How to Create Concept Checklists for Standards-Based Grading

One of the biggest shifts in standards-based grading isn’t actually the grading itself.

It’s deciding what truly matters.

Before we can create quizzes, assess learning, or build a gradebook, we first need clarity on the most important concepts students should deeply understand during the school year.

That’s where concept checklists come in.

Example of a standards-based grading concept checklist from my classroom.

What Is a Concept Checklist?

A concept checklist is the foundation of our standards-based grading system.

It serves two major purposes:

• It helps students track their growth throughout the year.

• It gives teachers a framework for structuring the course.

Instead of organizing the year around endless small skills, concept checklists focus instruction and assessment around the major ideas of the course.

This is one of the most important ways standards-based grading helps counter the “mile wide, inch deep” problem that many curriculums create.

Too often, we rush through dozens and dozens of disconnected topics without enough time to truly go deep with any of them.

A well-designed concept checklist helps solve that problem.

Focus on the Big Ideas

When creating a checklist, the goal is not to include every tiny skill students will encounter.

The goal is to identify the most important concepts worth formally assessing.

In my experience, around 20–22 concepts tends to work really well for a full course. That number creates enough focus to:

• Spend meaningful time on each concept

• Dive deeper into rich problems

• Allow students time to grow

• Structure grading periods naturally

The key is finding the right size for each concept.

As Dan Meyer explains, a concept should not be:

• so small that you’re tracking dozens every week,

• or so large that you don’t know how to help students improve.

For example, in Algebra 1, I wouldn’t simply list “Linear Equations” as one giant concept.

Instead, I might break it into:

• Calculating slope

• Writing equations in slope-intercept form

• Graphing slope-intercept form

Those concepts are still meaningful and assessable without becoming overwhelmingly specific.

How I Created My Concept Checklists

When I first created a checklist for Geometry, I started by analyzing my state standards.

In Texas, standards are divided into:

• Readiness standards

• Supporting standards

The readiness standards represent the most essential concepts and are typically emphasized most heavily on state assessments.

So naturally, those became the backbone of my checklist.

From there, I added supporting standards only if they seemed truly foundational or important for future learning.

I also looked through the textbook my district used. While textbooks shouldn’t completely drive curriculum decisions, they can help reveal:

• which concepts receive the most emphasis,

• how connected the course feels,

• and whether the pacing is realistic.

One of the most valuable steps, though, was talking to teachers who taught courses beyond Geometry.

I wanted to know:

Which concepts are students going to truly need later?

That perspective helped me refine the checklist and prioritize the concepts with the greatest long-term value.

Sample Concept Checklists

Want to see what a completed checklist actually looks like?

You can view and download sample concept checklists from my classroom here:

• Algebra 1 Concept Checklist

• Geometry Concept Checklist

Your Checklist Will Evolve — And That’s Okay

One important thing I learned:

Your first draft will not be perfect.

Mine certainly wasn’t.

I continued refining my Geometry checklist for several years before I felt confident in it. That’s completely normal. Often we don’t fully understand the most important concepts in a course until we’ve taught it multiple times.

So don’t wait for perfection.

Start with your best thinking now, and refine over time.

What About the Concepts That Don’t Make the List?

This is one of the most common questions teachers ask.

And the answer is important:

Just because a concept isn’t on the checklist doesn’t mean it can’t be taught.

The checklist only represents the concepts that will be formally assessed.

You can still:

• introduce smaller skills,

• weave supporting concepts into lessons,

• and expose students to additional material when appropriate.

But the formal assessment system should stay focused on the major ideas that deserve depth, time, and repeated attention.

That focus is what makes standards-based grading powerful.

Start Small

If you’re interested in implementing standards-based grading, creating a concept checklist is one of the best places to begin.

Don’t overcomplicate it.

Simply ask yourself:

What are the most important ideas students absolutely need from this course?

Start there.

You can always revise later.

Inside our standards-based grading workshop, we walk through the full process of:

• creating concept checklists,

• designing quizzes,

• grading quizzes,

• building retake systems,

• structuring units,

• organizing gradebooks,

• and implementing the day-to-day workflow of the system.

The checklist is just the beginning, but it’s one of the most important foundations for creating a classroom focused on growth, depth, and meaningful learning.