What do you think?
Rate this book
Grading From the Inside Out: Bringing Accuracy to Student Assessment Through a Standards-Based Mindset
The time for grading reform is now. While the transition to standards-based practices may be challenging, it is essential for effective instruction and assessment. In this practical guide, the author outlines specific steps your team can take to transform grading and reporting schoolwide. Each chapter includes examples of grading dilemmas, vignettes from teachers and administrators, and ideas for bringing parents on board with change.
Chapter 1: The Modern Assessment Paradigm
Chapter 2: Accuracy and Confidence Our Grading True North
Chapter 3: Five Myths of Standards-Based Grading
Chapter 4: The Standards-Based Mindset
Chapter 5: How to Give Students Full Credit for What They Know
Chapter 6: How to Repurpose Homework
Chapter 7: How to Redefine Accountability
Chapter 8: How to Use Levels of Proficiency
Chapter 9: How to Teach and Assess Student Attributes and Competencies
Chapter 10: How to Use Standards-Based Reporting
How to Navigate the Road Ahead
Chapter 1: The Modern Assessment Paradigm
Chapter 2: Accuracy and Confidence Our Grading True North
Chapter 3: Five Myths of Standards-Based Grading
Chapter 4: The Standards-Based Mindset
Chapter 5: How to Give Students Full Credit for What They Know
Chapter 6: How to Repurpose Homework
Chapter 7: How to Redefine Accountability
Chapter 8: How to Use Levels of Proficiency
Chapter 9: How to Teach and Assess Student Attributes and Competencies
Chapter 10: How to Use Standards-Based Reporting
How to Navigate the Road Ahead
216 pages, Perfect Paperback
Published January 29, 2016
27 people are currently reading
192 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
April 2, 2017
Some books tell you to blow up the whole system--this is a book that teaches you how to work within whatever system you're a part of to make your grading more accurate and reliable. Really helped me wrap my head around the issues.
April 16, 2022
There are some interesting ideas here, but the book definitely leans heavily into one of the real flaws of this style of education research that argues by anecdote when there isn't statistical evidence.
July 20, 2023
I’d give this 3.5 stars. It absolutely has great ideas, and they are mostly explained very well, but — like so many books about education — it suffers from extreme idealism. I give it credit for acknowledging some of the challenges such a grading system might create, but it offers pie-in-the-sky solutions or only vague suggestions. Still, it’s better than most I’ve read.
December 31, 2024
Highly recommended for anyone considering standards-based grading. It cleared up a lot of my misconceptions, gave me a place to start, and got me excited about starting.
March 12, 2019
A must-read for every teacher!
May 24, 2018
In Grading from the Inside Out: Bringing Accuracy to Student Assessment Through a Standards-Based Mindset, Tom Schimmer, offers simple steps to support the challenging move to standards-based grading. At the beginning Schimmer talks about balanced assessment. He says, “The balance between formative and summative assessment is analogous to the relationship between practice and games, between rehearsal and performance.” This analogy surfaces throughout the text. It offers one of the easiest explanations for stakeholders regarding the differences, and uses, of summative and formative assessment. Schimmer offers good reminders about the value of gathering insights into what happens in our students’ lives outside of school to help us better understand where and how students are successful, knowing that sometimes grade may not be accurate reflections.
Each chapter closes with “questions for learning teams” designed to offer opportunities for self-reflection and team conversation. These questions promote the baby steps and scaffolding necessary for this courageous change in the practice of grading. Schimmer's ideas about reassessment and student reflection support the formative assessment practice of activating students as learners. Every chapter offers ideas about how to communicate the steps along this new grading journey with parents.
Schimmer’s ideas about homework help clarify the ongoing debate around this topic. “…practice is where their children have room to risk, experiment, and even fail without fear of penalty.” What parent doesn’t want their child to have an opportunity like that? Thinking about homework that is learning centered, reasonable, high quality, and considering if the students are ready for this practice may be shifts for some educators. He recommends sharing three key elements with parents: 1) emphasize quality over quantity, 2) emphasize purpose over time, and 3) emphasize external support.
Changing grading practices is a transformation. Schimmer maps out a progression for this transformation.
