic achievement (O'Connor, 2007; Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006).

7. It's a Launchpad to Other Reforms

When I began using standards-based grading, I quickly discovered that I needed to reexamine my curriculum. Each class required a clear and concise set of standards with precise levels of mastery.

This prompted several discussions with other teachers in my department and each year, we continue to adapt to our objectives. No one can use standards-based grading without clear standards. In addition to improving the curriculum, I have found new ways to use formative assessments and intervention strategies.

Student Reactions and Adjustments to Standards-Based Grading

My work with special education students and English language learners, in particular, goes much more smoothly because all the modifications needed are already built into what I do. I have also worked much more effectively with parents by giving them better information.

How do students respond to this style of grading? Their reactions vary. It takes time, discussion, and reflection for students to understand their rights and responsibilities in such a system, and teachers must be patient as students and parents adjust. Many students have expressed increased satisfaction with having more control over their grades. Some prefer to avoid the revisions they must do, and some struggle to overcome test anxiety and need access to alternate assessments.

Parent Perspectives and the Impact of Standards-Based Grading

Many parents simply want opportunities for their children to succeed, so they are grateful for revision and retesting. Each year, parents ask thoughtful questions, with some noting that this method of grading is more similar to an evaluation in the workplace. These seven reasons to change to standards-based grading are certainly a starting point.

High school teachers must scrutinize these practices and decide whether they are worth keeping. By doing so, we unleash a force for change that we can control, with our students and parents as partners.

Implementing Standards-Based Grading

To implement standards-based grading, educators need four key things:

A deep understanding of the standards and what true mastery looks like.
A grading rubric for measuring proficiency and a method of conversion if a letter or number grade will still be required for grade reporting
A standards-based formative assessment strategy is key to determining students’ mastery and providing feedback to help students improve.
High-quality initial instruction and a plan for remediation and acceleration.

Moving from a traditional grading system to a standards-based one requires a shift in mindset for:

Educators
Students
Parents

Whether the change is happening at a district, school, or individual classroom level, follow these four steps to get started:

Step 1

Review the standards that will be covered during the grading period. Consider the following questions:

What does mastery of this standard look like?
How will mastery be assessed?
Are there any alternative ways that this standard can be assessed?
How will this concept be taught initially?
How will students receive remediation if they don’t master the standard the first time?
Will students who demonstrate early mastery focus on mastering this standard at a deeper level, or will they move on to another standard?

Step 2

Communicate the standards, rubrics, and grading scales to students and parents so they know the expectations and can take ownership of their learning.

Step 3

Develop/locate standards-based homework and classwork practice activities that allow students to receive detailed feedback so that they can improve.

Step 4

Implement effective classroom management strategies that allow the instructor to provide individual and small-group instruction to ensure all students master the standards.

6 Technology Tools to Streamline Grading and Reporting

man working on a desktop - How Do Teachers Grade

1. Online Assessment Platforms: The Tech Tools for Teachers Grading Assessments

Online assessment platforms offer a range of tools and features specifically designed for conducting competency-based assessments. These platforms provide a secure and accessible environment for administering assessments, including various question formats, such as:

Multiple-choice
Fill-in-the-blank
Interactive simulations

Online assessment platforms often offer automated grading and immediate feedback, saving time for educators and providing prompt feedback to students. They also typically include analytic student performance analysis and identifying improvement areas performance and identifying areas for improvement. Examples of the best educational assessment tools:

EssayGrader

EssayGrader is the most accurate AI grading platform trusted by 60,000+ educators worldwide. On average, it takes a teacher 10 minutes to grade a single essay, with EssayGrader that time is cut down to 30 seconds. That's a 95% reduction in the time it takes to grade an essay, with the same results.

With EssayGrader, teachers can:

Replicate their grading rubrics (so AI doesn't have to do the guesswork to set the grading criteria)
Set up fully custom rubrics
Grade essays by class
Bulk upload of essays
Use our AI detector to catch essays written by AI
Summarize essays with our Essay summarizer

Our AI tool helps primary school, high school, and even college professors grade their students' essays. On our platform, 60,000+ teachers graded over half a million essays.

Kahoot!

Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that transforms traditional assessments into fun and interactive experiences. It allows educators to create quizzes, surveys, and polls that students can participate in using their devices.

The competitive element of Kahoot! It keeps students engaged and motivated. Teachers can use pre-made quizzes or create their own, making it versatile for various subjects and educational levels. The platform provides real-time feedback and detailed reports, helping educators identify areas where students need improvement.

Mentimeter

Mentimeter is a versatile tool that enables educators to create interactive presentations with real-time polls, quizzes, word clouds, and Q&A sessions. It enhances classroom engagement by allowing students to participate using their smartphones or other devices.

