Formed work teams to gather information and to research best practices for grading to help establish our belief statements: Research other districts Have a round table discussion with principals and central level administrators Survey teachers, students, and parents Attended the Sound Grading Practices: Linking Quality Assessment and Grading Conference, December 6-7, Portland, Oregon. This conference is hosted by the Assessment Training Institute originally begun by Rick Stiggins and now owned by Pearson. A group from Denton High School joined our team including teachers, Dan Ford and Renee Koontz as well as Joel Hays, associate principal at Ryan High School. Reviewed research on what other districts are doing in the area of grading and assessment: o What stands out? What trends do you see? o What do you see that you would like incorporated into our district’s belief statement? o What do you see that you do not want included in our district’s belief statement?
Spring Semester 2013 Activities: Held a round table discussion with Principals: Listed below are the guiding questions which drove our discussion and acted as a spring board for sharing our thoughts. o What grading issues do you deal with most often as an administrator? o How has your perspective on grading changed when you moved from the classroom to administration? o What would you change if you were to go back to the classroom? o Texas Education Code, 28.021, has required decisions on promotion or course credit to be based on “academic achievement or demonstrated proficiency”. What should that look like? Developed a rough draft of belief statements about learning, assessment, and grading which began with each member writing a minimum of two of their own beliefs. From those personal beliefs, a more comprehensive document was created. Developed a teacher survey for teacher feedback and insights regarding our beliefs about learning and assessment as one way to determine what teachers are practicing and what changes would they support. Held a round table discussion with Dr. Wilson: The same guiding questions we used with the principals were used to drive this discussion and act as a spring board for sharing our thoughts. Administered the Teacher Survey Analyzed teacher survey data using a data analysis tool that asks the following questions: (1) What?...What is the data telling you? How would you put the data into measurable terms? (2) So What?...What are the implications for you / your department / campus? What will your focus be? (3) Now What?...What do you and your department / campus need to do now? What is your plan?