Seeking Counsel

I'll be honest with myself. I don't really know what I'm doing. At this point, I've dabbled in SBG - I've tried it on a few assignments, I've read a few of the books out there, and I've talked and thought through many of the implications and aspects of SBG. However, it seems like its just one of those things where you don't really know how it will turn out until you try.

Multiple Advisors

There's a proverb that reads, "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed." As I said, I don't really know how this is all going to pan out, so I'm going to follow this advice. I've talked with many people about implementing SBG - principals, college professors, colleagues, department chairs, researchers, mentors, and students. They've given me many ideas, too many to really make sense of or remember. However, I find that as I talk to multiple sources, more clarity and direction starts to emerge. 
Some advisors have contradicted each other in some areas, but the clarity comes where they have agreed. Because of this, I now see something I hadn't before: that SBG can be implemented slowly over time because there are multiple layers to it. Where I used to see it as one large irreducibly complex machine, I now see its component parts - feedback and reporting. SBG can be done for feedback outside of it being done for reporting. This breaks the beast into two more manageable sections and gives me direction and focus for my implementation. 

Feedback First

SBG gives students better feedback. Better feedback leads to better learning. This is the most important aspect of SBG. It also happens to be the most agreeable among teachers, parents, and administrators. It's hard to argue that breaking up your grade into separate skills and knowledge so they can see clearly where they struggle and where they are succeeding is bad for students. I'll dive into this - how it works and how I will do it - later, but for now, I have direction and clarity of focus. That's all I was needing to get started.