How To Create Standards-Based Grading Quizzes
- Dane Ehlert
- 13 hours ago
- 3 min read
Once we’ve created our concept checklist, the next step is designing assessments for each concept.
In my classroom, I call these assessments quizzes instead of tests.
That may seem like a small detail, but language matters. The word “quiz” tends to feel less threatening to students, which helps create a classroom culture focused more on growth and learning than fear and performance.
But the bigger question is this:
What actually makes a good standards-based grading quiz?
After years of trial and error, I eventually landed on a structure that gives me strong evidence of student understanding without overwhelming students or creating mountains of grading.
Start With the Levels of Understanding
One of the most important shifts I made was realizing that quizzes shouldn’t just produce scores.
They should reveal levels of understanding.
Instead of labeling students as “A students” or “C students,” I began thinking in terms of categories like:
Emerging understanding
Proficient understanding
Advanced understanding
Mastery
This mindset shift was heavily inspired by grading scales developed by Niles New Tech.
For example:
A 6 might mean not there yet
A 7 could represent emerging understanding
An 8 represents proficiency
A 9 represents advanced understanding
A 10 represents mastery
Reframing grades this way creates a much healthier mindset around assessment and growth.
The Quiz Structure We Use
Once I clarified the learning levels I wanted to measure, quiz design became much easier.
Each concept quiz in my classroom contains:
3 proficient-level questions
2 advanced-level questions
1 mastery-level question
That’s it.
Just six questions total.
This structure gives me enough evidence to evaluate understanding while keeping quizzes:
manageable,
fast to grade,
and less intimidating for students.
One of the biggest advantages of shorter quizzes is that retakes become much more realistic. Students are far more willing to revisit learning when they aren’t facing a giant multi-page assessment.
It also makes quiz analysis much easier for teachers because we can quickly identify patterns in student thinking.
What Counts as a Proficient-Level Question?
Proficient-level questions represent the core skill students have practiced repeatedly during class.
These questions are:
straightforward,
familiar,
and skill-focused.
For example, on a quiz about slope, a proficient-level question might simply ask students to find the slope from a table.
No tricks.
No surprises.
The goal is to determine:
Can the student successfully perform the skill we’ve been developing?
If students consistently succeed on these questions, I can confidently say they are proficient with the concept.
What Makes an Advanced-Level Question Different?
Advanced-level questions take the same skill and push students further.
Now we’re asking:
Can students apply their understanding flexibly?
These questions often:
involve more complex numbers,
combine multiple ideas,
or require deeper reasoning.
For example, instead of a simple slope problem, students might need to reason through negative fractional slope in a less familiar format.
The structure becomes less scaffolded and more thoughtful.
If students succeed consistently here, they’re showing fluent understanding rather than just procedural recall.
The Purpose of Mastery Questions
Mastery-level questions are designed to reveal deep conceptual understanding.
These are the questions where students must truly think.
In many cases, I use open-ended or open middle style problems because they:
encourage reasoning,
allow multiple approaches,
and reveal the depth of student understanding.
If a student can successfully reason through a mastery question, there’s strong evidence they deeply understand the concept.
Where I Find Good Quiz Questions
One of the most common questions teachers ask is:
“Where do you find all these questions?”
In my experience:
Proficient-level questions are usually easy to create because they mirror classroom practice.
Advanced and mastery questions take more intentional searching.
Some of my favorite places to find stronger questions include:
textbook challenge problems,
released state exams,
PSAT/SAT/ACT/AP questions,
and Open Middle.
I’ve also found the New Visions Math Quiz Bank helpful for finding high-quality assessment ideas.
Download Our Sample Quizzes
Want to see what these quizzes actually look like in practice?
You can view and download sample quizzes from my classroom here:
Why This Structure Works
After years of refining this system, I’ve found that short concept quizzes provide a great balance.
They:
give strong evidence of learning,
reduce grading overwhelm,
simplify retakes,
and help students focus on growth instead of point accumulation.
Most importantly, they align assessment with the deeper goals of standards-based grading:
meaningful feedback,
conceptual understanding,
and student perseverance.
Inside our standards-based grading workshop, we walk through the full process of:
creating concept checklists,
designing quizzes,
grading quizzes efficiently,
structuring retakes,
organizing the gradebook,
and implementing the day-to-day workflow of the system.
The quiz structure is one of the most important pieces of making the system work well for both students and teachers.
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