Agree 100%. Check out our reasoning for eliminating homework grades from your grade books. skillsbasedclassroom.com/post/homework-…

Students are at school to learn! A student’s grade should reflect their knowledge of the subject material, not behavior and compliance. Check out our thoughts here: skillsbasedclassroom.com/post/what-does…

We’ve had a great response from our recent ICTM presentation. Several schools have reached out to learn more about our Skills Based Classroom approach. If anyone wants to learn more about, check us out at skillsbasedclassroom.com

Taking a chance on change can make it better!

We use 4 levels. Three of them are “passing” and one is “not yet”. It works for us. Students often want to advance through the basic->strong->mastery levels once they understand a concept. Offering retakes to achieve mastery is key. The students’ competitive nature takes over.

Every week, we have Feedback Fridays! Have a short (1-2 minutes) conversation with every student to review assessments and clarify expectations for the week. Make sure the student and teacher are on the same page. Best thing I’ve ever done.

More doesn’t necessarily mean better. Don’t worry about how much material you teach. Focus on what you can teach them to do well.

This is exactly why behaviors need to be eliminated (or at least separated) as a factor when recording grades. Rewarding kids’ grades because they took notes or participated is simply rewarding them for obedience. It has no academic substance.

From an article I wrote ten years ago... "The majority of coaches at all levels of sport were not gifted athletes. They achieved limited success by out-working their competition. Generally speaking, coaches are workaholics. Their creed comes from motivational clichés. As you

AP Calculus students had an opportunity to improve their grades in any skill of their choosing today. 20 (out of 26) students demonstrated growth in at least one area of weakness! Offering retake assessments allows kids extra time to understand complicated concepts.

Skills Based Classroom-Keenan Clark & Jake Towers I couldn’t agree more. I’ve spoken to teachers who can’t stand half of their students. Not every kid is an apple polisher. Meet kids where they are.

—Paul Emerich France, Paul Emerich France, #MakeTeachingSustainable

Unfortunately, this is common in an antiquated system that is set up to favor students who are compliant and score points (regardless of how they got them). Assessments need to change. Teaching needs to change. We have an idea. It will cost you nothing. skillsbasedclassroom.com

You have to separate the compliance component from the learning component of the grade. Otherwise you can’t provide quality feedback. We have found a way to harness the specificity of standards based without sacrificing our traditional 100 point scale. skillsbasedclassroom.com

Memorizing for fluency facts is important. However, I’m not convinced memorizing most math formulas is still necessary. “Hey Siri, what’s the formula for…” didn’t exist 20 years ago. Having to recall some of these math formulas should go away. Focus on applications.

Whyyy on Kendrick’s green Earth are we still doing binder checks, participation, and other “grades” that have nothing to do with the accumulation of content knowledge?!

Not sure what the problem is here. If they studied the first exam and relied on the retake, then at least they ultimately learned what you wanted them to learn. Who cares what system they used to achieve that goal? Let students retake until they master the content.

These 4 core SBG principles accurately summarize where we should be going in education.

AP Calculus is very hard. We had 27 students take the AP Calc exam and 22 scored a 3 or higher (that’s 81.5%, while the global average was 64.4%). We graded NO homework and gave NO chapter tests. All assessments were given in class and focused on specific content. #Results

Feedback is perhaps the biggest thing missing from most classrooms. REAL feedback. Not "That's right. This is wrong. Good work. Try this." Feedback tied to what success looks like & what the end goal is for learning. Where are you? Where do you want to go? What's next?