Grade Against the Standards You Already Teach To
Common Core, NGSS, your state’s own sets, AP, IB, Cambridge International and the UK exam boards — all fifty states plus D.C. You pick the ones your class teaches toward once, and everything you mark afterwards builds a picture against them.
Free to check. Standards are optional — everything else works without them.
One Decision, at the Start of the Year
Choosing standards is a class setting, not a per-assignment chore. Open a class, pick the sets it teaches toward — GradingPal proposes a few based on your subject and where you are, and recommends nothing when it has no real signal rather than guessing — and that is the setup finished. Every assignment in that class can tag against those sets from then on, and a teacher with three sections of the same subject picks once.
If your class teaches toward more than one set — a state framework and an exam specification, say — pick more than one. The picture keeps them separate.
Almost Certainly, and It Takes Thirty Seconds to Be Sure
The catalogue covers all fifty states and D.C. — Common Core and NGSS, and each state’s own sets alongside them — plus the exam boards and programmes below. So the honest answer for nearly every classroom is yes. The faster answer is to look: open a free account, create a class, and the sets for your subject and location are in front of you before you have graded anything. That takes less time than reading a list would.
If something you teach toward is missing, tell us — that is a thing we can fix, and knowing about it is how it gets fixed.
Six Frameworks, in Detail
Some frameworks come with an assessment system of their own, and the marking looks different because of it. These have a page each — what GradingPal covers, what you can grade against it, and what it will not claim to do.
Texas — TEKS & STAAR
TEKS across RLA, maths, science and social studies, and the STAAR item types
Texas — TEKS & STAARCalifornia — CAASPP
Smarter Balanced and CAST, which are assessed differently from each other
California — CAASPPFlorida — B.E.S.T. & FAST
Benchmarks, and progress monitoring three times a year
Florida — B.E.S.T. & FASTNew York — NGLS & Regents
Next Generation Learning Standards, and marking toward an exit exam
New York — NGLS & RegentsYou Approve Every Tag. You Don’t Write Them.
Once the sets are picked, every rubric line and question has a “suggest standards” action: GradingPal proposes the matching standards and you accept or dismiss each one. Or name the standards an assignment targets when you create it, and the whole rubric comes back tagged for your review. Rubrics that arrive already aligned save the step entirely. Nothing sticks without you.
You Don’t Have to Say “Mastery” to Use This
Picking your standards on its own gives you a per-standard view of class averages, in plain percentages, with no mastery vocabulary anywhere. Levels, scales and roll-up rules are a separate switch you turn on if and when your school goes that way. A department teaching to an exam specification can happily stop at the averages — the version with levels is there when you want it and invisible until then.
AP, IB, Cambridge and the UK Boards
A class is not only measured against a state framework. AP courses, IB programmes, Cambridge International syllabuses and the UK exam boards — AQA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC — sit in the same catalogue and get picked the same way. There are also specialist sets for English language development and world languages. Marking to a UK board works the same as marking to a state’s standards; only the vocabulary changes.
Trying to Understand the Standards Themselves?
This page is about how GradingPal handles them. If what you actually want is to understand a framework — what it asks for, how it is assessed, how to plan against it — we have written full guides, and they are considerably longer than this page and better for that question.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which standards does GradingPal support?
Standards for all fifty states plus D.C., including Common Core and NGSS alongside each state’s own sets, plus AP, IB, Cambridge International and the UK exam boards. You pick the sets your class teaches toward once, and every assignment can tag against them.
Do I have to set standards up before I can grade?
No. Standards are optional. If you tag them, GradingPal builds a picture from the work you grade; if you skip them, everything else works exactly the same.
How do assignments get tagged to standards?
GradingPal suggests them and you approve them. Every rubric line and question has a suggest action, or you name the standards an assignment targets and the whole rubric comes back tagged for review. Nothing is applied without you.
Can I use standards without switching to mastery levels?
Yes, and many departments do. Picking your sets gives you per-standard class averages in plain percentages with no mastery vocabulary. Levels and roll-up rules are a separate switch.
What if my state’s framework isn’t there?
Tell us. The catalogue covers all fifty states and D.C., so it is rare — but if something you teach toward is missing, that is fixable and we would rather know.
Does GradingPal certify that my grading is aligned to the standards?
No, and no tool honestly can. You tag a rubric criterion to a standard, you approve every tag, and you approve every mark. GradingPal records the alignment you set and shows you the evidence behind it — the judgement stays yours.
Pick Your Standards and Grade One Set
One class setting at the start of the year, and every mark you approve afterwards builds the picture against it.