WIP: Standards-Based Grading in Calculus with Precalculus

This innovative practice WIP paper on undergraduate education assessment describes the implementation of a standards-based grading system into Calculus with Precalculus. Standards-based grading is a way to structure the assessment of a class around the completion of a set of “standards;” with an emphasis on students having opportunities to reassess standards throughout the course. Calculus with Precalculus is a two-semester course that intermingles the topics of Precalculus and Calculus (completing both semesters is equivalent to Calculus I). Students take this class because it is a requirement for their major. The most common majors in the class are Biology, Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Computer Science. In the standards-based grading system, we determine the “skills” that we want our students to learn by the end of the semester. The completion of these skills is 60 % of a student's grade (with the rest of a student's grade determined by homework and a final exam). Each skill appears on three quizzes in a row, and to complete a skill a student needs to solve its quiz questions correctly two times. Once a skill stops appearing on the quizzes, students can still complete it by doing “retakes”. Given our students' diverse backgrounds and preparation levels, the system works well for them. If a student completes a skill after two quizzes, they can skip that question on the third quiz. This lets them focus more on the skills they are struggling with. Students appreciate being able to come in and get help on (and retake) those skills. Instead of having this class act as a “gatekeeper” to Biology, Engineering, and Computer Science, both combining Calculus with Precalculus and using standards-based grading helps students of all backgrounds learn the material and succeed in the class. This type of standards-based grading system can be applied to classes from other disciplines as well.