Where learning transcends the ordinary

PBL denotes what students actually know and can do in relationship to specific academic standards. A PBL score or grade is not artificially impacted by penalties for “late” or “missing” work and does not reflect “extra credit” which may have nothing at all to do with the content being taught in the class (participating in a food drive or donating blood, for example.)

Grades are meant to show what a student knows and is able to do with respect to specific subject and grade level standards. They communicate progress toward proficiency and encourage the student and the teacher to act on feedback. Proficiency-Based Learning is designed to meet and articulate these objectives more clearly and thoroughly than a typical letter grade. With PBL, scores are consistently reported using a scale of 1-4, which indicates the level of proficiency on the specific standard.

In Granite, there are four levels of proficiency. The levels are based on the core standards, where level 3 is the expectation for the standard. The district Curriculum & Instruction Department specialists, with input from teachers, create proficiency scales for standards on each grade level and subject. Teachers reference the proficiency scales when creating assessments and rubrics for those assessments.

• Level 4: Student exceeds expectation of the standard by utilizing in-depth inferences and applications of the standard(s).

• Level 3: Student meets expectation of the standard by demonstrating knowledge, understanding, and skills as described in the standard(s).

• Level 2: Student demonstrates knowledge of the simpler details and processes of the standard(s).

• Level 1: With help, student exhibits a partial knowledge of some of the simpler details and processes of the standard(s).

Beginning the 2020-2021 school year, RECENCY is the calculation method used to determine proficiency scores and overall grades. This calculation method was adopted after PBL teachers were surveyed in March, 2020, and concerns from these teachers and other stakeholders informed a change from using decaying average as the PBL calculation method.

RECENCY uses the most recent evidence of student learning to determine the proficiency score on a standard and calculate into the overall grade. A proficiency score for a standard will be generated when the first assessment is entered into the gradebook and will immediately begin calculating into the overall grade. If a teacher assesses a standard more than once, previous assessments and scores will continue to show up in the gradebook, but the most recent score will calculate. This research-based method favors students by not penalizing them for early learning attempts and focuses instead on learning as a process that often includes “slow starts.” A student may choose to retake an assessment (after completing additional practice or previously missed assessments) to demonstrate a higher level of proficiency.

Proficiency-Based Learning entails reporting to students and parents on student learning at given moments in time. Learning is measured against the Utah Core Standards, what the state prescribes that students should know and be able to do in each course and at each grade level. In PBL, assignments are not “weighted” against assessments; that is a concept rooted in a traditional grading system. Some assignments might be scored as assessments; assessments are not exclusively tests but can be projects, products, group work, oral presentations, or work assigned to be completed at home. Assessments are demonstrations of student learning, and only assessments are scored in our PBL system.

An assessment is scored 1-4 in relationship to the standard or standards it was designed to assess. A score of 1 indicates the student is not proficient in the standard(s), not able to complete the assessment without the teacher’s help. A score of 2 indicates that, on the assessment, the student is approaching proficient in the standard(s) assessed. 3 indicates the student is proficient, and a score of 4 means the student has gone beyond proficiency and demonstrated learning of the standard(s) in a more sophisticated, complex, applied way.

Assessment is a broad term that includes any method a teacher uses to gather evidence about a student’s level of proficiency regarding a standard. Teachers have the flexibility to determine the number of assessments they administer for each standard. This decision should be based on formative “proficiency checks” and evidence they continually gather from observations, learning activities, discussions and other evidence of student learning. As teachers determine how and how often to assess, they select the modality that best fits the standard. Assessments should be separated from learning activities that provide students an ungraded opportunity to practice, with feedback, before being assessed.

Report cards will show a proficiency level for each subject at a given moment in time. For standards that are taught in multiple grading periods, scores from assessments continue. For example, if a standard is assessed three times during grading period one, the report card grade would include those scores. If the standard is assessed again (a 4th time) in grading period two, the scores from grading period one pull forward and will be part of quarter two. Students growth in the standard will continue all year long.

Proficiency-Based Learning measures achievement on assessments only. It separates achievement from effort/behavior, so there are no penalties for late work; however, teachers still need to set deadlines for submissions and reassessments in order to get everything graded and entered in a timely manner. All work will be assigned due date on Canvas. All assignments for the quarter will lock on the Skyline Universal Deadline Date (i.e., your student will have until the Skyline Universal Deadline to submit any late or missing work.

Students who submit late work are not guaranteed to receive feedback (especially on essays or writing assignments).

Students who submit late assignments are not eligible to revise low-scoring writing assignments.