Polk County Public Schools, Staff

Polk County Public Schools - Click here to return to the home page.

Need Help?

Standards-Based Achievement Report (SBAR)

The State of Florida has identified a body of knowledge known as the Sunshine State Standards that, when mastered, will prepare a student to be successful. A standards-based reporting system includes specific information about how each student is progressing towards meeting the state standards.

A standards-based report card gives a clear message to parents about what their children know, what their children are able to do, and what their children need to learn.

What does it mean to have standards-based reporting?

Standards-based reporting means that students are measured quarterly against the Sunshine State Standards for each subject area in each grade level. Every student in that grade level across the entire district is receiving instruction on and also being assessed on the same skills.

Where can I find the Sunshine State Standards?

What is the elementary standards-based achievement report?

It is a new way of reporting what children are learning and how well they are performing in elementary school. It will replace the current report card in years to come.

What is this new report card called?

Standards-Based Achievement Report or SBAR for short.

Which grades and schools are using the SBAR in 2007-2008?

During the 2007-2008 school year the SBAR is being introduced for kindergarten and will be used in seven pilot schools. All elementary schools will use the new Kindergarten Standards-Based Achievement Report during the 2008-2009 school year. The pilot schools are:

Why do we need to change?

The world is changing and so is education. The No Child Left Behind act (NCLB) as well as the Florida Department of Education have set learning targets or goals that all children must meet. These targets are the Sunshine State Standards. The SBAR reports your child’s progress on these same standards.

How will my child’s performance be reported?

Progress will be reported using numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and NA. The scale is summarized below

CAUTION

Most parents received letter grades in school so their experience is that an A = outstanding or top of the class and a D = barely passing or bottom of the class while a C = average or middle of the class

Do not be misled that a 4 = A, 3 = B, 2 = C, or 1 = D

It takes time to master a standard. The goal of every student in Florida is to master the grade level Sunshine State Standards. Mastery of the standards is reported with a 3 on the Achievement Scale.

How can I help my child master the Sunshine State Standards?

Click here to view the High Frequency Words list

Resources

Standards-Based Instruction, Assessment, and Reporting Website links

  1. Georgia
  2. Illinois 1
  3. Illinois 2
  4. Union Pacific Foundation, Maine: This site contains numerous additional links, along with research briefs.
  5. Hawaii
  6. Nashville, Tennessee
  7. California 1
  8. California 2
  9. California 3
  10. Massachusetts
  11. Rhode Island
  12. Stoughton, Massachusetts
  13. Utah
  14. San Diego, California
  15. Richmond, California
  16. Ohio School Leaders
  17. Pennsylvania
  18. Washington
  19. Connecticut
  20. University of Phoenix, Arizona
  21. Colorado
  22. Research Article, Thomas R. Guskey

Standards-Based Instruction, Assessment, and Reporting Bibliography

Ainsworth, L. (2003). Power standards: identifying the standards that matter most. Englewood, CO
80112: Advanced Learning Press.

Ainsworth, L. (2003). Unwrapping the standards: a simple process to make standards manageable.
Englewood, CO 80012: Advanced Learning Press.

Chang, L. (1994). A psychometric evaluation of a 4-point and a 6-point Likert-type scale in relation to
reliability and validity. Applied Psychological Measurement, 18(3), 205-215.

Guskey, T.R. (1994). Making the grade: What benefits students. Educational Leadership, 52 (2), 14-20.

Guskey, T.R., and Baily, J.M. (2001). Developing grading and reporting systems for student learning.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Guskey, T.R. (2003). How’s my kid doing? A parent’s guide to grades, marks, and report cards.  Jossey-
Bass (Reeves, 2002).

Marzano, R.J. (2000). Transforming classroom grading. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Marzano, R., & Kendall, J. (1996). Designing standards-based districts, schools, and classrooms.
Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

O’Connor, K. (1999). How to grade for learning. Arlington Heights, H: Skylight.

Reeves, D. (2004). 101 more questions & answers about standards, assessment, and accountability.
Englewood, CA: Advanced Learning Press.

Reeves, D. (2003). Making standards work. Englewood, CA: Advanced Learning Press.

Reeves, D. (2002). The leaders’ guide to standards. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Stiggins, R.J. (2001). Report Cards. In R. J. Stiggins, Student-involved classroom assessment (3rd ed.,
Pp 409-466). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Wiggins, G. (1996). Toward better report cards. Educational Leadership, 52 (2), 28-35.

Wiggins, G. (1996). Honesty and fairness: Toward better grading and reporting. In T.R.Guskey (Ed.),
Communicating student learning: 1996 yearbook of the Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development (pp. 141-176).

Wiggins, G. (1997). Tips on reforming student report cards. School Administrator, 54 (11), 20.

Wiggins, G. and McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.