The authors document changes made to their grading and assessment practices while “going gradeless” in an effort to reduce grading. You should read this for all their “why?” reasons for doing so, along with the many rubrics and learning progressions to get you thinking. I wouldn’t recommend implementing everything as-is, but their journey could really help you think about what you should be thinking about.
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Classroom Assessment & Grading Roadmap
I left my 2025 MTA Summer Conference workshop participants with a LOT of resources to read. After getting through all the recommended posts and maybe even books, however, they’ll probably still face the question of “what do I DO?!” The answer to that shouldn’t be a one-size-fits all panacea, but I can definitely offer some guidance since there are relatively few moves to make in the pursuit of grading less…
Continue readingREAD THIS: Blum’s “UNgrading…”
Rereading the preface to this book was a little depressing. The first time I read it over three years ago, I had highlighted “but should we, assuming an end to the lockdown, just go back to business as usual? What if the usual is problematic?” (p. xxii). At the time, I was experiencing “business as usual” despite a glimmer of hope between spring 2020 and 2021 when it looked like grading practices were going to shift in a massive way. They did not.
Continue readingREAD THIS: Sackstein’s “Hacking Assessment” (2nd Ed.)
In getting ready for my 2025 MTA Summer Conference presentation on “Getting More from Your Formative Assessments and Grading,” I found a lot more missing blog posts than just Zerwin’s! For example, I never wrote about Starr Sackstein’s “Hacking Assessment…” years back; there’s good stuff in there, which means I need a record of that stuff here.
Continue readingCurrent Reading: Assessing Students Not Standards (Jung, 2024)
Given over 20 years of schools attempting to implement standards-based grading (SBG), Lee Ann Jung’s 2024 release, Assessing Students Not Standards, offers a refreshing alternative. Is it part of a post-SBG era? Maybe. There are a lot of SBG concepts that are universally good, and the message is clear from researchers and teachers: let’s keep those. But there’s more. We can rebuild SBG. We have the experience. We can make SBG better than it was. Better, stronger, faster.
Another message is getting clearer, too, and seems right at home with the ungrading movement. Jung states “we need to grade better, but we also need to grade less. A lot less” (p. 20). This is aligned with my own research on exploring 1) ways to reduce summative grading, and 2) find formative grading alternatives (i.e., so they remain formative). So, let’s get into some stuff in the book…
Continue readingCurrent Reading: Retakes—When They Do And Don’t Make Sense
My recent review of assessment has continued, which now includes two major findings:
- Grading is a summative function (i.e., formative assessments should not be graded).
(Black et al., 2004; Black & Wiliam, 1998; Bloom, 1968; Boston, 2002; Brookhart, 2004; Chen & Bonner, 2017; Dixson & Worrell, 2016; Frisbie & Waltman, 1992; Koenka & Anderman, 2019; Hughes, 2011; O’Connor et al., 2018; O’Connor & Wormeli, 2011; Peters & Buckmiller, 2014; Reedy, 1995; Sadler, 1989; Shepard et al., 2018; Shepard, 2019; Townsley, 2022) - Findings from an overwhelming number of researchers spanning 120 years suggest that grades hinder learning (re: reliability issues, ineffectiveness compared to feedback, or other negative associations).
(Black et al., 2004; Black & Wiliam, 1998; Brimi, 2011; Brookhart et al, 2016; Butler & Nisan, 1986; Butler, 1987; Cardelle & Corno, 1981; Cizek et al., 1996; Crooks, 1933; Crooks, 1988; Dewey, 1903; Elawar & Corno, 1985; Ferguson, 2013; Guberman, 2021; Harlen, 2005; Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Johnson, 1911; Koenka et al., 2021; Koenka, 2022; Kohn, 2011; Lichty, & Retallick, 2017; Mandouit & Hattie, 2023; McLaughlin, 1992; Meyer, 1908; Newton et al., 2020; O’Connor et al., 2018; Page, 1958; Rugg, 1918; Peters & Buckmiller, 2014; Shepard et al., 2018; Shepard, 2019; Starch, 1913; Steward & White, 1976; Stiggins, 1994; Tannock, 2015; Wisniewski et al., 2020)
In other words, 1) any assessment that a teacher grades automatically becomes summative, even if they call it “formative” (I’m referring to these as false formatives), and perhaps more importantly, 2) grades get in the way of learning. These findings suggest that best way to support learning is by a) limiting grading to only true summative assessments given at the end of the grading period (e.g., quarter, trimester, semester, academic year), and b) using alternatives to grading formative assessments that otherwise effectively make them summative. Therefore, my next stage of reviewing literature focuses on reducing summative grading and exploring formative grading alternatives (i.e., so they remain formative). As for now, one of those practices *might* be retakes, which has been on my mind ever since I saw a tweet from @JoeFeldman. Given the findings above, which establish a theoretical framework to study grading, let’s take a look at how retakes are used now, and how they could be used in the future, if we even need them at all…
Continue readingStudent-Led Assessment (Published!)
This is my first contribution to a major publication for all teachers—not just those teaching Latin—since I officially began researching grading practices at UMass. I’ll get to what you’ll find from me in Starr’s book later, but I just received my copy and wanted to share some top reasons why you probably want this book…
Continue readingSorting vs. Grading: How To Properly Use Standards
Years back, I wrote about how a standards-based model to learning and grading (SBG) fell short of the bar. This was true of a particular kind of SBG—the kind with 10-30 standards being tested and graded every single quarter, scheduling multiple reassessments for each one, and still using scores of 1-4 in a way that keeps focus on points (not learning). The good news is that not all models are like that. The bad news is that a LOT of them are, which in turn give standards and accompanying practices a bad name. Teachers end up hating SBG, and admin scrap plans for any schoolwide change.
To be clear, I’m more of a “burn it to the ground” kind of guy, advocating for little to no grading whatsoever, but I’ve also found that a basic understanding of standards is crucial to ungrading. In fact, I’m not sure you can do it without standards…
Continue readingSelf-Grading: Explained
Is self-grading effective, and worth it? All signs point to “yes.” Some research findings appear at the end of this post.
Along with the minimum 50, self-grading is another high-leverage practice often found in an ungrading approach that keeps the focus on learning. In practice, though, self-grading is often misunderstood. If anyone hears about students giving themselves a grade and imagines a kid with their head on the desk all quarter who suddenly pops up and says “I get an A,” that’s dead wrong. With a solid self-grading practice that maximizes teacher prep time and empowers students to evaluate their learning, this student would lack evidence to make such a claim. And that’s one focus of this post (i.e., making a claim). Let’s first start with what teachers have been doing—historically—to make a claim about students’ grades so we can explain self-grading…
Continue readingFormative Grades: Not Really
In this post, I’ll write about the very, very, very few times all those grades in your “formative” category are, indeed, likely formative. Otherwise, I make the claim right here and now that they’re almost always summative…
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Magister P. 