There are a lot of questions in the Forum about standards based grading in Canvas. My question is: Is there anyone that has come up with a creative way to use the traditional gradebook and the mastery gradebook together to assess and track standards (outcomes), as well as give quality feedback to students and parents about learning progress on those standards not associated percentages and points?
I understand the Mastery Gradebook, and I understand it's many shortcomings when it comes to tracking outcomes for formative and summative assessments. It is not a very versatile tool. So many great updates have happened in Canvas since we adopted it in 2015, but the mastery gradebook remains the same. We have teachers that have been working hard to use SBG grading in their courses, but since the mastery gradebook is so limited, and the traditional gradebook continues to show percentages, many of our teachers have remained standards referenced, and some are beginning to abandon the mastery gradebook to track outcomes and learning targets.
There are some ideas that I have heard about that might work, like having only a summative grading category, or using power standards as grading categories. Also, right now we use the decaying average for scores, should we try something else? Latest score? We have checked out MasteryConnect. I love this tool, but currently, it is not an option.
I would love to connect with any school that might have creatively figured this out for the secondary grades, specifically middle school. I would love to hear your standards based grading journey, and how you are using Canvas as your gradebook for communicating progress on power standards and learning targets.
timothy.kohl@oshkosh.k12.wi.us
