Upgrading in 6th Grade Science

6th Grade Science

Kyle Nolting

Problem Identified: During mastery upgrade days in the past, I have noticed a lot of confusion about where students stand on their understanding of the material. Many students had difficulty differentiating between MBG of their learning outcomes. Their limited understanding of their grades makes it difficult to identify struggling students.

Hypothesis: If 6th grade science implements an alternate Mastery Based Grading scale (1-6 scale) then students and teachers will have a better understanding of their mastery as measured by their improvement on an upgrade assignment.

Data Collection: Google Forms Spreadsheet

Actionable Step: Teachers in 6th grade science will create a 1-6 MBG scale to implement on the 6th grade SS unit exam. Teachers will select a handful of students to grade their SS unit exam based on the scale. Students will receive their graded unit exam during an upgrade day. The students will spend one lesson to upgrade their assessment. Teachers will determine the success of the new scale based on improvements from the upgrade lesson and feedback from the students.

Overall Findings/Impact: Based on the data from our google forms upgrade sheet, students seemed to have gained a deeper understanding of their grade reflected in the number of students successfully upgrading a learning outcome. Of the two classes (40+ students) that filled out the google forms sheet, 6.9% decided to upgrade a learning outcome that they received an A/NY on, 48.3% decided to upgrade a learning outcome that they received an A on and 17.2% decided to upgrade a learning outcome that they received an A/M on. From the one class who submitted an upgrade using the (1-6) scale, 10 students were able to successfully upgrade their learning outcome. In comparison, the class who submitted an upgrade using the regular MBG scale had 3 students who were able to successfully upgrade.