AI is a change that is here to stay. Regardless of where you fall on the enthusiasm spectrum, we have an opportunity to steer conversations towards more inclusive, developmental, dialogic assessment and the grades that still carry so much weight.

When teachers make incremental changes to their habits around providing feedback over time, the result is that students are able to focus more on growth than on grades. Building habits that show students how they can be successful paves the way for a feedback cycle that does not become overwhelming.

Author and consultant Lee Ann Jung explains why most rubrics need a “renovation,” shifting them from a focus on what's wrong to a growth-oriented conversation about what’s next. By scaffolding self-directed learning in this way, we encourage students to take ownership of their learning and engage in the learning process.

Having choices in how students show their learning is critically important to access, equity, and even engagement. In addition to these compelling reasons, having choices for demonstrating understanding is a necessary condition of assessment validity. Lee Ann Jung shows how by removing the barriers to assessment, every student has the chance to shine.

Michelle Cottrell-Williams interviews Dr. Carissa McCray on how teachers can better create equitable, inclusive learning environment that assess learners holistically. Dr. McCray explains why a culturally competent education is important for everyone in our globalized world, and the all-important role assessment plays in reaching all students.

Assessments are a critical component of education, providing educators with important insights into student learning, and supporting the design of individualized instruction and support. And everything is an assessment. Carissa McCray shows how formative assessments can be embedded throughout our lessons to help both the teacher and student track progress towards learning goals.

Lisa Wennerth interviews Juuso Nieminen, whose research focuses on the student perspective in assessment, and particularly how assessment shapes students’ identities in higher education and beyond. By entering into assessment partnerships with students, can teachers disrupt the usual power relations of grading and foster student empowerment?

Jan McArthur is Senior Lecturer in Education and Social Justice in the Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University, UK. In her conversation with Michelle Cottrell-Williams, Dr. McArthur draws our attention to the all-important ‘why’ behind assessment, questions the value and meaning of grades, and examines how we might follow Maxine Greene’s exhortation to “imagine otherwise” about assessment.

Gameful learning is designing for learning. Barry Fishman asks us to consider how games might inspire our thinking about learning, reminding us that good games don’t work because they are fun; they work because they are challenging and engaging.

Who’s afraid of ChatGPT? Martin Compton argues that the machines should herald a dawn of teaching where we can realize a more humanized, compassionate, inclusive, process-focused approach to teaching, learning, assessment and feedback.

To counteract the anxiety caused by high-stakes assessments and grades, Nate Bowling invites students to focus on feedback and learning. Life is hard enough for students; assessment practices should not add to that stress.

The evaluative gaze of school is so constant a presence, so all-pervasive an eye, that many people have come to believe that children would actually not develop without it. But an oak tree does not require your opinion to grow, and believe it or not, 90% of the time, neither does a child.