Commitment 1: Feedback is specific, transparent, and aligned with the skills and knowledge students need to master.

When teachers use learning targets to guide their feedback, it helps students in several important ways:

• Precise Understanding: students will get specific feedback that points out exactly what they're doing well and where they need to improve. This means they'll understand why they received a certain grade or comment.
• Fairness Across Classrooms: learning targets give all teachers a common way to talk about and evaluate learning. This ensures that the feedback students receives is consistent and fair, no matter which teacher they have.
• Empowering Students' Growth: because feedback is tied directly to clear learning targets, students can easily see their own progress. This helps them understand where they stand, set their own learning goals, and take an active role in their education. This approach builds their confidence and encourages them to take ownership of their learning journey.

Ultimately, mastery-based feedback provides a clear roadmap for student success, making the learning process more transparent and empowering.
 

Commitment 2: Academic Achievement is Reported Separately from Behaviors

At Grain Valley Schools, our commitment is to provide you with the clearest possible picture of students' learning. To achieve this, we believe it's important to report academic achievement and behaviors separately in order to give:

• Accurate Reflection of Learning: students' academic grades will now solely reflect their understanding and mastery of the course material. When factors like effort, participation, or work habits influence a grade, it can make it harder to truly see what students knows and can do academically. By separating these, grades become a precise measure of their learning.
• Focus on Core Knowledge: We want to ensure that grades truly represent student proficiency in the subject matter. This helps us, and you, clearly identify their strengths in areas like math, reading, or science, without other factors clouding the picture.
• Comprehensive Feedback: While academic knowledge is crucial, we also recognize that important skills like work habits, collaboration, and responsibility are vital for students' overall success. We will continue to provide feedback on these behaviors, but by reporting them separately from academic grades, families get a more complete and honest view of both students' learning progress and their development of essential life skills.

K-5 Habits for Success 

At Grain Valley elementary schools, we believe that academic achievement is only one part of a student’s success. Equally important are the behaviors and habits that support effective learning and positive relationships. These Habits for Success are reported separately from academic achievement to give families a clear picture of how students are developing essential life skills.

K-5 Habits for Success

• Works Cooperatively with Others: Demonstrates foundational collaboration skills such as active listening, participation, and the ability to work respectfully with diverse peers and groups.
• Works Well Independently: Completes tasks with minimal supervision, uses time effectively, and stays focused on learning activities.
• Actively Engaged: Shows curiosity, attentiveness, and a willingness to participate in lessons and classroom discussions.
• Follows Directions: Understands and accurately follows verbal and written instructions.
• Socializes Appropriately: Engages respectfully with peers and adults using appropriate behavior and language in social situations.
• Accepts Responsibility for Their Actions: Recognizes and learns from mistakes, takes accountability, and works to make amends when needed.
• Demonstrates Self-Control: Manages emotions, impulses, and behavior effectively across various classroom and school settings.

6-8 Habits for Success

In Grain Valley middle schools, we support the development of behaviors that prepare students for the increasing independence and collaboration required in secondary learning environments. Middle schoolers are encouraged to build strong academic habits that promote responsibility, growth, and effective communication.

6-8 Habits for Success

• Collaboration & Communication: Works productively with others, listens actively, shares ideas respectfully, and communicates clearly in a variety of settings.
• Responsibility & Initiative: Completes assignments on time, takes ownership of learning, and actively seeks help or clarification when needed.
• Growth & Reflection: Demonstrates a willingness to receive feedback, reflect on progress, and make adjustments to improve understanding and performance.

These habits are essential for academic success and support students in becoming responsible, reflective learners as they transition toward high school expectations.

9-12 Habits for Success

At the high school level, Habits for Success are grounded in our belief that students should grow as self-directed learners and individuals of character. Those habits help prepare students not only for graduation but for life beyond high school.

9-12 Habits for Success

• Self-Directed Learner - Academic Excellence: The student takes initiative in their learning by setting goals, asking relevant questions, engaging fully in instruction, and reflecting on their progress to achieve high standards of academic performance.
• Demonstrates the Valley Way - Integrity: The student models ethical behavior, makes responsible decisions, and acts with honesty and integrity in academic and personal situations.

By cultivating these habits, high school students strengthen their ability to lead themselves, contribute to their communities, and succeed in future academic and career pursuits.

Commitment 3: Achievement is Organized and Reported by Standards on a Proficiency Scale

At Grain Valley Schools, student achievement is measured by specific standards rather than by averaging scores across tasks. This standards-based approach helps students focus on mastering content and skills through clear learning targets, consistent feedback, and evidence of understanding. 

•  Focused on Mastery, Not Averages: Each standard is scored based on the most recent and consistent evidence of student understanding—practice work is used for feedback only and does not impact the final score.
• Clarity Through Proficiency Scales: Students receive clear, actionable feedback using distinct proficiency levels, which guide them in identifying their strengths and areas for improvement.
• Organized by Learning Targets: Grades are grouped by content and skills, not assignment types, helping students track their growth and set meaningful learning goals.

Elementary Proficiency Scale

Our Purpose of Grading

Grain Valley Schools’ purpose of grading is to assess student progress and mastery of learning standards, provide meaningful feedback to students and parents, and communicate necessary information to all stakeholders.

Commitment 4: Scores are Based on a Body of Evidence

At Grain Valley Schools, our commitment is to ensure that grades represents a complete and accurate picture of student learning. Rather than relying on single assignments or test scores, we evaluate a body of evidence- a collection of work that shows student understanding of growth over time. This approach supports a more meaningful representation of student achievement. 

