What is Standards Based Grading? Standards Based Grading (SBG) is a leading topic in modern educational research. The basic idea is that the traditional way of assigning grades does not accurately reflect learning, nor tell a student where their individual strengths and weaknesses are! Traditional grading is filled with lots of fluff that can allow a compliant student to succeed without knowing much, and a troublesome student to fail, even though they know a lot! Standards Based Grading is the way to overcome many of the problems of traditional grading systems. Using this approach, your child’s grade will reflect what they know in relation to the main standards of this course, without the extra fluff attached to many traditional grades. SBG also ensures that grades will never be used as punishment or reward, and their purpose will be to demonstrate a students' strengths and weaknesses so they can continue to improve their learning process.