If you are looking for tips to make grading for teachers a whole lot easier, then you have come to the right place! Every teacher knows the struggle of finding a work-life balance. Grading can make that balance so challenging because it can take so much of your time to complete. I have made my life so much simpler by switching to a standards-based grading system. It has taken the guesswork out of grading! If you want to make your teacher life easier, then let me show you what I have done to simplify grading!

Before we jump in, if you are looking to get started with standards-based grading in your high school classroom, then I may have just the right thing for you! Get started on your standards-based grading journey with my free guidebook that outlines how to implement standards-based grading in your high school classroom. I will walk you step by step as you set up your grading system. Become a standards-based grading rockstar today!

Using a standards-based grading system can make grading so much simpler

Standards-based grading or SBG, is a different way of grading. In this system, grades are meant to reflect a student’s level of mastery on a particular content or skill standard. With mastery grading, you use a smaller grading scale that is meant to communicate learning compared to a traditional grading system that focuses on accruing points. Feedback is meant to help students improve their learning.

In a traditional grading system, grades are tied to individual assignments. To get a good grade, students need to accumulate as many points as possible out of the total allotment of points. The problem with this grading system is that students become fixated on earning points rather than learning.

For example, points can be earned on tests, quizzes, homework, classwork, etc. Usually bigger assessments are assigned more points. Smaller assignments like classwork and homework are assigned smaller point values. Even with small point values, students know that by completing these assignments to earn their points, they can still get away with a “good grade”. They often will perform poorly on the big assessment but the small assignments help inflate their grade.

Then you add in the fact that students can add in points for silly extra credit things. I have seen a teacher give out points for students drawing a picture at the end of their quiz. So as students have become good at getting points, their grades have become less of a reflection of what they know or can do, but more about how compliant they are.

The other big issue with traditional grades is the use of the 100-point grading system. This scale creates drastic room for error in grades based on achievement. Let’s say there is a student who has clearly shown they know the content. They have performed very well on assessments. You know they know their stuff. But one day they completely forgot to complete an assignment. You enter the “0” in the grade book since no work was completed. Depending on grade weights, it’s possible that the one missing assignment could bring their A level grade down to a B or even C. But is that accurate? Do they know less because of that one assignment?

The opposite could be true as well. You have a C level student in your class. They know some content but could definitely learn some more. This student takes every extra credit opportunity available to avoid getting the C. They bring in tissues, they come to after school sessions, and they draw a picture at the end of their quiz. They now have accumulated enough extra points to bump the C to a B. Are they really proficient at the standards?

To avoid this bias and subjectivity in grades, it is best to reduce the 100 point scale down to a 4 point scale. Rather than grading for points, grades should communicate mastery of the standards. Most state testing and other forms of proficiency testing score assessments. There might still be point values, but they fall in a range of proficiency to communicate mastery.

Using this system of grading has made my life so much easier. I no longer have to sit there and decide point values, when to deduct points, or wonder if I am being fair. Having such a small grading scale (4-point vs 100-point) means I can quickly assess whether the student has exemplified mastery, just meets expectations, is approaching, or is just not there yet. 

Maybe you are not ready to switch to a SBG system and that is okay, but I have come up with 5 tips that I have been using in the last few years of teaching that have helped make my teacher life so much easier!

Here are 5 grading tips for teachers to make life simpler

1. Teachers can save time grading if they don’t grade everything

This may seem like the most obvious thing in terms of making your life simpler when it comes to grading for teachers but it can seriously be a game changer. When I first started teaching, I felt like I had to grade anything my students did in the classroom. I believed that students only did graded work.

Therefore, I would find myself spending late nates trying to grade everything and anything. This was simply not sustainable.

I finally realized not every single thing done in the classroom needs to be graded, especially the activities we go over together in class. I would go over the activity and questions if there was time in class. This means that if students paid attention and corrected their work, then there was no need for me to collect it. 

I make it a point now to have a conversation with my students about correcting their work in class. I tell them that they are expected to be following along when we go over an activity in class because this is their chance to get feedback and correct mistakes. Because I teach high schoolers, I put more responsibility on them for ownership of their work.

Every once in a while, I will collect random activities after we have gone over them in class (without warning) just to see if students are following along during corrections. This helps hold students even more accountable. I have also found that if you make it more of an “activity” to correct work, then students are more likely to do it. For example, I tell students we are correcting work so take out a different color pen or have students swap papers with their neighbor.

Having students correct work in class can save you bundles of time!

In addition to having students correct work, I also collect many assignments for completion grades. Sometimes there are assignments that students need to do for practice, rather than for accuracy. This means I don’t need to grade each question but I need to see that students merely did the work. For this, I grade based on whether the student completed the assignment or not.

There are many ways you can grade based on completion. Because I have adopted a standards-based approach to grading, this changes how I would add this assignment to the gradebook. In standards-based grading, the idea is to grade for mastery of standards, not assignments. Because grading for completion is not tied to a specific standard, I do not assign a numerical grade in my gradebook. Rather, I create an assignment with no point value and simply use phrases like “Done” or “Not done” in the gradebook. This keeps a record of student work completion but also does not impact my standards-based grading system.

2. Use a 4 point teacher grading scale

Make grading for teachers easier by switching from a 100-point scale to a simple 4-point scale. Grading out of 100 points creates drastic room for error in assigning grades based on achievement. You sit there and have to decide what deserves a point and how many points questions are worth. For me, the 100-point scale became so mind-numbing because I really had no idea how to deduct points unless it was a simple multiple-choice assessment. 

