Eastern York SD middle school rolls out standards-based grading, separates behavior from academic scores

Bill Ackerman, middle school principal, outlined a shift at the districtmiddle school to separate students' habits and behaviors from academic scores and to bring the district's Portrait of a Graduate into daily routines.

"Our theme for this year is built for growth," Ackerman told the board, and described a change that makes 90% of a student's overall grade academic achievement and 10% tied to behavior categories he identified as integrity, growth mindset and citizenship. "So now your overall grade is 90% academic achievement, but 10% of that is your habits and behaviors," Ackerman said.

The district will track behavior through LiveSchool, awarding "armor points" for positive behaviors and recording "dents" for missteps. Ackerman said teachers will record three separate behavior scores each marking period (integrity, growth mindset, citizenship) on a three-point scale; students receiving less than a top score will get written feedback designed to be restorative and corrective rather than purely punitive.

Ackerman said the approach grew from a multi-principal, in-house effort over the summer and draws on research and principles behind standards-based grading. He said the change is intended to increase transparency so students and parents can see how habits affect final grades while keeping content mastery the primary standard. "There's not a transparency of learning there," Ackerman said of prior practice; the new system is meant to show the difference between an academic score and behavioral adjustments.

Board members asked about implementation details. A board member asked whether the 90/10 split was chosen by research or consensus; Ackerman responded that the leadership team settled on the split to preserve academic priority and to prevent behavior weighting from skewing content standards. He said the district expects teachers to record behavior scores at least four times per marking period and that some teachers may record them weekly.

Ackerman described advisory and morning meetings, mini-lessons and the use of LiveSchool to make the Portrait of a Graduate (integrating the 4Cs and three dispositions) a working language for students. He reported early, informal signs of fewer missing and late assignments after one marking period, but said the team will review robust data after additional time.

Ackerman also said the district gave teachers rubrics to standardize scoring and reduce classroom-to-classroom variation. He described the approach as restorative: students receive feedback and opportunities to improve rather than being "buried" by late-work penalties. Ackerman said the high school has also begun adopting the model this year.

The presentation closed with board members indicating support and asking for follow-up data; Ackerman said more formal evaluation and reports will be possible after more grading cycles.

Ending: Board members did not vote on the presentation itself; the item was an informational presentation and the district plans to return with data and additional detail on high school alignment and reporting.