Dive Brief:

• In an interview with District Administration, Cathy Vatterott, an education professor at the University of Missouri–St. Louis and the author of "Rethinking Grading: Meaningful Assessment for Standards-Based Learning," argues that the traditional grading process should be revised.
• Vatterott says that using grading and points as a way to enforce student compliance and attendance doesn’t work.
• Instead she argues that a student’s grade should reflect what they’ve learned and know, working in part with a wider effort to raise standards and improve learning.

Dive Insight:

Standards-based grading has been slow to catch on, although more schools are beginning to adopt it. Vatterott says a lot of the resistance comes from a misplaced distrust of new standards and misconceptions about the role that testing should play. “People in this country are fed up with standardized tests. They are fed up with the amount of time that it takes away from learning and the absolute hysteria that goes on—especially in low-income school districts,” she said.

But the standards behind those tests, she adds, are sound and should receive more support.

One interesting point Vatterott made: There are numerous ways to adopt standards-based grading. She says most successful adoptions start with a period of research, of reading books and studies. But she’s also found that sometimes all it takes is one teacher who is excited and willing to try it out in their classroom, getting their department on board and eventually the entire school. Other schools have made the jump completely from the beginning, however.