What does a final grade actually tell us? In traditional point-based systems, there is an implied relationship between time spent in the classroom and the final score, which doesn’t necessarily indicate what students learned. Outcomes-based grading offers an alternative. Educators establish a set of clear, specific learning outcomes based on course content, school-wide academic priorities, and state and national standards. They define these indicators for students and refer back to them as they teach, ensuring students are aware of how they are being evaluated and what is needed to achieve a good grade. Since its launch in 2009, East Brooklyn Community High School (EBCHS), a transfer school working with over-aged under-credited high school students, has made outcomes-based grading a defining component of its approach, giving students a chance to earn grades based on the quality of their work rather than the hours they spend in the classroom.
However, achieving a unified approach across departments is not always easy. Assistant Principal Colleen Crowley explains, “One of the most challenging things is deciding which outcomes to include. There are so many skills you could be teaching, but you have to limit it.” Principal Patrick McGillicuddy asked Eskolta to help department heads take a deeper look, and in 2013, the Eskolta team evaluated nearly 250 outcomes from a sample of classes in four disciplines to see which academic skills and abilities were measured by each individual standard. Then, through a series of inquiry-based discussions facilitated by Eskolta, EBCHS staff looked at a single outcome common to all departments and identified effective language that could be threaded across courses. Finally, the group examined how the Common Core Learning Standards progress across grade levels to inform EBCHS’ sequence of building skills in a meaningful way.
Through this analysis, EBCHS teachers were able to see areas of overlap and common language across disciplines, as well as where the standards diverged. The department heads took these insights back to teachers to tweak the outcomes and generate a set of best practices and next steps to support teachers in evaluating and revising the remaining outcomes. In this way, Eskolta’s work built a framework for teachers to use as a taking-off point. Crowley was positive about the project, explaining, “It’s going to be especially helpful because we’ve been doing concrete work around defining what it means to be exceeding expectations. So students aren’t just coasting along—they know what to do to exceed.”