This episode explores "Do No Harm" grading as a response to distance learning in the midst of COVID-19. Educators across the country are experiencing first hand how online distance learning exacerbates inequities in education. Students are struggling with more than access to proper technology and internet connectivity. There are inequities in supports, environments, and time constraints.

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.

Joe Feldman is the author of Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms (Corwin). Joe has worked in education as a teacher, principal, district administrator, and is now founder of Crescendo Education Group, which since 2013 has supported schools in adopting assessment, grading, and reporting practices that improve equity outcomes in schools.

Nate Bowling an AP social studies teacher and emigrant to the United Arab Emirates. In his teaching, writing, and advocacy, Nate challenges the politics and policies that impact his students, his classroom, and society at large.

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.

Eric is a principal at Hall Middle School in Larkspur, CA. Eric is the co-founder of Global School Play Day which is dedicated to promoting the idea that kids learn more when they play.

Aaron Blackwelder interviews Chris McNutt, a Social Studies teacher at Global Impact Stem Academy in Springfield, Ohio. Chris is the founder of The Human Restoration Project which is dedicated to promoting Progressive Education.