by Dennis Harter
Middle School Principal
The ISB Middle School is Standards Based. This means that we assess student learning achievement by providing feedback against specific learning outcomes (called standards). Traditionally, grades like B+ or C were given to describe a student’s attainment in a class. This provided no information about what the student was able to do and what required further growth or understanding.
Standards Based Reporting allows a student and parents to know how the student has achieved on a specific learning goal – which we believe provides accuracy to our reporting and greater opportunity for a student to improve their learning.
In keeping with this mindset, we have adjusted what and how we report on PowerSchool. We have removed any grade “calculations” like averaging or taking the most frequent grade. Instead we focus on how the child has achieved “most recently” on a particular learning standard. This represents what the student has achieved now, rather than a summary of how they learned before.
Below, with images, we explain how you can read what you see in PowerSchool.
When MS students and parents look at grades on PowerSchool a summary page opens up, sharing most recent HAL grades and the single most recent achievement grade in standards assessed up to that point.
As these grades represent only the most recent assessment of that learning standard, students and parents may want to see more assessment results.
To do this, parents and students can click on the “Semester” heading for each subject.
This opens the selected course assignment page, with all assignments listed (along with HAL updates). To see which standards were assessed in a particular assignment, click on the drop down arrow alongside the assignment title.
In this view you can see the reporting category in which the individual standards belong (e.g. CONCEPTS AND PROCEDURES: Expressions and Equations).
These categories will not have grades in the for each assignment. The grades go alongside the individual standards. The categories will be summarized with a grade ahead of conferences and on the report card at the end of term. Those Category grades will appear on the front page, listed as main grading categories.
These changes in how we report better align with our philosophy on providing feedback to students and parents in order to improve learning. Ultimately, our focus in middle school is more on teaching and learning, and less on ranking and grading. We want our grading to be genuine learning feedback.
Please note that teachers will be using a field to mark “Collected” for assignments because we do not give a point score for assignments, instead reporting against the standards. As such, please be aware of the difference between “Not Collected” which is the default until it’s been marked by the teacher (and does NOT mean the student hasn’t turned it in), vs. “Missing” which is a true indication that the student did not turn in the assignment.
A Word on PowerSchool
We do not recommend overly frequent checking of PowerSchool. Teachers will update it as assessments are completed and marked, but you should not expect daily changes. It is important to understand that frequent checking of grades often causes unnecessary stress for students and parents, placing focus on grades instead of learning.
As always, if you have questions about how your child is progressing in a class, reach out to the teacher.