In our Skills Based Classroom model, we have clearly decided to emphasize learning over compliance. Each academic skill is measured without regard to the amount of homework completed, participation in class, notes taken, or executive functioning proficiency. In fact, a student who fails to demonstrate any of these non-academic duties can not only pass the class, but can actually get an A for the term. A primary focus of the Skills Based Classroom is that students should be rewarded for demonstrating academic proficiency rather than earning points for good behavior.
Although it’s an unpopular opinion in some circles, we would argue that rewarding students with points (bonus or otherwise) for compliance behaviors (such as turning in homework, having good attendance, or taking notes) is NOT a responsible way to motivate students to learn. In fact, it may actually have the opposite effect. Offering points to improve a grade for behaviors will only teach the students that learning is not the primary focus of the class. Students have learned to play the points/percentage game. So have teachers. The prevailing thought in some traditional classrooms is…if a student fails a test, that’s okay as long as he has turned in all of his homework, participated in class and completed all of his notes. Hard work will compensate for a lack of understanding. It’s a nice consolation for students who struggle academically, but it may not be in their best interests.
With our opposition to compliance based influence on grades, it would be perfectly reasonable to expect us to explain the rationale behind our CAREs grade.
First of all, what is a CAREs grade? In our syllabus, we have designated a destination of 1000 points per semester. 900 of those points are strictly academic performance based and align to our math standards. But the other 100 points are in a category called CAREs. The acronym stands for Compliance, Attitude, Respect, and Effort. This is strictly a behavioral grade that allows us to monitor, and report to students/parents on, violation of classroom (or school) policies as well as gross misconduct.
As far as our compliance (CAREs) grade is concerned, we feel it serves two purposes. Number one, our unit school district only has standards based grading at the lower elementary level (K-3). The rest of our students are on a traditional 100 point traditional grading scale. If we tried to implement a full standards approach, it would have been difficult to gain any kind of acceptance within our stakeholders. Though not an academic standard, these skills are valued in our community and school district.
Second, we also noticed that we could enter it in our SIS grading program early in the semester and it would provide some grace to the grades for those who needed more time to master our first couple of academic skills. As teachers, we all know that confidence (especially in mathematics) is a huge motivation for success. The CAREs grade helped keep parents and students on board with our new approach until our kids had a chance to retake assessments to demonstrate learning other (academic) skills, particularly early in the semester. By the end of the semester, the CAREs grade only accounted for 10% of the final grade and the students had stopped relying on it and started focusing on academic weaknesses. This illustrated a huge shift in responsibility from compliance to accountability.
Offering a better grade through compliance and submission has a significant impact on the student’s motivation to learn the academic task.