A Journey Into a Standards Based Grading Hybrid- Part 1

I'm a bit obsessive and have spent way too many hours reading every blog, tweet, research paper, etc. I could about standards based grading. It is summer after all, so I've got spades of time. I want to start by saying I absolutely LOVE the concept of standards based grading (or SBG for short). It makes perfect sense and I'm flabbergasted that I haven't heard anything about it before (I only graduated from my undergrad 3 years ago), and just happen to stumble across it this summer. My first exposure was from this blog, which led me to this blog, which spelled it out in the level of detail I wanted/needed (including posts on how to apply it to different subjects!).
This is one of those times I hate being a 6th grade teacher; since we're at the middle school and 5th grade is at the 4 feeder elementary schools we get minimal information about the students we're to have, and since these kids are being blended into one school for the first time issues could pop up where they didn't exist before. What we have heard is that next year's class is just as lazy as last year's class (and last year's class was VERY lazy) and they're very immature (prone to whining and crying). But even knowing that, I blame my greenness for my ideology that this year my class will run perfectly; every activity will run smoothly, all my students will love me and do all their work, they'll learn everything I teach them, and unicorns will prance around below blue skies and rainbows (that last one was a bit sarcastic, but you get the idea). Throw into the mix that I'll be teaching two AIG (academically intellectually gifted) classes and one regular class this year (I have only ever taught regular classes), and I think I'm going to go with a SBG hybrid model. I'm not comfortable jumping all in from the beginning. Here are my notes on what I've learned from others with a few musings of my own, let me know what you think.

1) Grades for my regular class will be 10% from Clipboard Math (a spiral review activity our students work on every day), 10% from notes (questions answered in eduCanon videos and reflection bookmarks completed once a unit), 80% SBG. Grades for my AIG students will be 7% Clipboard Math, 7% notes, 6% superstar homework (check out this link for the 6th grade series, it's problem-solving/higher-order-thinking practice), 80% SBG.

2) Assessments for SBG will be discussions in class, the final exit ticket for an LT, weekly quizzes, unit tests. Our district gives a "benchmark test" at the end of each quarter, I'm not sure if or how this will factor into their grade.

3) SBG will be on a 0-10 scale I got from here. 10 is advanced (can only be achieved by earning two or more 9's), 8-9 is proficient (wiggle room for little computation errors, missing label, etc.), 6-7 is basic, 0-5 below basic. 1 is they started the problem but didn't get far (underlined correct key words, messed around with the numbers a bit but obviously had no idea what they were doing). 0 is they didn't do anything with the problem.
I'm going with a 10 point scale because my district (and our required grade book system) is based on percentages. If it's a 4 point scale, and 3 means proficient, I don't want that showing up as a 75% in the grade book. Especially since we're on a 7 point grading scale, so 75% is a D. Yikes! Proficient canNOT be a D. My AIG parents would be freaking out, blowing up my email and phone, and stampeding my room for a change.

4) If a student has a 0 on a LT I contact their parents and tutor them during lunch; there's no excuse for getting a 0. This tells me they're either so lost they need immediate intervention, or so lazy they won't even pick up their pencil. And either they need a lot of 1-on-1 support or they need a lesson that actions (or inaction) have consequences, and if they waste my class time I will take their social time to make it up.

5) LT grades will not go down if they don't do as well on a later assessment. This is the part that has made me do the most thinking. I can understand why some people allow their LT grades to go down, it reflects the student's most current understanding of a target. My thoughts on that are first, what if they had a bad day, and that's why they did poorly on the second assessment. Most people would say, "Well, then they practice and see me for a re-assessment." That would add to my number of re-assessments exponentially, it would be more than I could handle, especially my first year at this. Second, if their grade is to show how well they understand a target, and at one point they were proficient, I don't see the benefit of punishing them for forgetting a few things. Honestly, this is 6th grade math, and some of my students don't know where they're going to sleep tonight or where they're going to get their next meal, so in that context what does it matter if they went down 2 or even 5 points on a topic.
I want their grade to show me what they have been able to push their minds to do. I need to have faith that my assessments are truly measuring their level, then I won't have to question that the earlier higher grade was a fluke. My plan, in exchange, is to keep track of their level progression for each LT. So maybe their level for dividing fractions went 5/7/8/7/6. In cases like this where they're showing quite a bit of forgetfulness I'll have a conversation with the student about how well they truly feel they understand the topic and why their score has been slipping. If it's an isolated target I might just give them a practice activity to work through and then we'll discuss it, if it's a pattern and they're truly declining I'll contact parents about what we need to do to provide that student with more support.

6) Homework- except for superstars- will be provided but not required. I will also be giving students the answers to the problems. I want homework to be about practicing skills. If they have the answers they know instantly if they're doing it right or wrong. The next day for the warm up we can discuss any issues they had. While this isn't completely an SBG thing, it's new to me, and I'm worried about it. As I mentioned, my students next year have a history of laziness, and I'm afraid that if it's not graded they won't do it. In the past I have tried making homework optional (now granted, I didn't give them the answers) and practically no one even looked at it, even my best students admitted to it. And I know they'll have a lot of required homework from their other teachers...

So, what do you think about all this? Have I lost my mind?

What to do about F's...

One of my biggest problems this year is the number of students who have an F; I feel like my expectations are too low as it is, so I don't want to lower them even further, but at one point 45 out of my 75 students were failing! So here's what I've been doing:

Each Wednesday I give each of my failing students what we call "slips"; they are slips of paper that have the student's name on it along with their current grade and their "goal" (which is 5% above their grade for my gen. ed. students, and 3% above for my students with an IEP). I also list five assignments on the slip that the student currently has an F on and that will help their grade the most if they get a passing grade. I reiterate weekly that they don't have to finish all the assignments to pass, but they are just a list of ideas of some things they can do to meet their goal.

My students with slips have until Tuesday to meet their goal (I picked Wednesday/Tuesday so they have a weekend in there to work on some stuff). If they meet their goal there are no consequences or rewards, but if they DON'T meet their goal they have to take home a progress report to get signed by their parents and bring back the next day. If they don't bring the progress report back signed then they have to call their parents in class and explain that they are failing and didn't get a progress report signed, and that they will need it signed that night.

At first everyone had a goal of 70% (the lowest passing grade), but for the students who had a 10% or 40% it just wasn't realistic of me to expect them  to turn it around so much in one week. I have talked with our EC (special education) teacher, and she said some of our mutual students love getting those slips, because it helps them know exactly what they need to do, but I still have about 20 students each week who don't meet their goal and never care to try. If anyone has any suggestions for changes or ideas of what I can do about my F issue please share!