Neosho to convert to standards-based grading

The Neosho R-5 School District is the latest to move toward standards-based grading.

An explanation was provided in a Neosho Daily News article:

Dan Decker, superintendent, said that the district will look at changing the age-old grading system of awarding an A, B, C, D or F.

“You turn in homework and take tests, but you really don’t know where kids are in the learning process,” he said.

He said the standards-based system entails standards that students must meet to move on or to get credit, and as they move on, parents will know where they are in their learning.

“To master a standard, there’ll be benchmarks that the student has to meet along the way, whether that’s in the form of a quiz or homework or whatever,” Decker said. “The parents will be able to see what their students does and doesn’t know.”
With the current grade system, he noted that parents wondering why their student got a B may get the answer that certain assignments were not completed or that they did poorly on a test, which didn’t tell them anything about what the student knew or didn’t know.