How do the teachers determine students’ proficiency levels?

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Throughout the year, our teachers use multiple types of formative and summative assessments in order to determine students’ progress toward the grade-level standards. In order to determine students’ proficiency levels and the accompanying developmental progress codes, teachers use our district-created rubrics. These rubrics clearly delineate what a student needs to know or be able to do in order to earn a 1,2,3, or 4 on his or her report card.

These rubrics align to the New Jersey Student Learning Standards and are available for you at: ( https://www.nj.gov/education/cccs).

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How do I grade without using a 0-100 scale?

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“Retrain your brain” is the motto used when shifting from traditional grading to standardized grading. A student’s average is not the focus but his/her mastery. For example, a new skill is introduced, on a student’s first formative assessment  the student struggles and has incorrectly answered all 8 tasks assessed. However, the teacher assess the student again after providing quality feedback and using new strategies to assist the struggling student. The student now is correct on all 8 tasks assessed. Traditional grading would score the student 50/100, in essence the student has failed in this standard/skill. However, under standards based grading, the student has shown the ability to meet the grade level standard.

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Does 100/A=4, 90/B=3, 80/C=2, 70/D=1?

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No, there is no alignment between numeric/letter grades and proficiency levels.

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Are the New Jersey Student Learning Standards (NJSLS) identical to the learning targets on the standard based report cards?

 

The learning targets derive from the NJSLS but are not identical. 

 

If an assessment is given and the student answers and completes all tasks correctly is that a 4-proficiency level?

 

This would depend on the tasks given on the assessment. If a student answers or completes all tasks correctly and the questions given were grade level, a  3 proficiency level would be awarded. If the assessment administered contained questions and tasks that is beyond grade level and the student answers all correctly, the student would be awarded a 4-proficiency level.

 

Can multiple measures be used to determine a proficiency level?

Yes, multiple measures should be used to determine an accurate proficiency level for each student.