Implementing Standards-Based Grading in my Social Studies Class, Finally « Outside the Cave

Implementing Standards-Based Grading in my Social Studies Class, Finally « Outside the Cave:

Implementing Standards-Based Grading in my Social Studies Class, Finally

by Stephen Lazar

This year, I am going 100% SBG in my senior Social Studies course, which combines government and economics.

Background

I wrote a whole series (scroll down to the bottom) on my plan to do a form of Standards Based Grading in my history class last year. It sort of happened, sort of didn’t. I was thinking about SBG, but the experience for my students did not change: they still saw grades for individual assignments, though there were performance standards attached to writing assignments. There were three major problems, two of which I knew going in, one which I realized very quickly:

1. In a survey history course that ends in a high-stakes, content-based exam, it is necessary to track how