New Grading SystemVolusia County Schools

What You Need To Know!

The State of Florida over that past several years has passed numerous laws that will directly affect how you are graded.

Based on those laws Volusia County Schools has had to change how we evaluate our students.

Teachers have VERY little flexibility on our own grading system.

Good, Bad or Different?

The good news is that 80% percent of your grade will be based on what we call a Summative Assessment

A Summative Assessment is your teachers way of determining if you’ve met your learning goal. Huh!

Simply put a learning goal is what your are supposed to learn during the unit of study.

Example of Summative

Let’s take your first unit of study in my class.

Your overall learning goal for the first 2 weeks of school is to learn how “Europeans explored and colonized the America’s in the 15th and 16th centuries encountering multiple Native American societies leading to what historian refer to as the Columbian Exchange”.

So, I said that your goal is to learn this unit over 2 weeks and you will be engaging in numerous activities to learn the material.

Example of Summative

Along the way you will take what we call Formative Assessments to tell us (and you) if you are learning what you need to learn in order to pass the Summative Assessment with a minimum score of 70%.

This is new to all of us so keep that in mind as we move forward.

The next slide will begin to look at how a unit may be taught.

Unit (Learning Goal) Layout

In order to determine what you need to learn it makes sense to see what you already know.

You will take a diagnostic pre-test to see what you need to know and what you already know

In Pinnacle you will see 3 sectionsDiagnostic

Formative

Summative

Unit (Learning Goal) Layout

Your pre-test score will go into the Diagnostic section of Pinnacle.

This is NOT a grade, it is your starting point in the unit.

It will be used to see how your are progressing so don’t freak out if it looks bad, in fact it should look bad if you have never learned about what I have to teach you.

Unit (Learning Goal) Layout

So you’ve taken the Diagnostic pre-test and it looks bad now what?

Now you begin to learn the material in order to pass the Summative Assessment and along the way I need to monitor how you are progressing so I will be giving you Formative Assessments to see how you’re doing.

Examples of Formative Assessments

Some examples of Formative Assessments include:

Quizzes

Student Reflections Book

Clicker Questions

My observing you ( I may ask the class “thumbs up if you got it or down if you don’t)

Summative Assessments

Summative Assessments are the old unit exams.

You know every week or so your teacher gives you a test, well these are Summative or a summary of your learning.

Yes, they count for a lot of your grade.

Examples of Summative Assessments

Types of Summative Assessments includeTests

Projects

Term Paper or Essays

Exhibitions

Bottom Line For You

While this system may appear harder than in the past it’s really not!

Your teachers are like doctors in that when your sick you visit the doctor and he/she wants to diagnose your illness (our pre-test) once the doctor knows your illness they will give your medicine (your learning materials) and then they want to see if your reacting well so you come back for a follow-up visit (Formative Assessment)

Finally once you’ve finish treatment they will bring you back for once more to see if you are all better (summative)

But…

But what if you don’t react to the treatment? The doctor will try something different right?

So if you don’t do well on our Assessments we will find a different way to help you and you will come back and take a different approach.

You then can re-take your summative.

Bottom Line

Your grade is broken into two areas:1. Formative Assessments count 20% of you grade

2. Summative Assessments count 80% of your grade

Keep in Mind

This is new to everyone of us!

This is a very different way of evaluating our students

We have to learn to do teach differently

YOU have to learn a different way to be graded

It’s About You!

There are some nice changes for you, especially if you are not a great test taker.

If you take a summative and get a B or lower you get a second chance…But, you have to complete some review work prior to re-taking

You are required to required to retake a Summative Assessment if you fall below 70%