Ungrading and Alternative Grading, critical conversations and strategies for rethinking and broadening learning assessment beyond traditional grades, have been circulating through higher ed for some time. Some recent publications, and some unplanned experimentation with ungrading during COVID, have brought further attention to the issues and opportunities.
Cromwell continues to support a Faculty Learning Community focused on Alternative Grading, and invites all who might be interested to get in touch with us for more information. We also recommend conversation with our colleague, Dr. Dylan Poulsen, who has developed in his math courses a substantial alternative grading approach known as specifications grading.
We’d also recommend two recent publications for further exploration of this topic: Grading For Growth: A Guide to Alternative Grading Practices That Promote Authentic Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education, by David Clark and Robert Talbert. Undoing the Grade: Why We Grade, and How to Stop, by Jesse Stommel.
Ungrading does not mean throwing out grades entirely, particularly since most institutions still require them. Rather, ungrading means that you do not restrict your assessment of students and their learning to a numerical scale that, research has shown, is problematic for motivation and growth–the very things we typically claim grades do. Additional research regarding equity also raises concerns with grades and standardized assessments and extends discussion of alternative grading strategies to issues of inclusive pedagogy.
That’s a lot to take on and rethink; since these are partly institutional matters and traditions, it’s too much to do everything at once and on your own. We recommend the “ungrading” of attendance and participation as a good starting point for further discussion and possible exploration. This does not mean not having an attendance or participation policy, or valuing both in your courses; it could mean not restricting the value you place upon attendance or participation to the value of a number or letter. In Spring 2023, Cromwell CTL co-hosted a town hall with SGA leaders on the topic of adjusting to campus life and academic work during and after recent disruptions. Concerns with attendance policies and practices were raised for faculty to consider.
We’d like to host further discussion about attendance and student engagement in Spring 2024. We don’t have any magical solutions, since we are also working through challenges we face with student attendance and participation. But we do think exploring and sharing some alternative approaches to this topic can be productive for both students and course instructors. In advance of those discussions, and in time for you to consider and potentially reconsider your own attendance and participation policies for the spring semester, here are two discussions we recommend:
Emily Pitts Donohue, “Helping Students Track Attendance and Engagement,” Unmaking the Grade [a substack where the author is recording and tracking their own unfinished and imperfect attempt to ungrade a writing course]
Robert Talbert, “Prioritizing Participation,” Grading for Growth [substack on alternative grading research and practice by the authors of the book]