Each chapter closes with “questions for learning teams” designed to offer opportunities for self-reflection and team conversation. These questions promote the baby steps and scaffolding necessary for this courageous change in the practice of grading. Schimmer's ideas about reassessment and student reflection support the formative assessment practice of activating students as learners. Every chapter offers ideas about how to communicate the steps along this new grading journey with parents.
Schimmer’s ideas about homework help clarify the ongoing debate around this topic. “…practice is where their children have room to risk, experiment, and even fail without fear of penalty.” What parent doesn’t want their child to have an opportunity like that? Thinking about homework that is learning centered, reasonable, high quality, and considering if the students are ready for this practice may be shifts for some educators. He recommends sharing three key elements with parents: 1) emphasize quality over quantity, 2) emphasize purpose over time, and 3) emphasize external support.
Changing grading practices is a transformation. Schimmer maps out a progression for this transformation.
June 30, 2020
I don’t have a lot to compare this to—I’m not in the habit of reading books about grading—but it was a pretty good discussion of what it takes to shift the grading and assessment paradigm to standards-based. I thought the author did a fairly respectable job making it clear that you can make individual changes to your grading practices as a teacher even as you are still working within a traditional system of letter grades and percentages. He debunked the myths associated with standards-based grading and walked through what it takes to shift your mindset before shifting your routines.
The book definitely helped me put into words some of the uneasiness I’ve developed over my policies and punishments these last few years. Late points, zeros, no reassessment opportunities...these are all things I was raised on as a student, but that’s not what the research tells us is best for kids, and it’s NOT what is going to help kids develop the skills they need to be successful. If we’re really honest with ourselves, taking off late points to “hold them accountable” for deadlines really doesn’t do anything to actually teach accountability. SBG forces separating behavior from mastery in order to keep grades about accuracy and confidence, and the author’s section on how to assess student attributes outside of mastery of academic standards was both eye opening and empowering. It’s possible, you just have to redefine what “accountability” means. For example, is taking off 10% because it’s late *teaching* accountability or *punishing* the lack of accountability? Wouldn’t requiring a student to keep working and revising until their product demonstrated proficiency be a better lesson in *how* to hold yourself accountable to your best work?
I may have butchered that a little, but really, I did enjoy this new way of thinking about what grades mean and how grading can be better for students and teachers.
The book definitely helped me put into words some of the uneasiness I’ve developed over my policies and punishments these last few years. Late points, zeros, no reassessment opportunities...these are all things I was raised on as a student, but that’s not what the research tells us is best for kids, and it’s NOT what is going to help kids develop the skills they need to be successful. If we’re really honest with ourselves, taking off late points to “hold them accountable” for deadlines really doesn’t do anything to actually teach accountability. SBG forces separating behavior from mastery in order to keep grades about accuracy and confidence, and the author’s section on how to assess student attributes outside of mastery of academic standards was both eye opening and empowering. It’s possible, you just have to redefine what “accountability” means. For example, is taking off 10% because it’s late *teaching* accountability or *punishing* the lack of accountability? Wouldn’t requiring a student to keep working and revising until their product demonstrated proficiency be a better lesson in *how* to hold yourself accountable to your best work?
I may have butchered that a little, but really, I did enjoy this new way of thinking about what grades mean and how grading can be better for students and teachers.
March 28, 2020
Excellent food for thought. Surprisingly readable for a professional development book. You should probably read this book if: it has ever crossed your mind that your grades might not always be fair, you have ever felt frustrated when the numbers in the gradebook didn't seem to add up, you have been doing the same thing forever and need to do some self-reflection, you believe in growth mindset but don't think your assessment fully reflects that, you want your students to meaningfully invest in learning and not just chasing grades, you're sick of kids asking, "Is this for marks?"
October 3, 2023
The book is not the worst thing I have ever read (I know, a great way to start a review, right?). It does not have horrible ideas. Philosophically, I even agree with at least some of them. I would like for grades to as accurately reflect a student's knowledge as possible. I would love for students to do everything without the motivation of grades and for "behavioral" problems of not turning in work to be solved behaviorally.
It suffers from three main parts I found: implementation, the overall tone, and at least one outright fabrication used to sell the points.