Switching to a 4-point scale can make grading so much easier because it takes the guesswork out of grading. There is no more deciding what deserves or doesn’t deserve a point. The smaller the grading scale, the less room for error in determining a student’s mastery. 

With my 4-point scale, I assign a 4 to students who have mastered the standard. This means that the student demonstrated mastery of the content or skill in complex ways. They have gone above and beyond expectations. 

I assign a level 3 score when a student is meeting the standard. For example, if the standard says to “use a model to describe the transfer of energy in photosynthesis” and a student can describe the basics of energy transfer during photosynthesis but does not include any extra details or make strong connections, then they have met the expectation.

A level 1 indicates the student is not meeting the standard at all. Most questions are answered incorrectly or the work completed does not meet expectations. Think of level 1 as F-quality work. 

I always explain level 2 last because it is somewhere between level 1 and level 3. To earn this score, a student has shown some mastery. It is not like they get most answers wrong. They know some of their material but do not quite meet the full standard. These are the students who are getting there but need some help still.

I make sure to have lengthy discussions with my students about the differences between the levels so they understand what their grade means because they are so used to the traditional 100-point scale. They have a hard time seeing only 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s in the gradebook and translating that to how well they are doing.

I make sure to keep posters hung at the front of my classroom that explain the differences between each level so students can easily refer to them at any time. Before an assessment, I will point out the posters and remind the class about the 4 levels. When I return work, I go over the posters again. Eventually, the differences will just stick with the students because we talk about them so much.

3. Grading for growth is easier with a simple, one-point rubric

Starting out as a teacher, I never thought of rubrics as saving me time. It always seemed like rubrics required so much work to make. One day I came across the idea of a single-point rubric. The idea is genius. In the rubric you simply put the grading requirements and a few blank columns next to each requirement! This type of rubric is so quick and painless to make, saving you so much time!

To create a single-point rubric, you first create a table that has a row for each of the grading requirements. Then you add two more columns. A column for the mastery level earned on that grading criterion and a column for written feedback.

Because you will have lengthly conversations with your students about the different mastery levels, there is no need to put this information in the rubric. Your student’s should know what it takes to earn a level 4 or 3. So when it comes to grading, you simply look over the work and determine what mastery level to assign the student. Is the work a level 4 (mastery of the standard) meaning the work demonstrates content/skills in complex ways? Is it just a level 3? Etc. As a teacher, it is easy for us to distinguish the work.

In the last column, you can provide any feedback necessary to explain why the student earned that mastery level. Here you would provide any feedback to help the student improve. If they did not achieve the highest level, you could explain why.

By having this template, you can easily just modify the grading criteria. This rubric template is ready to use over and over again.

4. Create a rubric comment bank to make grading for teachers easy

Of course, the rubric will save you time when grading. You will not have to decide what points to deduct from a student’s work. But now you will need to provide more written feedback to explain why the student has earned a particular mastery level. This may seem like more work.

But just as we created a template for the single-point rubric, you can save your comments. Creating a bank of comments means you do not need to spend time typing your feedback. Instead, you can just copy and paste comments that you use over and over again.

Your comment bank will not fill up over night. It may take grading a few assessments before you have a bunch of comments to pull from. But as you grade, make sure to keep a Google doc open to copy the most used comments. Undoubtedly, these will be comments you will use again on future feedback.

Also, Google Classroom has a built-in feature to save comments. You can paste your favorite comments in the Google Classroom comment bank. When you start typing, the comments will autofill.

5. Develop a teacher grading system

To help save my sanity and to keep things organized, I recommend coming up with a system for grading that works for you. Pick one day of the week where you will focus on grading. Maybe that’s Monday to grade the previous week’s work or a Friday because that will prevent working over the weekend. Whatever day works for you, stick to it. 

Because you are not grading EVERYTHING as we discussed above, there should not be massive piles to grade now. There may be one or two assignments that have accumulated per class in the week. I like to sit down one day during the week and tackle that pile. 

This allows me to get in a grading mood. When I have a whole stack to grade in front of me, I become laser-focused to tackle that pile as efficiently as possible. Because I am grading a lot at once, it is easy for me to pick out patterns and identify areas of concern that may need to be retaught.

It also allows me to look at the work across my classes of the course to see if there are any patterns such as one class really struggled while another did not. 

Once I have that pile graded, I can then enter the grades in the gradebook and pass the work back the next day. Students know that Mondays in my class mean they will be getting work back because I grade on Fridays. They almost expect it so there are no “When are you grading XYZ???” questions in my class. 

I also find that this habit of grading on a specific day of the week keeps me more accountable. It can be easy to brush off grading, but when it is part of my weekly routine, I feel more apt to do it promptly.

Check out these other resources about grading

How does standards-based grading work in a successful high school classroom

5 effective tips for making your AP classes grading scale successful

Easy grading calculator for standards-based grading

I absolutely love sharing my ideas about my standards-based grading system and hope that you find my ideas helpful for your classroom! After reading this, if you feel you are ready to take the plunge into standards-based grading in your high school classroom, sign up for my free guidebook to become an expert at standards-based grading! And let me know which of these tips to make grading for teachers easy was the most helpful for you in a comment!