Grading Using Understanding and Not Points.

There is currently a move out there to eliminate point based grading and replace it with a mastery scale so students are being graded on their mastery of various standards or skills.

It is a radical change from the current grading system and actually has some aspects which I think are needed.  Lets look at some of the ideas for this alternative form of grading.

1.  All assignments must be completed to pass the class. Zeros are not given.  Assignments may be repeated as often as necessary until they show a level of mastery.

2. Rather than using A to F, teachers use a more accurate mastery scale such as far below, below, proficient, or advanced to give a more accurate view of their understanding and ability.

3. Instead of dividing assignments into classwork, testing, quizzes, etc, students should be graded on specific skills such as applying all four operations to integers, finding the slope, etc. 

4.  Do not grade everything they do, only grade a final culminating assignment to determine if they mastered the skill.  This gives them time to work on properly mastering the skill rather than focusing on the points.  If they are not proficient, the work can be used to determine what the student needs scaffolding or reteaching in.

5. When students are not working towards accumulating enough points to get an A, they can spend more time focused on learning the material. It also means that a student who gets it quickly can prove they have mastered the skill and move on while another student can take a bit more time.

6. It has been suggested one use a four point scale to grade the work. 1 is below basic, 2 is basic, 3 is proficient or 4 is advanced which translates to 0 is didn't do it.  1 means that with help they managed some work or they sort of have an idea but not quite.  A 2 means they can do simpler problems of the type taught.  A 3 means they met the learning goal and learned what was taught while a 4 means the student can do more complex problems or they went beyond what was expected.

7. It is possible to convert these units to a 4.0 scale used by most schools.  The 4.0 is a 100 percent or an A.  So any average between a 3 and 4 is an A, while anything between a 2.5 and 2.99 is a B, a 2.0 to a 2.49 is a C.  An average between a 1.0 and a 1.99 is a D while anything below a 1.0 is a F.  I include this information because most schools still want the averages with letter grades.

To summarize, each learning goal gets one grade rather than each paper.  Each student is graded on their proficiency for meeting the goal.  In addition, it uses the most recent evidence of mastery rather than everything.

I'd love to hear what you think.  I admit, I am leaning towards this for next semester because I get tired of seeing students refuse to do anything unless it gets a grade.  It will also decrease the amount of grading I have to do for each of 6 periods.  I think I'll be able to work with more students and provide better and more immediate feedback.

I'm interested in people's thoughts on this.  Thank you ahead of time.