In theory, having grades solely reflect the student's achievements is a laudable goal. To do this by not giving 0's, by not giving late penalties, by allowing infinite re-tests as long as they are showing effort and committing to the social contract of putting in effort, of not grading homework - well, those are hard if not impossible to implement, especially in later grades. The book implies that there is flexibility, but promotes a cookie cutter approach in regard to several things, such as the ones just mentioned. Certain subjects lend themselves better to allowing for late work or not grading homework and so on, and other subjects don't. There are some explanations for practically how to do things, but they are, in my estimation, woefully inadequate for some. For others, they would require a tremendous amount of extra time on the part of the teachers to implement. Again, good in theory, but to implement them....you'd have to be a super hero.
I also took issue with the overall tone. It was cocky and very condescending. For example, it states in the book at least once directly and more from inference (I guess to encourage you...?) that if these things are tried and they don't work, then the problem is in the implementation. So try, try again, I guess? The insinuation that the ideas must be perfect and any problem is due to the implementation of the teachers is extremely condescending and demonstrates either a blind spot at best, to ways in which the idea may be flawed, or a sales pitch where you don't care about there being issues with what you're selling and just want to blame others.
Finally, there was skewed truth and at least one total fabrication used in the book. There were many ideas presented as iron clad, black and white correct ideas that are debatable. One I noticed, though, was a total fabrication. He states in the book that accepting late work takes no more time for a teacher to do than if it was turned in on time. This is patently wrong. It's not even debatable. Needing to grade work that was past due requires reviewing how you graded the assignment, going back and updating grades after the fact, and other things depending on the actual assignment. It is a direct lie that it doesn't take longer, and any teacher will tell you this. The fact that he claims to have been a classroom teacher and tells such a clearly provable lie demonstrates that he's willing to say whatever he needs to say to sell his version of reality.
Overall, if the book was presented with more ideas of how to implement his vision, less condescension, and not so much of a desire to declare to the world that he was 100% correct, it could have had a much greater impact.
It suffers from three main parts I found: implementation, the overall tone, and at least one outright fabrication used to sell the points.
In theory, having grades solely reflect the student's achievements is a laudable goal. To do this by not giving 0's, by not giving late penalties, by allowing infinite re-tests as long as they are showing effort and committing to the social contract of putting in effort, of not grading homework - well, those are hard if not impossible to implement, especially in later grades. The book implies that there is flexibility, but promotes a cookie cutter approach in regard to several things, such as the ones just mentioned. Certain subjects lend themselves better to allowing for late work or not grading homework and so on, and other subjects don't. There are some explanations for practically how to do things, but they are, in my estimation, woefully inadequate for some. For others, they would require a tremendous amount of extra time on the part of the teachers to implement. Again, good in theory, but to implement them....you'd have to be a super hero.
I also took issue with the overall tone. It was cocky and very condescending. For example, it states in the book at least once directly and more from inference (I guess to encourage you...?) that if these things are tried and they don't work, then the problem is in the implementation. So try, try again, I guess? The insinuation that the ideas must be perfect and any problem is due to the implementation of the teachers is extremely condescending and demonstrates either a blind spot at best, to ways in which the idea may be flawed, or a sales pitch where you don't care about there being issues with what you're selling and just want to blame others.
Finally, there was skewed truth and at least one total fabrication used in the book. There were many ideas presented as iron clad, black and white correct ideas that are debatable. One I noticed, though, was a total fabrication. He states in the book that accepting late work takes no more time for a teacher to do than if it was turned in on time. This is patently wrong. It's not even debatable. Needing to grade work that was past due requires reviewing how you graded the assignment, going back and updating grades after the fact, and other things depending on the actual assignment. It is a direct lie that it doesn't take longer, and any teacher will tell you this. The fact that he claims to have been a classroom teacher and tells such a clearly provable lie demonstrates that he's willing to say whatever he needs to say to sell his version of reality.
Overall, if the book was presented with more ideas of how to implement his vision, less condescension, and not so much of a desire to declare to the world that he was 100% correct, it could have had a much greater impact.
