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Grading

Standards-Based Grading

Standards-based grading is a way of evaluating student learning that focuses on what students know and can do in relation to specific learning targets. While students will continue to receive an overall letter grade for the course, they will also receive scores on individual skills and concepts, which are mapped to state and national standards. This approach provides a clear picture of a student's strengths and areas where they may need more support.

Key Principles of Standards-Based Grading

  • Focus on Learning: The primary goal is to measure a student's mastery of essential learning standards, not their behavior, effort, or homework completion.
     
  • Clear Expectations: Parents, students, and teachers all know exactly what is expected. The learning standards are specific statements that outline what a student should know and be able to do at each grade level, in each course.
     
  • Multiple Attempts: Students are often given multiple opportunities to show their understanding and improve their scores. This encourages learning from mistakes and shows that progress is valued over perfection.
     
  • Separation of Academic and Non-Academic Factors: Grades on report cards reflect only academic achievement. Other factors like effort, participation, and responsibility are reported separately, providing a more complete view of a student's performance.

Standards-Based Grading and Course Outcomes in HSD

Standards-based grading (SBG) focuses on a student's mastery of specific learning goals, which determines their overall letter grade for the course. To make this approach clear and effective, the Hillsboro School District has developed Course Outcomes (COs) for every course in high school.

These COs are concise statements that describe the most essential knowledge and skills a student must demonstrate proficiency in each course. HSD teachers worked collaboratively to write these outcomes, often combining several state or national standards into one, clear, manageable outcome. This approach provides a much clearer picture of your student's strengths and identifies the specific areas where they might need more support.

High School courses throughout the Hillsboro School District have anywhere from two or three COs to as many as ten COs. Each course differs in the number of Course Outcomes when considering the frequency with which students will be assessed, the length of the course, and the depth of knowledge to be covered. 

What is Changing Over the Next Two Years?

Standards-based grading, in our high schools, will roll out in HSD over the next two years. For the 2025-26 school year, teachers will have the option to pilot this new grading system for the entire year or the second semester; meaning some teachers may choose to grade students based on the Course Outcomes (Standards-based Grading), and other teachers may choose to wait a year for full implementation and nothing changes from their previous grading practices. 

The experience of our piloting teachers and students will help to inform a system-wide rollout of standards-based grading moving forward.

2025-26 School Year

Some changes are coming to all high school students this year, and some changes will take place for everyone in the 2026-27 school year. Changes happening this year include the following:

  • All high school students will receive scores based on a 0-4 point rubric scale, reflective of their learning toward each Course Outcome (see table below; language adopted in partnership with HEA and adapted from National Assessment of Educational Progress - NAEP).
  • The rubric scores of 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 on your student's assignments are not the same as a letter grade. Instead, they represent a student's level of proficiency with the skills and concepts or Course Outcomes for that assignment. 

Calculating Final Grades

  • All high school students' final grades for each course will be calculated using a Standard Average. Each final grade will be calculated as follows: 
    • For SBG Piloting Teachers, students' final grades for each course will be an average of their Course Outcome scores.
    • For Non-Piloting Teachers, students' final grades will be a categorical weighted average of their assignment and assessment scores, with an emphasis on summative work. Please see course syllabus for exact weighting between summative and formative assessments.
  • To determine the final letter grade for a course, the average (Standard or Weighted) is a number, typically between 0.00 and 4.00, which reflects your student's overall performance.

This final average then determines the final letter grade, as shown in the table below. For example, a final average of 3.50 would be an "A", while an average of 2.10 would be a "C". This system provides a clear picture of a student's growth over time and their final level of proficiency in the course.

  • For SBG Piloting Teachers, Course Outcome scores will be calculated using one of two aggregation methods: either Growth-Over-Time Average or Standard Average. 
    • Growth-Over-Time Average: Imagine you're tracking a student's progress over time. You want their most recent work to be the most indicative of their current understanding, but you don't want to completely ignore their earlier efforts. A Growth-Over-Time Average helps us do this by giving more weight to the most recent score and gradually decreasing the influence of older scores. 

This provides a clear picture of their current level of understanding and shows how they've grown and improved throughout the course. This method values learning and progress over time, rather than giving equal weight to early attempts when the student was just beginning to learn a new concept. In HSD, we’re using a 60/40 split. This means:

  • 60%: The most recent assessment’s score counts for 60% of the grade.
  • 40%: The prior average (which includes all previous scores) decays at a rate of 40%. 
  • See video for more information (coming soon).
  • Standard Average: Some teachers will use a Simple Average to calculate a student’s final score. This method is the most common way to calculate an average, where every score is added together and then divided by the total number of scores. With this method, every score, whether it's from the beginning of the course or the end, is given equal importance. 

This provides a balanced view of a student's performance throughout the entire course.

  • For example, if a student has scores of 80, 85, and 90, the Simple Average is calculated as:
  • (80+85+90)/3=85
  • See video for more information (coming soon).
  • For Non-Piloting Teachers, students’ final grades will be calculated using a Weighted Average.
    • Weighted Average method calculates a student's final score by giving different types of assignments different levels of importance. Instead of every score counting equally, this method gives more value to assessments that show a student's mastery of the material.

In this approach, a student's grade is calculated using a specific breakdown:

  • 80% for Summative Assessments: These are major assignments like tests, projects, and final papers that demonstrate a student’s overall understanding of a topic.
  • 20% for Formative Assessments: These are smaller assignments like homework, quizzes, and classwork that help students practice and learn new skills.
  • See video for more information.

2026-27 School Year

HSD will continue to use the 4-point rubric scale for assessments and the A-F grade scale seen above. 

The experience of our piloting teachers and students will help to inform a system-wide rollout of standards-based grading moving forward.

ParentVUE and StudentVUE

  • With our new standards-based grading approach, the way you view progress in ParentVue and StudentVue may look different. This video will walk you through how to navigate these platforms, so you can easily monitor your student’s performance on Course Outcomes and understand how their final grades are calculated. Watch this video to learn more about how to find the information you need. This resource is also available in English/Spanish.