Effective Grading Practices for Secondary Teachers: Practical Strategies to Prevent Failure, Recover Credits, and Increase Standards-Based/Referenced - Paperback

by Dave Nagel (Author)

Enact innovative grading systems that more accurately describe student progress!

This book challenges traditional grading practices and provides alternatives that can have direct impact on student success. By making subtle shifts toward standards based grading systems, schools can reduce unnecessary course failures, provide students and their families a more accurate picture of current progress, and increase opportunities for success. The author offers a range of grading reform strategies that are built from practical frameworks that are effective and simple to adapt.

Among the many strengths of this book are:

• Practical application of existing research and evidence base for effective secondary grading reforms
• A framework for schools and districts to apply and adapt failure prevention strategies such as early failure detection, Amnesty Days, and meaningful stipulated second chance opportunities for students to reach mastery
• Functional strategies and actions for shifting toward standards-based (referenced) grading without entirely abandoning letter grades
• Countering resistance to change through a-clearly-articulated plan for conducting school-wide and classroom level action research around the effectiveness of new or adjusted grading practices

"Informative and pragmatic, this book is spot on with analysis of this elephant in the room issue. Nagel uses both empathy and humor in getting to the heart of a process to generate real solutions while underscoring the ultimate need for teacher voice in any successful implementation. He provides ready-made strategies for real, impactful change. I′m left hopeful that feedback will rule the day!"
--Bruce Potter, Superintendent
Berkshire UFSD

"Nagel offers an insightful and articulate voice to secondary improvement and alignment through grading practices. His tried and true methods through working with real districts provides a starting place and examples for others to follow. A must-read for anyone serious about ensuring student engagement through meaningful feedback."
--Debra K. Howe, Superintendent
Tri-Creek School Corporation

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Author Biography

Dave Nagel is a senior professional development associate with The Leadership and Learning Center. Since 2003 he has presented, keynoted, and coached teachers and school administrators at all levels pre-K-12. His areas of focus have been in core areas: Powering and Prioritizing Standards, Common Formative Assessments, building Authentic Performance Tasks, effective use of Scoring Guides, Data Teams(TM), Rigorous Curriculum Design(TM), and Effective Grading Practices. Dave has been a 'teacher' and coach to teachers and leaders across the country and internationally. He has recently assisted districts on a process to identify essential Common Core State Standards and their relationship with state and local assessment results. Dave has also done extensive work around helping school teams work on critical aspects of effective collaboration, focusing on impacting student achievement through intentional adult actions.

A former middle and high school biology teacher, Dave's administrative experiences also include middle school assistant principal, high school associate principal, and director of credit-recovery programs. In his former district, Dave was instrumental in implementing power standards and performance assessments as well as implementing an effective credit recovery model that transformed a high school by improving their graduation rate 14% in just over four years