Theresa, Middle School Humanities Teacher

“Instead of making a 20-point assignment, where students can earn a 20 out of 20, a 19 out of 20, an 18 out of 20, and so on, I have four levels. Either it’s ‘Meeting’ the standard, ‘Exceeding’ the standard, ‘Approaching’ the standard, or ‘Not Meeting’.

That has made my assignments much more tailored to specific standards, and I decide, hopefully with other teachers, ‘What does it look like when a student has mastered this standard? What does it look like when it’s approaching or exceeding?’ I do a lot more of that calibration with my colleagues so that the standard in my class looks the same across the school.