Grading Policies
To ease the process of grading, LiFT is able to provide suggested grades:
- Portfolio Grade – A suggested rating for each Skill Portfolio assigned in a Class, averaging all the Evidence pushed into that Skill Portfolio from that Class
- Class Grade – A suggested rating, grade or score for each class, averaging the ratings of all of the Skill Portfolios assigned in that Class
LiFT-suggested grades are calculated as per a grading policy that you
apply for your school. A teacher always has the option of using the
LiFT-suggested grade or entering their own rating or grade. You are not
required to use the suggested grading feature of LiFT.
Suggested Portfolio Grades
LiFT is able to provide a suggested grade for each Skill Portfolio in each class using a grading policy defined by you. LiFT calculates the average rubric rating of each completed piece of Evidence that has been pushed to a Skill Portfolio and returns a rubric rating that reflects that calculated average. In calculating that average, any weighting of skills set when the Evidence assignment is created during project building effects the calculation, which allows teachers to value some Evidence above others, or some Skills above others attached to the same Evidence.
When clicking on any Skill in the Portfolios tab, a window opens up
that lists the individual pieces of Evidence reflected in that Skill
Portfolio, along with their rating and weighting. The rating calculated
using your grading policy is displayed, but a teacher has the freedom to
override the suggestion and replace the rating with their own rating.
By way of example, if you have four Skill Levels – In Progress, Approaching Competency, Meets Competency and Exceeds Competency – you could assign them values of 10, 20, 30 & 40. Depending upon the range that you set for the output, you will get a different outcome. Example A uses ranges that provide an even weighting of level. Example B shifts the ranges up just a bit to make each level just a bit more difficult to achieve.
The grading policy will also include how you want to handle the assessment of Parent Skills:
- LiFT can return a Parent Skill rating that is an average of the ratings for any Evidence tagged to that Parent Skill, or
- LiFT can return a Parent Skill rating that is an average of the Child Skills ratings.
While it is most common to have the output equate to one of your existing Rubrics, it is possible to have the suggested Portfolio Grade expressed as a letter grade or a numeric value.
Suggested Portfolio Grading is an optional feature. It is not
necessary to create and employ a grading policy. In the absence of such a
policy, a Learner’s Skill Portfolio will remain as a gray box in the
teachers Portfolios tab until that Portfolio is assessed manually. To
assist in that assessment, the window that opens up when you click on a
skill will still list the Evidence that has accumulated in that Skill
Portfolio and the rating it was given.
Suggested Class Grades
LiFT is able to provide a suggested Class Grade that calculates the
straight average of each Skill Portfolio rating in that Class; Skill
Portfolios that have not been rated, even if they contain Evidence, are
not included in the Class Grade calculation. Teachers are able to
mute/unmute the Skill Portfolios included in the Class Grade calculation
if they feel that any Skill Portfolios should not have bearing on the
Class Grade. Teachers are also able to accept the LiFT-suggested Class
Grade or provide their own. Once a Teacher has accepted the
LiFT-suggested Class Grade or entered their own, it is possible to share
that Class Grade on a Learner’s LiFT Dashboard, or include it in LiFT
Progress Reports.
Much like the LiFT-suggested Portfolio Grades, the Class Grade calculation is computed in accordance with a grading policy set by you for each Class at your school. Your LiFT team will work with you to understand your grading model and develop the policy with you. Policy decisions include:
- How Class Grades display – options include Text (e.g. Mastery, A+), Numeric (e.g. 85) or both
- How to handle Parent/Child Skill Groupings – options include treating Parent and Child Skills as equals in the calculation, only counting Parent Skills, or only counting Child Skills
- What policies to
apply to what Classes – it is possible to establish different grade
output or calculation criteria to different groups of Classes, or leave a
Class with no active grading policy
Developing Protocols
Key Takeaways about Grading Policies
Related Articles
Creating Terms and Classes
This information does not apply to Clever Schools. If your school uses Clever, please see For Clever Schools instead. Terms LiFT is organized into Terms and Classes. Most typically, Terms mirror a school year. Sometimes, there is a particular flow to ...Uploading Classes & Class Rosters to LiFT
Once you have added both teachers and students, you need to assign them to classes. When you add classes, know that each section of a class must have a unique name. Each class section can have one or more teachers, and can have many students. It is ...Your Role as Facilitator
LiFT Facilitators have administrative access to the back side of LiFT to be able to set-up LiFT to match your school's instructional model and then create and manage your users’ accounts. It is possible to have more than one Facilitator if you feel a ...Your Skills Framework
Skills in LiFT Your Skills Framework is the collection of competencies, standards and/or skills that you wish your Learners to attain – in a Class, over the course of a Term, over the years your Learners are at your School or District. For each ...LiFT Training
There are two cohorts of LiFT Users that you will want to ensure get properly oriented: Teachers and Students. Teacher Training The core of LiFT Teacher Training is a self-directed course of tutorial videos designed to guide teachers through the LiFT ...