Standard-Based Grading...seductive and frightening

After three years of hearing about SBG, reading about it, and researching it, I think I may have possibly made a decision. Boy, I sound pretty sure of myself. The fact is that I have always been uncomfortable about the traditional grading system. I was a victim of it when I went to school. I learned how to play the game, but did not always want to follow the rules. I demonstrated learning in the tests, but failed to produce completed work all the time. In college, I crammed for tests and then promptly forgot the material. This was sufficient until my Junior year of engineering when I was supposed to apply all of the lessons I "learned" the first two years. Man, I really played the game alright.

I have continued to perpetuate the traditional grading system as a teacher. Complete your homework before class so we can have a discussion about it. Take a test to show me you were paying attention and practices the problems we did in class. The homework is not busy work and it will help them understand. In order to get them to do it, it must be worth some points, yada yada yada.

I started hearing about standard based grading (aka objective based or proficiency based) 2-3 years ago and it has been calling my name ever since. It seems like a perfect match with the Modeling Instruction of Physics that I use in my classroom. It finally is a way of assessing students for what are supposed to learn in class instead of just getting points. I am so tired of the following things happening:

- I am so tired of kids asking me for a way to raise their grade with extra credit
- Feeling guilty about the student who has a 79.2% and a 92% average on tests.
- Feeling annoyed at the kid who has an 82% in the class and a 64% average on tests.
- Checking homework for completion because I do not have time to actually grade it all.
- Knowing students just copy their friends papers before class.

As I said, I have had SBG calling my name and stuck in my head for years, but I am scared. I am not scared of the student/Parent/staff reactions. I am already teaching in a fairly non-traditional, constructivist way. So, I have experience dealing with complaints and challenges to my teaching style. I am most frightened about the logistics of it. How do I find the time to determine the standards I want to use, to review and update my materials, to create many many versions of assessments for all the re-tests? How do I keep track of all of the information with 150 students and 40 standards (6000 items)? I know there are that many in a traditional system, but in most cases it is entered once and forgotten. In SBG every one of those 6000 is in flux all semester long.

Time is a precious commodity. I am in charge of a robotics team, a Cub Scout pack, sing in two choir, and have a family with two elementary boys and a full-time working spouse. When the heck am I going to be able to do it all???

It is time to find out. I am jumping in with both feet this year and looking towards working my tail off to figure it out. I hope the larger the risk, the greater the reward is going to come true.