August 10, 2025
Seemed very focused on minimal research. Didn’t address what occurs when subsequent assessments show lower achievement or understanding of content when given questions at a similar difficulty level. It’s frustrating as a thing that is being implemented in our school board but the appropriate time for individual teachers to adopt various aspects is challenging. It also didn’t give ways that reassessment can occur or how to reduce teacher workload in this process. It seems like if schools have lots of money and resources to attach to implementing this, it can be effective but it’s unclear as to why standard based reporting is key in a system that requires %
April 5, 2022
I’d consider this a must-read for educators! This book challenged me to reflect on the purpose of grading and do away with outdated practices that are both inaccurate and demeaning. This is certainly a book I’ll continue to revisit.
All of that said, while the book touches on some behavioral issues and the importance of redefining accountability, it doesn’t seem to fully address chronic absences or persistent late work. At times, it seems to cater to teachers at more privileged schools, rather than understanding all academic settings.
All of that said, while the book touches on some behavioral issues and the importance of redefining accountability, it doesn’t seem to fully address chronic absences or persistent late work. At times, it seems to cater to teachers at more privileged schools, rather than understanding all academic settings.
July 1, 2019
While "Grading From The Inside Out" is certainly not a page turner, it is one of the best books I have read on shifting the assessment paradigm. It is easily accessible to all educators and is comfortable with moving you forward on the journey, wherever you happen to start. There are great examples in the book, personal anecdotes, and a well written "how to". If you are an educator looking to explore this topic, this is the perfect place to start.
July 26, 2019
I'm really conflicted on this. In theory, I agree with most of what's in here. There are some things that will definitely take more convincing for me to buy into. However, I'm a little concerned about the implementation. My school is going to Standards-Based grading next year, and in spite of what it says about how this doesn't require more grading, I don't see how that's possible. I sincerely hope it's right.
February 23, 2021
I found this book to be well written and compelling. I went in with an open mind, but unsure how to practically change my grading system. And I left with the energy and motivation to make this change.
The book doesn't give you all the answers, no book could for everyone's students, parents, fellow teachers, admin, even the grading system they must use are different. But this book does give you enough examples and ideas to begin to eplore what makes that work for you.
The book doesn't give you all the answers, no book could for everyone's students, parents, fellow teachers, admin, even the grading system they must use are different. But this book does give you enough examples and ideas to begin to eplore what makes that work for you.
March 29, 2018
If you are thinking about going to more of a standardized grading model this is the book for you. We do not have standards based report card or grading system as a district. However, this book talks a lot about ways to rethink your grading an reporting practices even within a traditional grading system.
August 3, 2022
This book offers the theoretical framework for why teachers should use standards based grading, but imho they don’t offer enough tangible, concrete ideas for how to do so. So for me, this book was unhelpful, because I already knew this was a best practice, and I was looking for more ways to improve doing standards based reporting.
February 18, 2021
This book is an EXCELLENT introduction to approaching grading with a Standards Based Mindset. Schimmer's analogies are so transferable and the examples provided in the book are extremely clear and helpful.
July 12, 2017
A very informative and thoughtful look at developing a standards-based mindset.
July 16, 2020
Career game changer!!
September 18, 2021
This is definitely worth a read - many good points, easy to read, and practical.
February 22, 2022
A comprehensive look at standards-based grading with ample resources and examples.
January 27, 2024
I really enjoyed the different strategies used in this book to help grade students on their learning and growth, rather than penalizing them by using their grades as a tool to control them.
February 21, 2024
Overall I agreed with a lot of what the author has to say about grading. I did find that the chapter on accountability to be a little weak but over all quite good.
March 24, 2025
Making me rethink my entire grading practices
July 10, 2016
This is one of the most practical education books I have read in a long time. Not only does the book discuss many philosophical reasons to change current grading practices, it also gives practical suggestions on how to start this difficult "journey." I loved the many inserts included from both teachers and administrators that discussed specific struggles and surprises that occurred during their transformation. If any teacher or school is looking for a thought-provoking book to read that focuses on students, this is the book to read!
October 30, 2021
Another cogent argument for the necessity of adopting a standards-based mindset to ensure that grading practices are accurate and learning-focused. Lots of great ideas for implementation; a bit of a dry, dense read, however.
February 3, 2017
Very preaching
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews