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.

Learning is not a competition, and ranking and sorting have no place in the process. Differentiation and individualized learning are keys to achieving this vision. While there are challenges to attaining this ideal, it is not the impossible task that some would believe. As David explains, the benefits from this shift have far outweighed any challenges.

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.

Grades do harm, and marginalized students are often harmed the most by grades. Yet, as Juuso Nieminen points out, it is dangerous to portray ungrading as a ‘panacea’ or even as a ‘solution’ to the matters of inclusion. Instead, I see ungrading as a deeply contextual, relational practice that can promote inclusion. The critical questions are: why, for whom, and under what circumstances?

Grades serve as mirrors for the structural inequities that are woven into the fabric of our educational systems. Often used for the twin purposes of comparison and competition, grades are drivers of injustice. Josh Eyler shares an excerpt from his forthcoming book dealing with one of the biggest perpetrators of inequity in our schools today: grading curves.

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.

From a distance, personalization seems like a good thing. After all, a building block of good instruction is to know your students. But there is also a darker side. The focus on personalization in educational technology often comes at the expense of the kinds of relationships we know are important for learning. The personal learning espoused by edtech entrepreneurs often leans towards extreme individualization, and a limited view of knowledge and learning. Author Barry Fishman asks, Can we do better?

Feedback is a key component of learning. Feedback can also evoke emotional responses from students, enhancing or undermining relationality and motivation. Unfortunately, the design and delivery of assessment feedback frequently does not consciously address this socio-emotional dimension. Ameena L. Payne shares how teachers are using video feedback to build trust and humanize the feedback process.

The traditional grading system presents numerous drawbacks and limitations, a reality that became particularly evident to Rachael Kettner-Thompson as she took on teaching high school credit recovery in Chemistry over the summer. Hearing from students who held negative self-perceptions or viewed themselves as inadequate was a stark reminder that traditional grading methods can inadvertently hinder students and take away from the fundamental purpose of school—to facilitate learning and growth.

For Rhonda Higgins, going gradeless has been a journey. From learning about the impact of a zero on a 100-point scale to implementing student-led grading conferences, Rhonda now shares with others how they can reclaim their time by giving students more accountability of their learning. “Teachers should not own 100% of the assessment process,” she writes. “By grading less, students share in the responsibility.”

For Middlebury College professor, Greg Pask, a graphic syllabus is a chance to establish the tone he wants for a course. Instead of treating the syllabus as a list of rules, penalties, and a code of conduct, the graphic syllabus communicates a “welcome to learning” invitation. And although a graphic syllabus and ungrading are not corequisites, the “ welcoming vibe of the graphic syllabi pairs well with my gradeless approach.”