Grading Scale

Marzano’s Grading Scale for Standards

Translating Rubric Scores to a Letter Grade

Kaleidoscope Academy’s instructional framework recommends the creation of rubrics or scales for priority standards as an important part of being able to “communicate learning goals, track student progress, and celebrate success”. With that said, some parents wonder about how a traditional letter grade would stack up to the marks (4, 3, 2, 1) on standards based report card.

While Kaleidoscope will not assign a letter grade at semester, parents can draw some conclusion’s utilizing the scale below. Dr. Robert J. Marzano provides us guidance on this in his book Formative Assessment and Standards-Based Grading. On page 105 of this book, he gives us this simple example for translating rubric scores to letter grades:

A= 3.00 to 4.00

B= 2.50 to 2.99

C= 2.00 to 2.49

D= 1.00 to 1.99

F= Below 1.00

On page 106, he goes on to say, “There is a logic to this system. Namely, the A begins at 3.0 because a score of 3.0 indicates that a student has demonstrated the understanding of all content in a target learning goal with no major error or omissions.

This makes some intuitive sense—if a student’s average score indicates that he or she knows everything that was taught for the target learning goals, he or she should receive an A. The B range, 2.50 to 2.99, also has intuitive logic to it. Having an average score within this range implies that across the learning goals that were addressed in a given grading period, the student typically demonstrated mastery of all of the basic content (score 2.0 content) and high partial mastery of the score 3.0 content that was directly taught for the target learning goals.”

“Some schools and districts like to use more refined categories such as A+, A, A-, and so on.

The ranges for these grades are depicted in [the below] table…”

Average Scale Score

Across Multiple Goals  Traditional Grade


3.75-4.00                                   A+

3.26-3.74                                   A

3.00-3.25                                   A-

2.84-2.99                                   B+

2.67-2.83                                   B

2.50-2.66                                   B-

2.34-2.49                                   C+

2.17-2.33                                   C

2.00-2.16                                   C-

1.76-1.99                                   D+

1.26-1.75                                   D

1.00-1.25                                   D

Below 1.00                                F

So, if you want an idea of what the resulting letter grade might be in a traditional setting, this will give you a strong idea.