PBA is not about grades

One common misconception about proficiency-based learning (competency-based learning) is that it is about changing a grading system. In particular, when people discuss proficiency-based assessment, they immediately start discussing the one through four scales for measuring learning. The 1-4 scale of measuring achievement came from the creation of learning scales meant to help students understand where they were in a learning process and, in my opinion, have been misused as the levels are assigned numbers and get averaged together to come to a traditional grade. These numbers are meant to represent learning on a specific skill and all meaning is lost once we begin translating these numbers into a traditional grade by averaging them with numbers that represent other skills.

Reflection is assessment

I recently taught a class on proficiency-based assessment using the text Proficiency-Based Assessment: Process, Not Product (Gobble, Onshuck, Reibel, Tadwell, 2016). By the end of the book, it is clear that reflection is a key component of the assessment process. After reading this text, I actually went so far as to interpret that reflection is assessment itself. I have been relying solely on reflection and collection of evidence as the assessment method for my entrepreneurship class.

Assessment is not a product

I love this quote from Proficiency-Based Assessment: Process, Not Product, “assessment is a process of gathering evidence, not a product that gathers evidence” (Gobble, Onshuck, Reibel, Tadwell, 2016). Although it rocks the world of formative and summative assessment, it illustrates the difference between traditional assessment practices and proficiency-based assessment practices. I’m still trying to figure out how formative and summative assessments fit into this shift if there is no need for a product because we are collecting evidence. I suppose summative assessments just become evidence but I’m still thinking on this idea.

Assessment is the learning process

When assessment starts to become about the process of gathering evidence and reflecting on it, all of a sudden, it is not separate from the learning. The reflection is where we actually see the thinking that represents learning. I feel like it’s even beyond the idea of assessment for learning, but it is certainly closely related. It does appear that the need for separating the idea of formative and summative assessments is being called into question.

In the end, I don’t think grades have any place in Proficiency-based learning or assessment. Proficiency-based learning is about expecting that all students are capable of learning at high levels when provided with personalized instruction that allows students to learn at their own pace. If competency education is about becoming competent, then a system that is based on an outside person evaluating individual attempts at assignments and summative assessments really has no place. I can’t even begin to reconcile grades in a competency-based system when I think about them being used to rank and sort. In a proficiency-based system, we need to start separating and thinking differently about the assessment and reporting process @fearlessteachers #nogrades.