Beyond the Grade: Refining Practices That Boost Student Achievement

The current grading system does not provide equal opportunity for low-income students and that leads to grade inflation, high dropout rates, productivity loss, and more.

To help all students succeed, and promote equity in learning, vast changes in grading policies and scheduling are needed. In this research-based resource, the authors examine why current grading practices are ineffective for fostering a growth mindset, including the effect poverty has on student achievement. Beyond the Grade present an evidence-based case for switching to an equitable, standards-based grading system that improves student achievement for diverse student populations.

Use this book as a schoolwide study guide to ensure all staff fully understand the school variables that can influence student motivation and enhance achievement for all learners.

Benefits

• Ascertain the school variables that can influence student motivation and enhance achievement, including absenteeism, early literacy education, and more.
• Explore the disadvantages of traditional grading practices and the advantages that come from the equity of implementing standards-based grading practices.
• Receive guidance on providing students with the extra time and help they require to meet their learning needs and build a growth mindset.
• Access a list of questions that can help bring focus to your discussions about grading practices and overcome opposition to the implementation of standards-based grading.
• Gain resources, including sample schedules, for implementing standards-based grading practices in elementary, middle, and high schools to engage students, foster a growth mindset, and promote learning.

Contents

Introduction

Part I: Assess Problems in Traditional Grading Practices

Chapter 1: Why It's Time to Reassess

Chapter 2: Flawed Grading Practices and Policies

Chapter 3: Poverty Creates Variables That Affect Achievement

Part II: Implement Solutions to the Problems

Chapter 4: Improved Grading Practices and Policies

Chapter 5: Strategies That Effectively Address Poverty and Its Variables

Chapter 6: Rethinking Scheduling

Epilogue: The Power of a Teacher

References and Resources
Index

Robert Lynn Canady, EdD, is professor emeritus and former chair in the Education Leadership, Foundations and Policy Studies department at the University of Virginia. He has taught grades 6-12 and served as principal of several schools in Tennessee and Kentucky. He also served as program director of staff desegregation, curriculum, and personnel in central offices in Tennessee. Robert has worked with school districts in forty-six states and with schools in the Virgin Islands and Dependent Schools in Germany. Major presentations have focused primarily on grading practices, active teaching strategies, implementing programs for at-risk students, accelerating literacy achievement for students in the primary grades, and using a variety of scheduling and instructional strategies to restructure schools.

In addition to publishing numerous articles in educational journals, Robert has served as general coeditor of seven books relative to teaching strategies designed for block schedules, and he has coauthored five books related to school policy and block schedules.

Carol E. Canady, PhD, is a literacy consultant, having consulted with school districts in Connecticut, Ohio, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia. Her passion is empowering educators with strategies that reduce student failure, primarily by institutionalizing administrative and literacy practices that produce accelerated reading gains. Her consulting focus includes: (1) teaching teachers how to use various assessment measures and instructional strategies within a response to intervention framework; (2) using word study and fluency instruction as bridges to effective reading comprehension; and (3) scheduling and implementing small-group literacy teams to accelerate reading achievement in the early grades.

Carol was an assistant professor of early childhood and teacher education at three universities in Ohio. She has also taught undergraduate and graduate courses in literacy assessment and instruction and in children's literature, with a focus on prekindergarten through third grade. Prior to teaching in higher education, Carol was a teacher, counselor, and literary coach in grades K-8 for thirteen years. As a literacy coach, she pioneered literacy teaming and assisted schools in high-poverty school districts to experience accelerated reading progress.

Anne Meek, EdD, taught kindergarten and then became a Title I reading specialist in Memphis, Shelby County, and Knoxville, Tennessee. In Knox County, TN, she became an elementary principal, then an elementary supervisor, conducting more than one thousand classroom observations and follow-up conferences. She chaired the state curriculum committee to develop the first set of basic skills in reading for the state of Tennessee.

Anne then became managing editor for Educational Leadership at the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) in Alexandria, VA. In addition to reviewing both solicited and unsolicited manuscripts and then preparing the selected manuscripts for publication, she contributed numerous columns for Educational Leadership and authored, acquired, and edited several books. She presented sessions at ASCD annual conferences and state and regional meetings throughout the United States. She later served as director of publications for the Developmental Studies Center in Oakland, California. Later, she served as senior program specialist for the Education Statistics Services Institute in Washington, DC.