Seemingly overnight, K-12 education shifted from a system of compliance and conformity to an online enterprise, one that has the potential for authentic academic enrichment.

If we want teachers to focus less on grades and more on feedback and growth, don’t we as administrators need to do the same?

Summative conferencing allows all students to show growth and learning without having to fit a mold or set timetable.

Empowering our students isn’t easy and doesn’t happen overnight. It requires the teacher to clarify their beliefs that students are capable of much more than they’ve traditionally been expected to do. It requires “front-loading” expectations and providing students with permission to make mistakes and take risks in the classroom.

Although summative exams may be relatively infrequent, they have had an outsized impact on the quality of formative assessment, often all but eliminating their beneficial effects.

New shoes. New markers and pre-sharpened, long pencils with perfect, nubby erasers. This school year would be better.

Students, simply put, don’t care about school. In their eyes, it’s a place to go, do what they’re told, and memorize as much as they can, then go home and finish their homework before doing something that actually interests them.

I stepped into the gradeless classroom waters because of my own stress and anxiety. I was spending too much time at home on schoolwork when I should have been bonding with my family and friends or caring for myself.

For an authentic PBL experience, students must be free to experiment, experience failure, and learn from their mistakes. Otherwise, I’m just teaching them to look to me for answers, which is the opposite of what I want to accomplish.

Students need the comfort and stability of knowing that they can fail at something significant and someone will always be there to support and encourage them. Deanna Lough shares how a shift to authentic assessment has fostered better writing—and a real sense of community and joy.

Art education is supposed to cultivate and spur the seeds of creativity, not water them down with subjective evaluations of your worth.

Word is getting around. Teachers who have embraced the gradeless system are sharing their journey with those who aren’t there yet. It's slow, but I can feel a shift, a small wave building.