November 2007  
Merton Community School District

Standards-based grading has brought the various aspects of our learning community together full-circle. It facilitated our standards-based curriculum; provided a vehicle for recording and communicating student achievement information; and provides valid, comprehensive data that can help us identify the needs of students and programming effectiveness. 
                           -- Roger Thorson, Curriculum Coordinator Merton Community School District, WI

Almost eight years ago, the staff at Merton Community School District began the journey to align their standards-based curriculum with their grading and assessments. Today, Merton uses the data provided by standards-based grading to share responsibility, communicate with students and parents, and better evaluate the success of both students and programs throughout the district. We asked Roger Thorson, Curriculum Coordinator at MCSD, for his thoughts on standards-based grading and the systemic change that comes along with it.

Collaborative Learning, Inc.: What made you decide to begin electronic standards-based grading?
Roger Thorson: The most valuable data for teachers to use comes right from day-to-day practice and instruction in the classrooms of our schools. The standards give us the "what to teach" and the electronic capabilities allow us to record, report and analyze this data.

CLI: Who led the charge?
RT: Our Primary Principal, Mike Budisch, began the process. From there, an ensemble effort by Mike, Jon Wagner (the intermediate principal), Mark Flynn (our superintendent), Tina Heizman (our tech person) and myself started what was a 3-year step-by-step implementation process. It was a steep learning curve for all of us as we aligned ourselves with the technological parameters. It was a big plus to have a vehicle to define for ourselves the assessment and grading best practices we have been studying for several years. We had been creating common assessments based on standards (CABS) for several years, but collecting the data in a consistent manner was not achieved until full implementation of a standards-based gradebook.
Another person on our staff was key in allowing us to move forward as we needed to. Wendy Rheineck, one of our teachers, took on the extra task of "superuser" for the district...and super she is! With unfailing enthusiasm and persistence she was the center of all WebGrader® activity. She understands where the standards-assessment information comes from and works with the principals for "lock-down" times and dates in order to create our standards-based report cards directly from teachers' grade books. Renaming it "WendyGrader" has come to mind.

CLI: How has standards-based grading changed your district?
RT: Although the benefits of electronic standards-based grading reach all parts of the school, a particular story sums up this change well. Midway through our starting year, Barb, a 6th grade teacher began sharing the student detail reports from WebGrader® with her students. Conferencing with her students with this data in front of them on the screen, she could ask, "What do you see?" They could use the report as a tool to see patterns in homework, tests and quizzes, and get a picture of academic or study skill needs. Then they could consider strategies that would help. From this teacher-driven conference has grown an ongoing ability for students to self-monitor their progress. This can come in several formats so home access leads to great teacher-student-parent connections. There are no surprises at report card time, students know their "WebCode" and are involved with monitoring their own progress.

CLI: Looking back, what was your biggest obstacle?
RT: "The devil is in the details." We learned many of the technological and procedural steps with much training and "live and learn" experiences.

CLI: What was your biggest surprise?
RT: The grading process is where "the rubber meets the road" in student achievement. Once, it was a mysterious result of mixed criteria and subjectivity. Now the measurement and data help us to focus and empirically determine student needs. It is a surprise to many of us how that changes the role of the teacher. Student progress is being "deprivatized" to the point where there are many eyes looking at recorded grades...these now have to be valid, consistent, and justifiable. This can be daunting to a teacher, but there is reassurance that a teacher is no longer all alone in the results. As part of a "professional learning community," support comes from the teaching team and the school leaders.

CLI: What are your plans for the future?
RT: At the school level we are still working to assure a valid match between standards-based assessment criteria, report card grading, and the resulting data. We have developed procedures to export our data into Microsoft Excel to create "by-standard" achievement data on each student, class and grade level. This information allows the teaching staff and administration to have discussions regarding trends, strengths and weaknesses. There is much research supporting the discourse of specific learning targets and student progress as having one of the highest effects on student achievement at all performance levels.

CLI: What advice would you give to other schools that want to begin standards-based grading?
RT: Just Do It (sorry Nike). Honestly, the first step is to be involved with the work of identifying your standards-based assessments and curriculum...then consider the electronic programs that can help you achieve those goals.

Merton Community School District is a small community west of Milwaukee and north of Waukesha with two schools: primary grades K-3, and intermediate grades 4-8. As a K-8 school that feeds into Arrowhead High School, the area has a strong community support base. Merton has about 1,000 students, most living in subdivisions or in the historical village with a mill pond and 19th century buildings. They have been using WebGrader® as their standards-based gradebook and report card generator since 2003. Find Merton on the web at www.merton.k12.wi.us.