Standards Based Grading
Duluth Edison Charter Schools believes in assessing students in an informative, equitable, and age-appropriate way. These assessments help teachers and parents understand how their students are progressing with each grade-level skill. Children who have not mastered the skill are given more time to learn and practice. This encourages a growth mindset!
Grades look different at DECS. Instead of assigning students a superficial letter grade for a subject, we provide meaningful information about a student’s mastery of individual academic and soft skills using a 1-4 scale. Here is an example of how that may look on a report card.
This is a sample ELA grade report for a 5th Grade student at DECS:
The 1-4 scale is explained in the graphic below:
![alt="Above: Student is working on skills beyond their current grade level
On-Student has mastered this skill/standard and is confident in their abilities
Approaching- Student is working on mastering this skill/standard and requires some support
Below- Student has not mastered this skill/standard and requires additional practice and support"](https://staging.duluthedison.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Standard-Based-Grading-Scale-1.png)