Transforming assessment and grading practices often sparks resistance, and two of the hottest fires are accountability and reassessment. How do we ensure students take responsibility for their learning while providing meaningful opportunities for growth? In this interactive session, we’ll tackle these common challenges head-on, offering practical strategies, real-world examples, and actionable tools to balance high expectations with effective grading policies. Walk away with clear solutions to navigate these tough conversations and drive lasting change in your school or district.
Grading reform can be confusing for families, leading to misconceptions and resistance. In this session, we’ll explore practical strategies to engage parents as partners in the process. Learn how to communicate grading changes in clear, meaningful ways, address common concerns, and build trust through transparency. Whether transitioning to standards-based grading or shifting traditional practices, this session will provide tools to help parents understand what grades truly measure—and why it matters for student success. Walk away with actionable steps to foster productive conversations and create a shared vision for grading that supports learning for all students.
As leaders, we owe it to our educators to provide them with time and support to implement standards-based grading. This session will explore a framework for monitoring SBG implementation that yields differentiated supports for teachers.
If your school embraces standards based grading, your next step will be to determine how you will handle reassessment and additional learning opportunities. Come to this session to learn about some best practice tips and common pitfalls to avoid. Participants will leave with a draft of a reassessment policy and talk about how to structure the school day to support the reassessment process.
This session will provide participants with a foundational understanding of standards-based IEPs. The content will include an overview of how the Iowa Core Standards and other high leverage practices and processes can be used for the determination of a student’s present level of performance, the development of IEP goals, progress monitoring strategies and the development of specially designed instruction.
Separating student's academic skills from their behaviors makes perfect sense until you have to figure out what behaviors and how you will assess them. In this session, you will hear how one middle school altered their current system to create school-wide expectations that served as the foundation for student accountability and enhanced parent communication.
In this session, we will navigate the nuanced process of crafting meaningful descriptors and, when necessary, determining ultimate grades aligned with standards. Gain valuable insights as you consider contextual decisions for moving forward in your school or district.
Classroom grading reform and students’ whole child development are two important and timely topics in today’s schools. In this article, the authors draw parallels between CASEL’s five core competencies of social and emotional learning and the guiding principles of standards-based grading (SBG). This article helps educators understand SEL competencies and SBG principles as well as barriers to implementation. The authors outline how explicitly developing students’ social-emotional learning skills and implementing SBG are complementary. Implications for practice and research are discussed.
This session will provide participants with a foundational understanding of standards-based IEPs. The content will include an overview of how the Iowa Core Standards and other high leverage practices and processes can be used for the determination of a student’s present level of performance, the development of IEP goals, progress monitoring strategies and the development of specially designed instruction.
Creating and refining proficiency scales doesn’t have to be overwhelming! In this hands-on session, we’ll navigate how standards and Depth of Knowledge (DOK) can be paired to build clear, meaningful learning progressions. You’ll leave with practical strategies, ready-to-use templates, and time-saving resources to streamline the process. Whether you're developing new scales or fine-tuning existing ones, this session will equip you with tools to ensure clarity, consistency, and impact in your proficiency scales, and even provide simplicity on addressing the elusive advanced criteria within your scales.
This session will provide tools and strategies to develop and refine rubrics or proficiency scales that align with learning standards, promote consistency in grading, engage students in the learning process, and provide meaningful feedback to students. Participants will explore best practices, analyze examples, and engage in hands-on activities to enhance their assessment practices. Whether you're creating new tools or improving existing ones, this session will provide practical guidance to improve implementation at the building level to support student growth and achievement.
North Scott secondary teacher leaders will share their journey and provide practical examples for taking a systems-level approach to implementing SBG. Special emphasis will be placed on the critical role that instructional coaches play in gaining and sustaining momentum by weaving changes into the fabric of existing initiatives. School leaders will walk away with ideas for aligning SBG with other district initiatives, creating meaningful and job-embedded professional learning opportunities, and utilizing teacher leaders to provide ongoing support for teachers throughout the change process. Ideas will also be shared for onboarding and supporting new teachers through coaching support.
Successful grading reform starts with recruiting the right educators and equipping them with practical, easy-to-implement strategies. This session will focus on onboarding new staff with simple yet effective instructional, assessment, and grading moves that align with a standards-based mindset. Learn how to identify and support teachers who embrace equitable grading, provide streamlined professional development, and foster collaboration to ensure consistency. Walk away with actionable tools to help new staff feel confident implementing grading reform from day one—without feeling overwhelmed.
In this session, educators will focus on a standards-first approach to planning, starting with unpacking the standards to drive specific learning outcomes. Educators will learn how to design unit plans that align assessments with the rigor of the standards and desired student outcomes. The session will guide educators in working backward from outcomes to create focused, intentional instruction. By emphasizing standards and goal-oriented planning, participants will leave with practical tools to enhance student learning and improve academic results.
Competency-based education relies on several interconnected systemic efforts designed to fit together to offer maximum academic achievement to all your learners. One of the first steps in CBE is SBG, a focus that shifts a traditional school model to one that offers a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) with a personalized, student-driven learning environment. Research continues to prove this instructional model improves not only academic achievement for all students but also embraces supporting learners’ metacognitive and essential skills needed for success in their future.
In this session, we will explore various non-negotiables when embarking upon change in grading practice. Whether early in your journey, or more advanced, there are some core changes must become rooted expectations for long-term success.