Mentimeter’s real-time feedback helps teachers gauge student understanding instantly and adjust their teaching strategies accordingly. The platform’s ease of use and various interactive elements make it suitable for lectures, discussions, and formative assessments.

Quizizz

Quizizz combines quiz-based learning with fun, game-like elements to create an engaging assessment experience. It allows educators to create and share quizzes that students can complete at their own pace, either in class or as homework.

Quizizz offers immediate feedback and detailed analytics, helping teachers track student performance and identify learning gaps. The platform also features a library of pre-made quizzes covering various topics, saving time for educators and providing a wide range of learning materials.

MagicSchool.ai

MagicSchool.ai is an advanced AI platform designed to assist educators in various aspects of their teaching responsibilities. It features over 60 AI-powered tools that help with:

Lesson planning
Differentiation
Assessment creation
individualized education program (IEP) writing

MagicSchool.ai also provides tools for generating behavior intervention plans, custom chatbots, and project-based learning plans. By streamlining these time-consuming tasks, MagicSchool.ai enables teachers to focus more on direct student interactions and personalized instruction. The platform is praised for its:

User-friendly interface
Customization options
Compliance with privacy standards

Making it a valuable asset for educators.

Gradescope

Gradescope is an AI-powered assessment platform that streamlines the grading process for educators. It allows teachers to create, distribute, and grade assignments efficiently by leveraging AI to automate many aspects of grading.

Gradescope supports various assessment types, including:

Exams
Quizzes
Homework
Handle both digital and handwritten submissions.

The platform provides detailed analytics and feedback, helping educators identify common errors and areas where students need improvement. Gradescope’s ability to significantly reduce grading time allows teachers to focus more on instruction and student support.

Graderly

Graderly offers educators an innovative approach to the grading process. This platform allows teachers to input student-written texts and receive immediate feedback, streamlining their grading efforts.

Adhering to national grading standards ensures alignment with school criteria. Graderly offers a free trial, making it an accessible tool for educators.

Formative

Formative is an online platform that enables teachers to offer real-time feedback, monitor student progress consistently, and efficiently grade assignments. It allows educators to see student responses as they happen, aiding in tailored instruction and offering prompt feedback.

2. Learning Management Systems (LMS): The Central Hub for Grading and Reporting

Learning Management Systems provide a centralized platform for managing and delivering competency-based assessments. LMS platforms allow educators to create and administer assessments, track student progress, and provide feedback. They can also facilitate personalized learning paths, enabling students to access resources and assessments tailored to their needs.

LMS platforms often include features like:

Grading rubrics
Collaboration tools
Analytics

Streamlining the assessment process and providing valuable insights into student performance. Examples of the best learning management systems:

Canvas

Canvas is renowned for its intuitive design and powerful tools, making it a top choice in higher education and K-12 schools. Its user-friendly interface allows for easy course creation and management.

Canvas supports many integrations with tools like Google Drive and Microsoft Office 365, enhancing its functionality. The platform emphasizes collaboration with features like discussion boards, group projects, and peer reviews. Its mobile app ensures accessibility, enabling users to interact with course materials on the go.

Moodle

Moodle is an open-source LMS offering high flexibility and customization. It is ideal for institutions needing a scalable, tailored solution. Its modular design allows numerous plugins to enhance functionality, such as attendance tracking and plagiarism detection.

Moodle’s strong community support provides extensive resources and documentation, making it a popular choice for academic and corporate training programs.

Blackboard

Blackboard is a well-established LMS widely used in higher education and K-12 settings. It provides comprehensive tools for:

Course management
Assessment
Communication

Blackboard’s robust analytics and reporting capabilities offer detailed insights into student performance. The platform supports multimedia content, enabling dynamic course materials. Blackboard’s mobile app enhances accessibility, connecting students to their courses from anywhere.

Google Classroom

Google Classroom integrates seamlessly with Google’s suite of applications, offering an easy-to-use LMS experience. It is trendy in K-12 education. It creates, distributes, and grades assignments while fostering communication through announcements and messaging.

Google Classroom supports collaborative learning with tools for group projects and resource sharing. Its accessibility across devices ensures that users can interact with their courses from any location.

Attendance Radar

Attendance Radar is a cutting-edge mobile application designed to simplify and enhance the process of tracking student attendance. It utilizes secure Bluetooth technology to record students' attendance with just a few clicks automatically. Teachers can set up courses within the app, and students can mark their presence by scanning for the Bluetooth signal emitted by the teacher’s device. This method is both fast and reliable, enabling the attendance of large classes to be tracked in seconds.

The app also supports manual attendance marking and randomly generated codes for remote attendance. Attendance Radar integrates seamlessly with Excel for importing and exporting student lists and attendance data, making it easy to manage and analyze attendance records for education a semester.

