Standards-Based Grading.

My previous school insisted on standards-based grading, and resubmissions were the school norm.  They believed in standards-based grading so much that their online grading system only allowed teachers to input grades by standard.  It was brilliant, and made sense to the teachers and students.

I've been reflecting on how to handle students' resubmission of work at my new school.  It's a traditional, large-district middle school.  I've been meaning to do something similar to what my previous school had, within the parameters that I'm given.  So far, not too many students take me up on the offer (not at the systemized, large-scale that APEX did, at least), but for those that do, I would like for them to think about their learning process and what they've done to remediate.  I don't want them to waste their time, or most importantly, mine.  Telling the students that they can only submit an assignment three times total helps.  I grade in three different colors, first in green, then in purple, then in red.  Once they hit red, the assignment is done.  No excuses.

The problem is, there are still students who will resubmit an assignment cold.  I really liked Sarah Hagan's "Request to Retest", so I reformatted hers so it matched the rest of my classroom forms.