Solon teacher embraces standards-based grading

During his first year as a math and science teacher at Solon High School, one of Shawn Cornally's colleagues asked him two questions.

“What do quizzes mean to your students? What do quizzes mean to you?”

At the time, Cornally was considering giving up teaching, but thinking on those questions led him to rededicate himself to his profession as well as a different way to evaluate his students called standards-based grading.

The idea behind standards-based grading is that students should receive grades that measure how much they learn as opposed to how well they do on tests, quizzes and homework assignments. It helps teachers identify problems and is less harsh with averages on students who start poorly but improve later.

“I hate the idea of students fighting against each other to get a good grade,” he said. “Why does it have to be adversarial?”

Cornally said that parents sometimes are wary when he explains the system to them, but most are won over when they see a fair assessment of how much their children have learned.

“Most parents love it because it really forces their kids to buckle down and learn the material instead of forcing them to fight for extra credit at the end of the semester,” Cornally said.

His passion for standards-based grading led Cornally to program a web application to help with the grading process at sbgradebook.com. Teachers and school administrators from around the country read and comment on his blog on the subject at shawncornally.com. He also uses the blog to help explain the grading concept to parents.

While he enjoys the exposure, Cornally said he is not too concerned about spreading standards-based grading beyond his classroom.

“Most of the time in education, when someone has an idea that works for them, they always have an immediate need to imperialize it,” he said. “For me, it's just something that helps my teaching.”