After I read Grading For Equity and started my own research into the way we assign grades in the United States, I was eager to systematically evaluate each of my grading policies. Ultimately, I wanted to read every policy I have and be able to answer yes when I ask: does this policy support a final grade that provides a summary of student academic accomplishment in my course? Below are the steps I took along my journey to a more equitable and meaningful grading system. If you are interested in doing the same, I hope this helps you along the way!
1. Get to know the community in which you teach
This might seem obvious, but it’s also the most important thing to consider when developing an equitable grading policy. Knowing the neighborhood, the general education level of parents/ guardians, the languages spoken, etc. are important things to know. I taught at a school with a predominantly Latinx population, who valued weekends as time for families and religious observance. I had no idea why my students hated my Monday reading quizzes until I asked them.
In some districts, you may have students with very actively involved parents who want a hand in their students’ education, but you may also find that parents view you, the teacher, as the expert in charge of their students’ education and who will be largely hands- off unless there is a problem. You may have parents who want to help but don’t know how to do so, or don’t have the skills to do so. On the other hand, you may have parents who will need clear communication about why you make certain choices in your classroom ( especially when your grading practices may differ from colleagues or from what parents expect). This may not seem like a big difference, but when deciding how to incorporate community- building or homework, you’ll need to be aware of HOW families will support you and their students.
2. Examine your current grading philosophy
Now, take a look at your syllabus and/ or any written grading policies that you or your school uses. If you don’t have this, consider creating a list of the grading policies you’ve enforced in previous years, such as:
- Turning in late work
- absent work/ missed instruction
- missing necessary materials
- verbal participation
- neatness
- formatting
- submission method
- nonverbal listening cues
- tardiness
- effort
- plagiarism/ cheating
For each policy you have, ask yourself these questions:
- Does this policy make assumptions that my students have time, space, and resources to complete this work outside of class?
- Does this policy make assumptions that students have parental support at home?
- Does this policy make assumptions that all of my students are fluent, grade- level English readers?
- Does this policy take a hard stance on soft skills that students may still be developing?
- If this was a policy in my teaching contract, would it be unfair for my boss to dock my pay if I am not able to comply with it?
If you answer yes to any of these, you may want to reconsider that policy. If you can’t or don’t want to throw it out completely, make sure that there’s a specific course necessity or research- based justification for keeping the policy.
The policy that stuck out to me the most was class participation. Speaking and Listening are English standards, but to penalize students who don’t participate without teaching them how and reinforcing those expectations is unfair and makes a lot of blanket assumptions about my students. Instead, I use teaching strategies like Socratic Seminar to build students’ Speaking and Listening muscles, which I can then assess using a standards- aligned rubric. Things like citation format, again, aren’t going to be something I will take points off for. I will provide verbal feedback to the student and possibly ask them to make the correction before I accept the assignment for feedback. I might even incorporate formatting into a buddy- check process, where students must consult a friend before turning in an assignment where the citation format is appropriate.
3. Craft your equitable grading policies
Regardless of what you decide, each policy you create should be clearly worded and stated explicitly in your syllabus. It’s unfair to grade students in ways they are not expecting or hasn’t been taught to them. Even schoolwide policies should be taught explicitly to students. Along these lines, keep it as simple as possible – having a 2 page list of expectations and procedures is not going to be easy to explain or adhere to.
You’ll also want to make sure that your policies are not more than you can handle. If you have grand plans of moving to a completely standards-based system or even getting rid of progress grades entirely, you will need to be able to support this all year long in order to make it work. Students thrive on consistency, clear expectations, and boundaries. Drastic differences from stated policies and what you do in practice will cause students to lose their trust in you and the rest of the year will be much harder. For example, if you explain that not completing summative assignments will lead to phone calls home or requests to meet with you to finish the work, you’ll need to follow through every single time. Otherwise you’ll be setting yourself up for a lot of frustration by the end of the quarter when grades close.
Finally, make sure that each policy is something that works within your schools’ academic/ behavioral framework. Otherwise, you might experience problems later if administrators are unable to support you because what you are doing contradicts a stated school policy. In my experience, as long as students can track their progress, have a grade that determines sport eligibility, and you can justify the students’ grades to stakeholders, you’ll be fine.
4. Communicate regularly with students and guardians
As with anything you do in your classrooms, clear and early communication with stakeholders is key. Make sure that your policies are clearly described in your syllabus. Explain how you will evaluate and assess students throughout each grading period. Depending on the course and age level, it may be appropriate to outline the specific content/ skills students will be expected to master and incorporate sample rubrics. I like to send an email to parents/ guardians at the beginning of the year and at the beginning of each new grading period.
I teach students the first week of school how my grading system works, and reinforce it with each new task or situation. As with anything new, students will likely need frequent reminders and clarification on your expectations.
The earlier and more frequently you communicate your policies and expectations, the easier a time you will have in the event that you do receive any kind of pushback later.
5. Be ready to confront pushback from students, parents, administrators, and colleagues
We teachers tend to be so protective over our grade books, so we tend to take criticism personally. I can’t think of a single year when I wasn’t challenged on one grade or policy or another by someone. So imagining completely overhauling old- school grading policies that both parents and students are used to can seem like you’re asking to be criticized. It’s important to remember that as long as you clearly communicate with stakeholders from the beginning of the year and are able to justify your policies, parents, students, and administrators are likely to be more supportive. As far as colleagues go, I’ve worked with staff who would support my efforts and others who would claim that my choices were “watering down” the course or “rewarding students for the bare minimum.” If that colleague is not directly impacted by your methods, then I say it’s really not their concern what you do in your classroom. If they are impacted, I think it’s up to you whether you stick to your guns or need to work out some kind of compromise.
In the end, we have to remember that the traditional methods we’ve been using to grade students, the policies that we ourselves likely grew up with, simply do not serve the needs of 21st century students. In fact, they are harmful and do not support student growth and learning. Disrupting the status quo is not always the popular thing to do, but it’s certainly the right thing to do if we want to do right by ALL of our students, not just the ones who can game traditional grading practices.
BONUS step for more equitable and meaningful grading:
Be willing to learn through trial and error, and revisit as necessary throughout the year.
As with anything new we try in our classrooms, it is likely that your new grading policies will need to be fine-tuned as the year goes on. Avoid making drastic changes until the year is over (unless absolutely necessary), but adjustments are always okay, especially if they are going to benefit your students.
When I started changing my grading practices last year, it definitely wasn’t perfect. One of the first things I noticed was that my students were not paying attention to grammar, spelling, or detailed responses in their work. So, I began incorporating those standards on every assignment, and I began receiving more polished work products. The bottom line is, you are making an effort to provide a more equitable experience for your students, which is amazing in itself. It’s going to be messy and imperfect, but as long as you’re willing to put in the work and be consistent, you’re going in the right direction.
