Episode Details

Ken Daly, a high school English teacher, explains how standards based grading changed his classroom. He stopped giving D's, returned weak work for revision, and graded by reading, writing and language instead of homework and tests. He says he has never gotten more quality work than after that change, in his 13th year of teaching.

Daly also takes on the harder questions: what mastery means for graduation rates, special education students, and top students who earned grades through homework points. Jethro Jones describes his own school's switch to a four-point scale, and both talk about why colleges struggle with transcripts that do not show A through F.

What you'll learn

• Return D-level work as not done until the student revises it, instead of giving partial credit for weak effort.
• Label gradebook categories by skill, such as reading, writing and language, so parents can see an A in reading and a C in writing.
• Use more specific assessment results to change your instruction, instead of giving students more of what they already master.
• Prepare for tough conversations with parents and teachers, especially about top students who earned grades through homework points.
• Make mastery a K-12 conversation so students are not surprised by a new system when they reach high school.

Chapters

• 1:07 What mastery learning asks of students
• 2:46 Banning the D and revising weak work
• 5:05 Grading by skill instead of assignment type
• 6:50 How assessment forces a change in instruction
• 8:21 Pushback from graduation rates and accountability
• 12:32 Letting students take the time they need
• 14:30 Four-point scales and college transcripts
• 18:20 Getting colleges to accept mastery transcripts

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Questions this episode answers

What happens when you stop giving students D's?
Daly says he had been giving zeros for missing work and 60 points for poor work. When he returned D-level work as not done until revised, students first called his bluff, then improved. He says he has never gotten more quality work than since that decision.

How does mastery-based learning change grading and instruction?
Daly split his gradebook into reading, writing and language instead of homework, classwork and tests. Parents can see strengths and weaknesses by skill. He says the more specific assessment forces his hand in instruction, because it is not as easy to keep treating every student as if they were all in the same boat.

How do colleges handle mastery-based transcripts?
Jones says colleges don't recognize his school's four-point grades, so the high school converts them back to a GPA scale. Daly says the Great Schools Partnership, a New England consortium, is talking with colleges, who tell them a record of grades only needs to be clear.

About Ken Daly

High school English teacher with 13 years in the classroom, on sabbatical to work on mastery-based learning in his district.

Links and resources

• Transformative Principal website and survey

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