• Comprehensive Picture of Learning: A body of evidence includes multiple pieces of student work- class assignments, project, assessments, and more- that align with specific learning targets. These targets are tied to state and national standards and help teachers evaluate a student's progress in a focused, accurate way.
• Progress Over Time: Scores reflect a progression of learning, not a one-time performance. Teachers use descriptors on proficiency scales to evaluate how well a student meets learning targets, and students are encouraged to track their own growth throughout the learning process.
• Transparent and Accessible Reporting: In elementary schools, student progress is reported quarterly via report cards. In middle and high schools, scores are entered in real-time and can be accessed by families through an online portal, PowerSchool.

    
By using a body of evidence, we ensure that reported grades reflect an accurate view of your student's academic development-one that honors both the journey and the destination in learning. 

Commitment 5: Students have multiple opportunities to demonstrate proficiency.

At Grain Valley Schools, we believe the core purpose of education is learning—and learning happens at different rates and in different ways for every student. That’s why we are committed to providing multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate what they know and can do. This approach supports a growth mindset and emphasizes learning over compliance or one-time performance.

• Learning Looks Different for Every Student: We recognize that students may need different types of support and flexible timeframes to reach proficiency. Our goal is to honor the learning process by allowing students to show mastery in a variety of ways over time.
• Ongoing Learning and Integration: Teachers design instruction to build on prior knowledge and incorporate past learning into new content. This approach naturally creates repeated chances for students to demonstrate their skills and understanding as they progress through the curriculum.
• Teaching for Growth, Not Just Grades: Instruction is guided by clear learning targets and proficiency scales. Teachers provide ungraded practice, offer meaningful feedback throughout the learning process, and focus on where students are going—not just where they’ve been. This feedback loop helps students take ownership of their learning and work toward mastery

In mastery-based classrooms, the focus shifts from “How many points did I earn?” to “What have I learned, and what do I still need to work on?” This mindset supports deeper understanding, meaningful growth, and long-term academic success.

Frequently Asked Questions & Answers 

Q: How does a proficiency-based scale work?

A: The philosophy behind mastery-based grading focuses on the collection of multiple pieces of “evidence” of student learning in relation to a specific learning target. With multiple pieces of evidence, teachers can get a clearer picture of a student’s progression of learning and intervene before a big test or project is completed. Rather than “averaging” individual scores together, students’ scores will be analyzed to determine growth and improvement towards mastery of a specific skill or content.

Therefore, if a student’s score is lower at the beginning of a topic, it does not adversely affect their final grade for the unit. What will determine the final grade for each unit is the progress made and the knowledge gained by the end of the unit.

Q: How are grades determined using a proficiency scale?

A: In mastery-based grading, students have the opportunity to prove their proficiency in relation to a specific learning target. Learning targets are clearly defined, as is the level of mastery to achieve a specific grade. The focus is upon growth in the learning process through multiple attempts and practice before a final grade is recorded. 

Ultimately, students will still receive a letter grade ranging from an A to an F.

Q: Will the use proficiency scales impact a student’s GPA adversely?

A: No. Students will have ample opportunities to achieve an appropriate level of proficiency in their courses. The GPA calculation for high school students remains the same, based on the final letter grade in the course.

Q: Does the use of proficiency scales change the way class ranks, scholarship selections, etc. are figured?

A: No. High school students will still be ranked for the purpose of scholarship selections, college applications, etc. However, our focus is on all students meeting an expected standard as opposed to categorizing students based on one tenth or one hundredth decimal point difference in GPA.

Q: Is it true that it is virtually impossible for a student to earn a “4:Advanced”?

A: No. Teachers plan for instruction and assessment with opportunities for students to achieve at all levels of the scale. It may seem more difficult in the mastery-based environment because the grade truly has a laser-like focus on the standard. In traditional 100-point grading, factors such as extra credit, attendance, participation, behavior, etc. could skew the communication of true achievement of learning.

Q: How is the final course grade figured?

A: Most courses will have 15 – 20 learning targets for which students are assessed. Each topic is assessed looking at a trend in growth and improvement. Upon completion of a course, it is then appropriate (and only then) to average scores across topics to arrive at a final course grade.

Q: Are grades based only on “big tests” in mastery-based grading?

A: No. Grades are based on the “evidence” collected from the teacher over the course of a grading period. Students are given multiple avenues as well as opportunities to show evidence of their learning.

Q: Is homework a part of mastery-based grading?

A: Homework or practice work is an important part of the learning process. Homework is not usually assigned a “grade” in mastery-based grading, however. Homework is considered as practice to strengthen or reinforce a skill in preparation for the “big game” or test. Much like in sports, some students need more practice than others to master a skill or knowledge. Students need help and support at home to reinforce the idea that practice makes permanent!

Q: How does mastery-based grading affect acceptance into college or post-secondary training?

A: Most colleges and universities look at multiple factors for acceptance. Often times, the GPA recorded on a student’s transcript is re-figured by college admissions officers based on the number of rigorous courses taken (ie Advanced Placement, advanced courses). They do this because there is such drastic inconsistency among high schools and teachers on how traditional grades are figured and assigned. Mastery-based grading is a philosophy and practice that brings more consistency to reporting student learning.

In mastery-based grading students have a much clearer idea of their learning and their individual learning styles, which in turn makes them better prepared to take on the challenges of higher education.