This page includes resources mentioned in the paper Progress and Proficiency: Redesigning Grading for Competency Education (CompetencyWorks 2014), including examples from districts, blog posts written by practitioners, and links to all the resources mentioned in the paper.  If you are new to competency education, you might want to read The Art and Science of Designing Competencies and The Learning Edge: Supporting Student Success in a Competency-Based Learning Environment, both found at CompetencyWorks.

On April 24, 2014, Abbie Forbus and Brett Grimm from Lindsay Unified High School, described their grading practices. Attached are resources mentioned in the webinar:

• Webinar powerpoint presentation
  
• Lindsay Unified School District Grading Policy
• Rubric for science
  

Examples of Grading Practices in Competency-based Schools

Casco Bay Charter School, Portland Oregon

• Casco Bay Family Grading Guide
• Casco Bay High School School Profile
• I Want to Know More, details from Leadership in Action about Casco's grading principles and practices 

Sanborn Regional High School, New Hampshire

• Grading guide for parents and students
• Assessment and grading guidelines
• Understanding GPA and Class Rank 
• Sample transcript

Lindsay Unified School District, California

• Assessing, Scoring, and Reporting Guidebook - Grading and Reporting Guidebook.pdf  

Diploma Plus

• Diploma Plus Grading System Overview

RSU2 

• Progress report

Mt. Ararat Middle School, Maine

• Scoring Guide

Hawaii

• Hawaii Standards-based Report Card (Please note: schools may be using standards-based or standard-referenced policies. In standards-referenced, students move on without reaching proficiency.)
  

Blog Posts

• Shawn Cornally, “Standards-Based Grading: Misconceptions,” ThinkThankThunk (2013)
• Brian Stack, Principal at Sanborn Regional High School
• Reassessments and Retakes: A Necessary Part of a School-Wide Grading Policy
• Assessment of Learning with Competency-Based Grading 
• Class Rank in a Competency-Based High School,” 
• How Competency Based Grading Has NOT Changed Our School’s Transcript
• Deadlines Matter: Debunking the Myth That Standards-Based Grading Means No Deadlines

• Chris Sturgis
• Getting Up to Speed on Grading with lots of links to videos
• Colleges commit to accepting proficiency-based diploma
• Is Mastery a 3 or a 4 or Something Far Beyond That?
• What Happens Once a Student Reaches Proficiency?
• Put On Your Creative Hat When Thinking About Proficiency-based Grading
• Oregon Gets an A+ for its New Grading Policy

• Tom Vander Ark
• 10 Must-Haves to Lift Us from the Grading Quagmire

Links to Resources Mentioned in the Paper

• Resources on Level of Knowledge

• Webb’s Depth of Knowledge has four levels: Recall, Skill/Concept, Strategic Thinking, and Extended Thinking.
• Marzano's Taxonmy can be found in Robert J. Marzano and John S. Kendall, “Designing & Assessing Educational Objectives: Applying the New Taxonomy,” Marzano Research Laboratory.  
• Bloom’s Taxonomy has six levels. The original version developed in the 1950s was Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation.  It was revised in the 1990s by Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohlto be Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating.  
• Research on Grading
• See Thomas R. Guskey and Jane M. Bailey, Developing Grading and Reporting Systems for Student Learning (Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2001), and Chapter 1 in Robert J. Marzano’s Formative Assessment & Standards-Based Grading (Bloomington, IN: Marzano Research Laboratory, 2010)
• State Policy 

•  OAR 581-022-1670 Individual Student Assessment, Recordkeeping, Grading, and Reporting,Oregon Board of Education

• Other Resources

• Camille A. Farrington and Margaret H. Small, “A New Model of Student Assessment for the 21st Century” (American Youth Policy Forum, 2008)

• Thomas R. Guskey, Five Obstacles to Grading Reform

• John Hattie and Helen Timperley, The Power of Feedback, Review of Educational Research (2007)

• Robert J. Marzano, “The Art and Science of Teaching/When Students Track Their Progress” Educational Leadership 67 (2009): 86–87.

• Greg Palmer, “Demystifying Standards” 

• Jack Schneider, College of the Holy Cross, and Ethan Hutt, University of Maryland, College Park, “Making the Grade: A History of the A–F Marking Scheme,” retrieved November 1, 2013

• Laura Shubilla and Chris Sturgis, “The Learning Edge: Supporting Student Success in a Competency-Based Learning Environment,” CompetencyWorks (2012): 13.

•  Stiggins, Rick. “Assessment FOR Learning, the Achievement Gap, and Truly Effective Schools,” a presentation at the Educational Testing Service and College Board conference, Educational Testing in America: State Assessments, Achievement Gaps, National Policy and Innovations. Washington, DC, September 8, 2008.

• Chris Sturgis, The Art and Science of Designing Competency Frameworks,” CompetencyWorks (2012).

• Grant Wiggins on Grading

Want More? Here are some more resources on grading and transcripts

• What is Competency-based Grading? from New England Secondary Schools Consortium Leadership in Action
• Great Schools Partnership Webinar Proficiency-Based Learning Simplified: Best Practices in Grading and Reporting
• Great Schools Partnership Webinar Transcripts + Reporting