PowerSchool

PowerSchool is one of ty used student information systems (SIS) in education. It provides a comprehensive platform for managing student data, including:

Attendance
Grades
Schedules
Personal information

PowerSchool facilitates communication between teachers, parents, and students through its user-friendly interface and robust reporting features.

It supports real-time data access, enabling educators to monitor student progress and make informed decisions quickly. The system also offers customizable dashboards and integration capabilities with other educational tools, enhancing its functionality and adaptability to different academic environments.

Ellucian Banner

Ellucian Banner is another leading student information system widely adopted in higher education. It offers an integrated suite of applications for:

Managing student information
Financial aid
Finance
Human resources
Advancement

Ellucian Banner helps institutions streamline administrative processes and improve data accuracy and accessibility. Its user-friendly interface and robust data management capabilities make it an essential tool for administrators. Ellucian Banner is highly customizable, allowing institutions to tailor the system to their needs and workflows.

3. E-Portfolios: Digital Collections for Student Self-Assessment

E-portfolios are digital repositories that allow students to collect and showcase evidence of their competencies and achievements. In competency-based assessments, e-portfolios are a valuable tool for students to demonstrate their skills, knowledge, and growth over time. Students can upload artifacts, such as:

Project work
Reflective essays
Videos
Presentations

To provide evidence of their competencies. E-portfolios enable assessors to review and assess student work holistically, providing a comprehensive view of students' abilities beyond traditional assessment methods.

Artsonia

Artsonia is like a dream come true for art-minded teachers and students:

Free
Safe
Educational space

Through which students showcase their digital creativity. Friends and family can view, comment on, and purchase keepsakes immortalizing the artistic efforts. The easy-to-navigate site integrates with Google Classroom and provides a comprehensive teachers’ guide. Celebrate your kids’ artistry with Artsonia!

ClassDojo Portfolios

A free, easy-to-use platform that allows kids to share their assignments while teachers retain control for safety. Students scan the class QR code (no logins!), then create and submit photos, videos, journal entries, and more.

Sway

Students can use a free multimedia presentation tool to upload, share, and export projects and schoolwork. How do you get started? Try one of the included templates or browse others’ productions—Integrates with Microsoft Office suite.

Google Sites

Creating a digital portfolio or website could not be easier than Google Sites makes it. The drag-and-drop interface lets students quickly insert content such as:

Text
Images
Embeds
Calendars
YouTube videos
Maps
And much more

You can use one of the provided six themes, create a custom one, and then publish the site as a public or restricted-view site.

Edublogs

One of the oldest and best-known web platforms for education, Edublogs makes it easy to start building a free Wordpress platform for teachers and students. The free plan offers 1 GB storage, class management tools, and no advertising. A robust set of educator guides and community participation is another big plus for Edublogs.

Bulb

What’s a bulb? Just as a light bulb illuminates a space, this digital bulb illuminates student work, allowing it to be presented and shared. Bulb makes it easy for K-12 and higher education students to create a multimedia digital record of their ideas, performances, research, and learning.

VoiceThread

At first glance, it may be obscure that VoiceThread can serve as a digital portfolio. It is a multimedia slideshow tool that allows users to record voice, music, and sound effects to accompany each presentation. These capabilities open a world of possibilities for students to showcase their achievements and for teachers to review and comment on them.

Book Creator

Like VoiceThread, Book Creator isn’t marketed as a digital portfolio platform. Yet, with features such as multimedia uploads and numerous ways to save work, students can easily create and share their digital efforts. The generous free account allows up to 40 books and online publishing rights.

PortfolioGen

Created for teachers and students, PortfolioGen is now intended for anyone who wants a professional showcase of their skills, experience, and accomplishments. Options for digital portfolios include:

Blogs
Endorsements
Athletic achievements
Message center
Employment history
Password protection

Bulk education pricing is available.

Seesaw for Schools

Designed for education, Seesaw for Schools provides a platform for students to complete and share school assignments and projects. By tracking their progress, kids gain a sense of mastery and pride in their schoolwork.

Parents and guardians can be involved, too—just download the free companion Seesaw Family app. Seesaw for Schools integrates with Google Classroom.

4. Simulations and Virtual Labs: Immersive Tech Tools for Competency Assessments

Simulations and virtual labs offer immersive and realistic environments for assessing competencies in fields that require hands-on skills, such as:

Healthcare
Engineering
Computer science

These technology tools provide students with interactive scenarios and simulated experiences to apply their knowledge and skills. Simulations and virtual labs offer a safe and cost-effective way to assess competencies that would otherwise be challenging to evaluate in traditional settings. They provide instant feedback, record student performance, and allow for repeated practice and refinement of skills.

