Recently, I’ve spent a lot of time deriding the ‘scoreboards’ of standardized summative tests in education. Regardless of how much we complain about the state of things, I wonder if we are the monsters at the end of this book.

We are teachers who are convinced that teaching and learning can be better when we grade less.

I have lately found myself becoming “tired and sick” of structures fail to account for the richness, complexity, and wonder of teaching and learning. Why standards-based learning is not enough.

What are we saying when we consecrate testing days with such ritualistic fervor? What are we saying about learning, about life? And more importantly, are we allowed to write on the packet?

Aaron Blackwelder describes how the single-point rubric has transformed his teaching. Read how, with a few alterations, this tool has allowed him to provide more thorough and meaningful gradeless feedback

As we approach the end of the semester, it’s time renew a yearly teacher ritual: panicking about the material still left to cover before the final.

Not only do grades not encourage growth, they inhibit it. Grades take the focus off feedback. As a teacher of English language arts who prides himself on providing quality feedback, this finding is particularly disturbing.

Business still relies on carrots and sticks to motivate workers. As Daniel Pink, author of the book Drive, points out, this approach actually produces the worst outcomes when it comes to complex, 21st century tasks. Can this fundamental insight help us to revolutionize professional development?