SBG Pilot Program Letter
SBG Pilot Program Letter
SBG Pilot Program Letter
Figure 1
Traditional grading and SBG also use different grading scales. In traditional grading,
students are primarily measured by the percentage of work successfully completed. The
assumption is that higher completion rates reflect greater mastery, and earn higher grades. Often
90% achieves an A, 80% a B, etc.
One pitfall of traditional grading is inaccuracy. Student averages are highly dependent on
the difficulty of work assigned. If teachers present only low complexity activities, students can
earn high scores with only a weak command of the material.
The opposite is also true. Highly demanding instructors may present very difficult work,
resulting in overly low student scores. Curving and extra credit are used to adjust averages into
more appropriate distributions.
In both cases SBG can improve the situation by providing clearer criteria for measuring
mastery. Mastery of low complexity work yields lower grades while mastery of higher
complexity work provides higher grades. Connecting grades to complexity rather than
percentage completion yields more accurate and consistent grades.
Students will receive two report cards. The first main one is tradtional grades based
(A,B,C,D,F). This is common in secondary education nowadays (middle and high school). The
other accompanying report card will be SBG based with learning targets scored on a scale 1-4.