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Pear Assessment supports standards-based grading by translating student performance on specific standards into grades using customizable performance bands and proficiency calculation methods. District administrators can configure these to match teaching needs.

Learn How Pear Assessment Supports Standards-Based Grading

Pear Assessment translates student performance in a specific standard to a standards-based grade. This is done using a customizable standards-based performance band and a standards proficiency calculation method. As a district administrator, users can configure the performance band and a standard proficiency calculation method suited for teaching needs.

Standards-Based Grading Scale

The standards proficiency scale assigns a grade to each standard for each student. By default the customizable standards-based grading scale is a four-point scale with four mastery grades:
  1. Exceeds Mastery (4 points): 90% cutoff
  2. Mastered (3 points): 80% cutoff
  3. Almost Mastered (2 points): 60% cutoff
  4. Not Mastered (1 point): Below 60%
Tip: The above scale, cut score, report color, and short name can be easily customized by a district admin in the Settings tab in Manage District.

Mastery Calculation Method

Pear Assessment computes students’ standard-based scores for each standard by isolating the questions with the specific standard alignment. This can be easily understood using an example of a student’s performance in assessments with multiple standards: In the above example, the student’s total score in the assessments is broken down into individual standards-based scores. The cut scores are then used to award standard-based grades as follows: Pear Assessment now Calculates Mastery Score for Standard by Combining Scores from Prior Assessments. This can be done by selecting one of the mastery calculation methods shown below.
  • Most Recent [Default Criteria]: The latest assessment is used to determine student mastery grades. In the above example, the student has a mastery grade of 3 (Mastered) for 7.RP.A.1 and 4 (Exceeds Mastery) for 7.RP.A.2.
  • Decaying Average: This method formula recognizes that the most recent score is more representative of the student’s current mastery and puts more weight on the most recent score. By default, Pear Assessment assigns 65% weight for the most recent score and 35% for all prior scores. In the above example, for 7.RP.A.2 the mastery score is computed as follows:
Mastery Score (for 7.RP.A.2) = 0.65 ✕ 4 + 0.35 ✕ [(2+1)/2]=3.125 (or Mastered) Moving Average: The average of the 5 most recent scores is used as the overall score for the Standard. Users can change the number of assessments used for calculating the moving average Maximum: The latest standard score is used to determine student mastery grade Mode: Most frequently achieved score for the standard is used Average: Simple average of the standard score achieved by the student in all assessments Power law: Pear Assessment interpolates the data and creates a best-fit function that is used to estimate the student’s current level of mastery based on performance and growth of the student

FAQ

How Do I Customize the Mastery Grading Scale?

The grading scale, cut score, report color, and short name can be easily customized by a district admin in the Settings tab of the district. The standard scale would be used to determine the standards-based score of students in an assignment. Users can define the mastery levels and cut scores using the performance threshold number. To create a new grading scale or edit existing scales, use the green function icons to edit, clone, delete, and create new grading scales.
Last modified on July 16, 2026