Since the inception of the Common Core, teachers have done a tremendous amount of work regarding core standards, including but not limited to unpacking standards, identifying key teaching points, and defining proficiency.
jmc supports teachers in their efforts by helping organize all that information in one fully customizable and easily accessible place so teachers can assess work, provide feedback opportunities to stakeholders, and move student learning forward!
Here's what the Competency-Based Grading module and jmc can do!
Fully Customizable!
One of the greatest advantages of jmc's CBG interface is the ability to customize the features to fit your building's needs.
Customize Language: Does your school use the terms "Power Standards", "Priority Standards", "Essential Standards", "Learning Goals", "Learning Targets", "I can" or "I understand statements" in reference to grading practices? In jmc Office, customize the language that appears in jmc Teacher to match the terms used in your district.
Customize Proficiency Scales: Create your own color-coded, custom-named proficiency scale using the values you assign to each label. Create the results to displayed to your students and families by using letter symbols and detailed descriptions of what those letter symbols mean.
Customize Displays: Design the grid view by displaying one student at a time, one formative assessment at a time, or view the entire class in the order you determine. Utilize reports for a snapshot of how your individual students and your classes are performing on specific assessments or standards. View a horizontal learning progression within a standard to chart how students are growing toward proficiency.
Add notes: We all know about the importance of feedback, but what about feed-forward? Use notes when providing feedback on learning opportunities to explain the next steps for students to reach their learning goals. Notes are displayed on progress reports in jmc Teacher, jmc Office, jmc Student and jmc Family to keep all stakeholders informed.
Calculate Competency-Based Grading Results to a letter grade!
While the aim of standard-based grading is to focus learning on the intended outcome, in middle school and high school settings, letter grades are still important. Many post-secondary institutions still use GPAs, class rank, and letter grades so jmc provides a simple and ethical way of converting CBG results to a course grade.
The combination of standards-based grade cutoffs inspired by Robert Marzano and jmc's unique calculation options allows users to convert standards-referenced scores to a letter grade in a manner consistent with research-based best practice.
Display competency-based grading results on a standards and benchmarks report card!
Traditional standards-based report cards already reflect student learning in relation to a standard. jmc's CBG module allows teachers to keep a running record of student proficiencies throughout the term while reporting those standards on a standards-based report card at the end of the term.
Use the valuable formative assessment data collected within the CBG module to support data-based decision-making and collaboratively move student learning forward. Utilize standards and benchmark report cards for storing data in student cumulative folders, running reports and sharing results with students and families at the end of the term.