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Developing Standards-Based Report Cards

By: Thomas R. Guskey, Jane M. Bailey

Providing a clear framework, this volume helps school leaders align assessment and reporting practices with standards-based education and develop more detailed reports of children’s learning and progress.

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Product Details

Grade Level: K-12
ISBN: 9781412940870
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2009
Page Count: 248
Publication date: November 17, 2009

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Description

"Guskey and Bailey offer realistic solutions to improving how educators communicate a student's academic progress to all stakeholders. Their work provides a faculty with the research, step-by-step guidelines, and reporting templates to begin the dialogue to develop a standards-based report card. Without a doubt, this work is a model for schools that want to improve their system of grading and reporting. It certainly has transformed ours!"
—Jeffrey Erickson, Assistant Principal
Minnetonka High School, MN

Develop standards-based report cards that are meaningful to students, parents, and educators!

Although schools have moved toward standards-based curriculum and instruction, grading practices and reporting systems have remained largely unchanged. Helping school leaders gain support for transitioning from traditional to standards-based report cards, this book guides educators in aligning assessment and reporting practices with standards-based education and providing more detailed reports of children's learning and achievement.

A standards-based report card breaks down each subject area into specific elements of learning to offer parents and educators a more thorough description of each child's progress toward proficiency. This accessible volume:

Provides a clear framework for developing standards-based report cards
Shows how to communicate with parents, students, and other stakeholders about changes
Illustrates how to achieve grading consistency without increasing teachers' workloads or violating their professional autonomy

Filled with examples of standards-based report cards that can be adapted to a school's needs, this practical resource shows district and school administrators how to establish reporting practices that facilitate learning.

Key features

Filled with examples of standards-based report cards for readers to use and adapt
Full-length treatment of a timely subject

Author(s)

Thomas R. Guskey

Thomas R. Guskey, PhD, is Professor Emeritus in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky. A graduate of the University of Chicago’s renowned Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistical Analysis (MESA) program, he began his career in education as a middle school teacher, served as an administrator in the Chicago Public Schools, and was the first Director of the Center for the Improvement of Teaching and Learning, a national educational research center. He is the author/editor of twenty-seven books and over three hundred articles published in prominent research journals as well as Educational Leadership, Kappan, and The School Administrator.

Dr. Guskey served on the Policy Research Team of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, and on the task force to develop the National Standards for Professional Development. He was named a Fellow in the American Educational Research Association and was awarded the Association’s prestigious Relating Research to Practice Award. He was also awarded Learning Forward's Outstanding Contribution to the Field Award and Phi Delta Kappan's Distinguished Educator Award. Perhaps most unique, in the 158-year history of his undergraduate institution, Thiel College, he is one of only three graduates to receive the Outstanding Alumnus Award and be inducted into the Thiel College Athletic Hall of Fame.

His most recent books include Implementing Mastery Learning (2023), Instructional Feedback: The Power, the Promise, the Practice (with Smith & Lipnevich, 2023); Get Set, Go! Creating Successful Grading and Reporting Systems (2020), What We Know About Grading (with Brookhart, 2019), and On Your Mark: Challenging the Conventions of Grading and Reporting (2015). He may be contacted by email at guskey@uky.edu, Twitter at @tguskey, or at www.tguskey.com.

Jane M. Bailey

Jane Bailey grew up in Chelsea, Michigan, earned her bachelor's and master's degrees at Michigan State University, and embarked on her career in public education teaching English and reading at Petoskey High School in Petoskey, Michigan. She went on to serve as high school principal in Alanson and Harbor Springs, Michigan; as staff development coordinator at the Char-Em Intermediate School District in Charlevoix, Michigan; and as director for curriculum and staff development for the Petoskey Public Schools, from which she retired in 2008. She was a nationally known education consultant, a gifted presenter, and co-author of three books on education. Bailey was admired by many as a role model and served as a mentor to numerous young educators. She was a dedicated wife, a proud mother, and the very best of friends. Her kindness, charm, keen sense of humor, and irrepressible spirit inspired everyone who knew her. She left the world a better place because of her passion for life, her dedication to public education, and her commitment to excellence in teaching.

Table of Contents

About the Authors

1. Getting Started

The Difficulty of Change

The Need for Change

Why Standards Instead of Letter Grades?

Guiding Premises

Our Purpose

Our Organizational Scheme

Our Hope

2. The Importance of Standards

Defining "Standards"

Five Essential Understandings

Standards-Based Report Card Development Levels

Summary

3. Defining the Purpose

Purpose Questions

Leading Discussions About Purpose

Key Questions in Defining the Purpose

Making the Purpose Clear

Method Follows Purpose

Purpose Determines the Development Process

Multiple Purposes Means Multiple Reporting Elements

Focus on a "Reporting System"

Summary

4. Developing Reporting Standards

Reporting Standards

The Development Process

Three Types of Learning Goals

Conflicts in Reporting on Different Learning Goals

Meaning Solutions to the Conflicts

Summary

5. Essential Steps in Development: Part I

Crucial Questions in the Development Process

Summary

6. Essential Steps in Development: Part II

Additional Crucial Questions in the Development Process

Summary

7. Developing Reporting Forms

Defining the Purpose

Selecting the Method Based on the Purpose

Effective Reporting Forms

Combining Methods of Reporting

Format and Graphic Layouts

Design Processes

Additional Sample Reporting Forms

8. Piloting and Revising

Broad-Based Involvement

Focus Groups

Parent, Teacher, and Student Surveys

Test-Driven Reporting

Back to the Drawing Board

Informing the Community

Professional Development

Parent Education Programs

9. Beyond the Report Card: Developing a Reporting System

The Importance of Purpose

The Challenge of Communications

Tools for a Comprehensive Reporting System

Guidelines for Better Practice

Summary

References

Index

Reviews

"This is a must-read for devoted Guskey-Bailey disciples! This latest addition to their collective wisdom provides clear measures for addressing the unique grading challenges of children with special education needs and children considered gifted or talented in the regular education classroom. Teachers who collaborate on students’ grades will find the recommended practices to be fair, logical, and an excellent way to communicate student learning."

Melanie Goffen Horowitz, Principal
Central School, Wilmette, IL

“Guskey and Bailey clearly articulate the need for reform on one of today’s most pressing issues in education: grading and reporting. Throughout the book, they offer realistic solutions to improve how educators communicate a student’s academic progress to all stakeholders. Their work provides the practitioner with the research, step-by-step guidelines, and reporting templates so a faculty is ready to begin the dialogue to develop a standards-based report card. The research has helped us answer the two main questions: 'What goes into a grade?' and 'How do we report it out?' This work, without a doubt, is a model for schools that want to improve their system of grading and reporting. It certainly has transformed ours!”

Jeffrey Erickson, Assistant Principal
Minnetonka High School, MN

Other Titles in: Standards & Accountability | Grading | Teaching Methods & Learning Styles

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