5. Video Assessment Platforms: Recording Competency-Based Assessments

Video assessment platforms enable the recording and evaluation competency-based assessments through video submissions. Through recorded videos, students can showcase their skills, such as:

Presentations
Demonstrations
Role-plays

Video assessment platforms offer features like:

Time limits
Prompts
Rubrics

To guide students' submissions. Assessors can review and evaluate the videos at their convenience, providing detailed feedback and assessments based on specific criteria. Video assessments promote authenticity and flexibility and offer a rich medium for capturing performance-based competencies.

6. Data Analytics and Reporting Tools: Grading Assessment Data

Data analytics and reporting tools are crucial in competency-based assessments because they provide actionable insights and assessment analytics. These tools enable educators to analyze:

Assessment data
Identify patterns
Track individual or group progress

Analytics tools like competency mastery levels, progress charts, and comparative performance can visually represent data. This information helps educators make data-driven decisions, identify areas for improvement, and adapt instructional strategies to enhance student learning and competency development.

4 Best Practices for Standards-Based Grading

1. Transforming Assessments: How to Plan and Design Standards-Based Assessments that Students Will Enjoy

Standards-based grading (SBG) offers a clear and systematic process for assessing student

learning. In a standards-based approach, assessments evaluate students' mastery of specific learning goals or standards. Instead of focusing on their overall scores or letter grades, students concentrate on how well they understand each goal and what they need to do to improve.

This helps to remove the stigma and stress around tests and allows learners to see the big picture of their progress over time. I often hear students say things like:

Yes! I am moving into Novice High! I’m leveling up! much more often than
Awesome! I got a 19!

Because students get lots of feedback on my rubrics, they no longer need to engage in grade-grubbing to entice additional points. They can read my feedback on the rubric and see what they did well and where to improve.

2. Why Do We Have to Learn This? How to Make Assessments More Meaningful and Culturally Responsive

Many students approach assessments with the mindset of What’s the least I can do to get a good grade? And to some degree, this instinct is understandable.

Students have learned to play the game of school, and their questions about standards-based assessments are a way to understand how they can earn points in the game. This is particularly true for students traditionally underserved by the educational establishment.

Involving Students in Assessment Design for Enhanced Understanding and Success

For them, standards-based grading may seem like an arbitrary game with rules that differ from those of their cultural backgrounds. The more we can humanize the assessment process and help students understand that they’re really about learning, the better. In short, we want to help students see that assessments are tools to help them, not hoops to jump through to earn grades that will please their teachers or parents.

One way to do this is to bring students into the assessment design process. Show them the standards and let them help create rubrics for the upcoming assessments. This way, they’ll have a much clearer understanding of what to expect and how to succeed before the game begins.

3. Will This Be on the Test? How to Design Meaningful Assessments

Let’s take a moment to unpack what students are asking us with these questions. For some students who have learned to play the game of school, these questions are a way to understand how they can earn points. For students who have traditionally been underserved by the educational establishment or for students from households whose cultural perspectives on school and success differ from those of American schools, asking questions about page count and what will be on the test can be a way to try to make sense of what may seem to be arbitrary rules of the game.

Adding to the challenge of assessment, often teachers feel we have to choose between what seems like:

Meaningful assessments
Projects
Research papers
Performance tasks

It may be time-consuming to create and onerous to grade, and tests that feel less deep (matching, multiple-choice, fact recall), but save us time grading on the weekends. Would you believe me if I told you it was possible to do both? It does take some planning and deep thinking on the front end, but it pays off big during the school year as it enables you to see real student growth, get student buy-in, and streamline your grading. By correctly setting up your grading standards, you can make your assessments (and consequently your instruction) more culturally responsive and conducive to equity.

4. How Much Do We Have to Write? How to Streamline Your Grading

In short, students’ questions about:

How much
What’s on the test
Why do I have to learn this?

Reflect on their anxiety about assessment. They see standards-based assessments as arbitrary and unfamiliar and want to understand how to succeed in this new “game.” As their teachers, we can help ease students’ anxieties about standards-based assessments by designing clear, meaningful, and easy grades.

Save Time While Grading Schoolwork with EssayGrader's Grading Software for Teachers

EssayGrader is a powerful AI grading platform that cuts grading time down from 10 minutes to 30 seconds, allowing teachers to save 95% of their time while maintaining the same quality of feedback. Over 60,000 educators trust the software and have already graded over half a million essays. It provides teachers with various tools to help customize the grading process to their liking.

With EssayGrader, teachers can replicate their existing rubrics so the AI doesn’t have to do any guesswork to set grading criteria. They can also create fully custom rubrics, grade essays by class, bulk upload essays, use an AI detector to catch essays written by AI, and even summarize essays with our AI summarizer!

The software even works for primary, high, and college essays. Get started for free today!

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