As a biology professor who has gone gradeless in favor of a labor-based approach, Greg Pask has moved away from exams entirely. Whether at the introductory or 300 level, he has found that tests don’t support the goals for his classroom. Greg describes the three major problems with closed-note timed exams, and explores alternative approaches that address these specific shortcomings.

Nate Bowling explains why we should displace the College Board from its outsized role in education. Draining billions of dollars from families and school districts across the United States, its exams function as gatekeepers to marginalized communities that would be much better off without it. The sooner we come to grips with that, the sooner we can decide if we want the power they have to remain in their hands.

Everyone, at some time or another, reaches a quit point—the moment when an individual’s productive energy toward a specific goal drops, causing withdrawal or minimized effort. With knowledge of quit point, teachers can meet students where they are, move them into more productive phases of the quit continuum, and engage all students to learn.

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.

How do we move students from the appearance of engagement into something far more meaningful? Miriam Plotinsky argues that to “win the people,” we must include students in every stage of instruction, including what occurs before anyone sets foot in a classroom. When that happens, students access deeper levels of motivation, which, in turn, leads to more powerful learning experiences and growth.

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.

We may not be responsible for the inequities our students have faced before they met us, but they are in our care now—and we have agency over the state of equity in our classrooms. This systemic inequity is reason to not only question the status quo, but undo the harm associated with traditional assessment and teaching methods.

Assistant Professor of ELA Education, Karis Jones, shares tips and techniques for how teachers can align their assessment practices with Muhammad’s CHRE (Culturally & Historically Responsive Education) Framework: Identity, Skills, Intellect, Criticality, and Joy.

Progressive pedagogical practices come at the greatest risk for those who would have most benefit from empowering educational structures. Liz Norell, explains why those with more privileged identities must leverage their identity, positionality, and privilege in creating more inclusive learning environments.

How can we make classrooms more inclusive, engaging, exciting, relevant, and welcoming spaces for learning? Political science professor, Liz Norell, shows how, by embracing pedagogies of equity and care, we can create environments in which all students can flourish.

Scholars Ameena L. Payne and Jan McArthur propose womanist thought as a praxis that re-positions feedback as a care-full process embracing the emotional, moral, and political as well as one that leans into accountability, compassion, confidence, courage, joy, and vulnerability.

Prior to going gradeless, math teacher Andrew Burnett felt like a “data entry clerk posing as a teacher.” Now, he has ditched the data entry in favor of meaningful and timely feedback. This shift has led to greater personal satisfaction and a marked improvement in his students’ ability to understand concepts as well as to retain that understanding.