This year I was involved in shifting my school's reporting process in grades 6 to 8 from a percentage based system to the IB MYP system which assigns a score of 1-7 based on progress measured against subject specific criterion. It's been quite a journey and has included numerous parent information sessions, a complete rethink of our academic award system, and quite a bit of cognitive dissonance for all involved. Still, by the time we got to Term 3 I thought I had everything well in hand, until it came time to assign a final grade. That was when I realised how ingrained old habits are, and that I was still unknowingly operating on an old assumption.
Prior to shifting our reporting system we would assign a grade for each term, and each student's final grade was based on a percentage of each term's grade, plus exam grades. In effect, we took little bits of learning and added them together, and assumed that adequately reflected the sum total of the learning over the course of the year. The IB MYP reporting system is meant to provide an ongoing snapshot of a student's learning as they go through the year, with the final snapshot being the most current and relevant snapshot. I have tried to summarize the difference between these two approaches in the graphic below.
