Mastery Grading in AP: Part 4: Grades based on evidence of individual learning and understanding

In Part 1, I covered the “why” for Mastery Grading.
In Part 2, I covered learning targets
In Part 3, I covered fair grading scales
In this part, I cover grading based on evidence of individual learning and understanding as well as the logistics of the grade book. 

To review, the 3 parts of Mastery Grading are:

1. Learning Targets (Objectives, standards etc)
   • Specific and measurable
   • This is an example for Unit 1 in AP^® Environmental Science
2. Grades based on evidence of individual learning and understanding. 

• Students’ grades are based on evidence of individual learning and understanding. 
• More frequent assessment and students are allowed one re-take
  • This is a product for AP^® Environmental Science which has 1000+ questions for quizzing
• “Practice” (homework, classwork) is worth 0% of the grade. 

3. Fair Grading Scale

• I use a 14 point grading scale
• Similar to a 4-point grading scale, but allows for more nuances in performance.
• We looked at 4-point, 8-point etc and liked this one the best. 

Grades are Evidence of Individual Student Understanding

Homework: (0% of the grade) Students prepare for quizzes using the study guide/learning target worksheets. They can use book pages, my lecture videos, AP^® Daily videos and other video shorts to prepare.

Content Quizzes: (25% of the grade) Each quiz is about 2-3 topics (but can range from 1-4 topics) The original quiz in class is made from the Friedland Book’s Test Bank. The retake is made using my content quiz questions that I made a couple of years ago. They are low-level questions that just check for content, not skill. Students will have more skill-based, complex questions on their Unit Exams.

Labs (25% of the grade). I collect lab reports and grade them. Usually around 2 per unit. They are not formal lab reports, but rather the lab handouts. Students are allowed late work up to the 5 week grading period. 

Content/Reading Quizzes (every 1-4 topics)	Investigations/Lab Skills	Unit Exams and Final Exams
25%	25%	25%

Unit Exams – 1 per unit (50% of the grade)

• MCQ is made from AP^® Classroom’s Question Bank using summative assessment questions. Usually around 25-35 questions. 
• FRQ is made from old FRQs that I find on either AP^® Classroom or via AP^® Central. I cut and paste from different FRQs to make my Unit FRQs since there is rarely a whole FRQ that goes with a Unit. At this time, you cannot choose parts of an FRQ on AP^® Classroom to assign – you must assign an entire FRQ which is problematic for earlier units.
  • Before this year, I cut and pasted onto paper copies.
  • This year, I took screenshots of the diagrams and transferred them to Google Forms along with corresponding questions.  Also, Google Forms is much easier to grade than FRQs on AP^® Classroom. Here is a sample from Unit 1. I enter the answers and it is very fast and easy to grade.
  • Note: Later in the year, you can find FRQs on AP^® Classroom that you can assign for an exam, but I found that grading FRQs on Google Forms to be much quicker than AP^® Classroom so I will continue with Google Form.

• Retakes: I have a MCQ retake for each Unit exam made from my book’s test bank. I choose higher level questions that I did not use for the content quizzes. I usually also have a few of the same questions from AP^® Classroom that were on the original test. On occasion, my retake is identical if I did not have time to make a retake. I do not usually have retakes for FRQs, but have some in reserve in case I do. 

Formative Assessment: AP^® Classroom’s Topic Questions and Progress Checks are good formative assessments. You can give completion credit only for these questions. I assign them as optional practice sets before a unit exam. Topic questions are a good option for warm ups and exit tickets as well. 

Final Exams

• 1st semester (December): Unit 5 Exam
• 2nd semester (May):  I give the final exam early a few days before the AP Exam. It is a full 80 question Multiple choice test (no FRQs) that covers all units. Note: I give a 3 FRQ assessment in 70 min (like the AP^® Exam) as my Unit 9 Exam (no MCQ) so kids can get a feel for this section of the AP^® Exam. 

Thanks for reading about my journey to Mastery Grading. I’m still learning as I go through this process and will adjust and improve with each new group of students.