All scores posted to a gradebook in this course are grade abatement profile (GAP) scores. Students self-assess through a form first, with special focus on a paragraph or more of analysis; then the teacher works with the student to evaluate the evidence, including that self-assessment, in order to arrive at the right profile.
The final GAP score can be understood through this Static GAP Score Feedback post, which is adapted from the Step-By-Step Guide to Grade Abatement and the GAP Process post.
The basic components are the grade abatement profiles and set of universal skills and traits. All other guides and clarifications, like this post that clarifies grade abatement, further elaborate on those basics. The entire process is evidentiary.
Students have photocopied versions of every element of this process in addition to these digital ones. The opening week or two of the year is spent getting to know students and introducing them to this process.
Students and other stakeholders must unpack each GAP score through these resources; they must metabolize their understanding through discussion, reflection, and writing; and then they must use the building blocks of the space to improve. When in doubt, read the many testimonials for a guiding light.
Tier 1
Profile Scores: 1, 2
Grades: 50, 60
It is likely that contact has already been made about your performance. It is likely that meetings and other interventions are scheduled. Regardless, you should immediately begin to advocate for your success in this course by yourself, without waiting for the system to save you.
Understand that the system is likely to save you, and in here, it won’t be due to social promotion or a floating standard. See the step-by-step guide to grade abatement for more on how the course works to help you to pass authentically and legitimately.
But likely isn’t the same as certainly. And the real issue is what happens if you graduate having learned all the wrong habits. Many students fail out of college for exactly this reason. In the workforce, the lack of just one of our skills, focus, is creating a crisis.
If you have a score in this tier, however, it is absolutely not too late. Only a refusal to take help will keep you here. Remember that.
Tier 2
Profile Scores: 3, 4
Grades: 65, 70
Your struggles start with the absence of positive evidence. Look at the basic record-keeping tools of the course — from Google Classroom to in-class checkpoints — and you should be able to list what is missing. Remember, this is an objective, fact-finding process. The work is done or it isn’t — no quantum-state cats here.
If you say that the evidence exists, then you haven’t submitted it, which is also a serious flaw. It’s possible that you haven’t created much that you can present for assessment. It’s possible that you aren’t taking the course seriously. It’s more likely that there is some other issue preventing you from understanding how to be successful.
If you would like a face-to-face conference to review your progress, you can schedule one. You can send an email, too, or stop by office hours. You can rely on Guidance counselors and even peers for help — just be sure those peers know what to do themselves.
What is most important is an action plan of your own. Completing a SWOT analysis, for instance, might help. Treat the next panel — the next 15-day assessment period — as a chance to learn from your mistakes and show growth.
Once you start completing assignments, meeting deadlines, and engaging with the material, you’re likely to have enough evidence to justify a higher profile. This is how the course is designed. Tier 2 scores are avoided just be completing most assignments.
Another way you could look at it: You always have work to do, and absolutely everything counts; yet you always have flexibility and space, and feedback works very differently in here. The more you complete work and focus in class, the easier it will be to build the necessary feedback chain.
You may also be here in Tier 2 because of something singular and significant, as outlined here. Plagiarism, disrespect, lying, etc, actively hurt the learning environment, and without significant and immediate growth after such a mistake, your ceiling is a 4. Your choices matter.
Tier 3
Profile Scores: 5-, 5+, 6
Grades: 75, 80, 85
You haven’t reached the fourth tier and its top scores because you aren’t yet grappling with the true purpose of the course, which is to individualize instruction in order to hone universal skills, traits, and understanding.
Continue to identify and improve your feedback chain. The first link of that chain to strengthen is your attentiveness and focus during the class period. The second is the quality and quantity of required assignments, especially writing, submitted through Google Classroom or by hand.
Remember that all formal assignments are designed to produce the evidence you’ll need to fit a high profile. Improving your in-class focus will produce better work on those formal assignments, and it will invite better feedback.
Just like in Tier 2, you must remember that you always have work to do, and that absolutely everything counts; yet you always have flexibility and space. The top tier is accessible to anyone. You just need to put in the effort. It often helps to differentiate sufficient from insufficient work.
If you would like a face-to-face conference to review your progress at this tier, you can schedule one or reach out over email. You will need to show that you’ve reviewed what you can on your own, though, because self-efficacy and self-awareness are key components of the best learning.
As always, you might start your review of this GAP score by noting any missing, incomplete, or insufficient work. Meeting all basic requirements will almost always guarantee a 7 or higher. Remember: Those requirements include in-class focus.
Tier 4
Profile Scores: 7, 8, 9
Grades: 90, 95, 100
Continue to identify and improve your feedback chain. You’ve done some of this already, if you’re in this tier, but it’s worth noting: The key to your learning is the feedback you receive from the teacher and the many “cloned” materials of the course.
Evaluate the extent to which you do the following:
- Learn directly from the teacher in small groups or as an individual
- Learn directly from folks who’ve done #1
- Interact thoughtfully with the interstitial or online instruction of the course
- Learn directly from folks who’ve done #3
These are all detailed in the universal, step-by-step guide to this process.
You should recognize now that learning from a knowledgeable peer is nearly as effective as conferencing with the teacher, with the added benefit that it more closely emulates what you’ll need to do throughout your life, which is to read and annotate and think about the writing of others. The mentorship you might get from a teacher one-on-one (or in a small group) will be something you seek out as you get older, and it is objectively more effective. But it’s not always a given.
Since you’ve found some success here, you must now teach others how to do the same. That is known as the protégé effect, and it is universally accepted as the best way to learn. In this course, we also call it proxy feedback. Improving the work of others will further strengthen you. This is true whether you have earned a 90, a 95, or a 100 as the final grade.
You must also continue to think about your thinking — to get to know yourself and your choices through regular reflection and metacognition. Like the feedback chain, that can be created in person or through writing, but it needs to be insightful and consistent. You should also know the difference between reflection and metacognition.
Since you have evidence of these accomplishments, you can make the call about how to approach a review of that evidence. You can schedule an an individual conference or write an email. You can read the feedback you’ve been given and apply it as you usually do.
It may be most important to note that that there can be no goal of perfection. Perfection is impossible in here, just like it’s impossible in the real world. Instead, a 9 indicates exactly what the profile indicates. Superlative work isn’t perfect work, and even a GAP score of 9 should simply affirm the need to continue to work hard.
Above all, placement in this tier is a challenge to continue to put in the work. There is always a next stage in your life.