Thinking About Assessment and Grading Differently: Standards‑Based Grading in Precalculus

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Matthew Lewis & Michal Ramos • Yakima Valley College

As instructors, we have dueling roles in the lives of our students. On the one hand, we guide them through the content we teach and prepare them for the challenges they will face in the future. On the other hand, we evaluate students’ learning of the curriculum. These roles can stand in tension with one another, and for some students this tension affects how much they trust us in our role as their guide. However, what if the evaluation process, by design, could significantly reduce this stress? What if it provided a path for learning beyond the initial assessment and allowed the student to demonstrate — and receive credit for — that learning? Standards-based grading is a system that does just that. In this talk, we will describe the essential elements of standards-based grading, as well as how it can be effectively applied to the college math classroom. Quantitative and qualitative data on this approach will also be presented.


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