Grading for Equity

Raise standards and improve learning for all students through equitable grading

Grading one of the most important responsibilities of teachers with major implications for students academic and life trajectories is ironically also among the most enigmatic and frequently avoided topics in education. Although most teachers sense that common grading practices are often ineffective, there is limited understanding of how those practices can undermine effective teaching and harm students, particularly those historically underserved. It is long past due to implement grading practices that are more accurate, bias-resistant, and motivational, and which improve student learning, empower teachers, and transform classrooms as a result.

In this newly updated edition of the best-selling Grading for Equity, Joe Feldman provides a valuable resource for anyone invested in grading and its impact on students education, mental health, and future opportunities. Offering a research-based alternative to the status quo, this practitioner-friendly guide provides

• Extensive revisions that reflect how the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement shifted traditional grading systems
• New data from both academic research and classrooms that demonstrate the benefits of equitable grading for all students
• Clear approaches to implement equitable grading practices
• Updated information on several equitable grading practices, including proficiency scales

• A new concluding chapter that explores implementing equitable grading system-wide With a down-to-earth style driven by the author s own curiosity as a teacher, principal, district administrator, and university instructor, this book will invite and challenge you to think about how more equitable grading, when implemented effectively, creates a more rigorous, humane, and positive school experience for all.

  Autorentext
  Joe Feldman has worked in education at the local and national levels for over twenty years in both charter and district school contexts, and as a teacher, principal, and district administrator. He began his career as a high school English and American history teacher in Atlanta Public Schools and was the founding principal of a charter high school in Washington, DC. He has been the Director of Charter Schools for New York City Department of Education, the Director of K12 Instruction in Union City, California, and was a Fellow to the Chief of Staff for U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley. Joe is currently CEO of Crescendo Education Group (crescendoedgroup.org), a consulting organization that partners with schools and districts to help teachers use improved and more equitable grading and assessment practices. Joe graduated from Stanford University, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and NYU Law School. He is the author of several articles on grading, assessment, and equity, and the author of Teaching Without Bells: What We Can Learn from Powerful Practice in Small Schools (Paradigm). He lives in Oakland, California with his wife and two children.

  Inhalt

  Acknowledgments
  About the Author
  Preface to the 2nd Edition
  A Note About Language and Terminology
  Prologue: Mallory's Dilemma
  PART I: FOUNDATIONS
  Chapter 1. What Makes Grading So Difficult to Talk About (And Even Harder to Change)
  Chapter 2. A Brief History of Grading
  PART II: THE CASE FOR CHANGE: HOW TRADITIONAL GRADING THWARTS EFFECTIVE AND EQUITABLE TEACHING AND LEARNING
  Chapter 3. How Traditional Grading Stifles Risk-Taking and Supports the "Commodity of Grades"
  Chapter 4. Traditional Grading Hides Information, Invites Biases, and Provides Misleading Information
  Chapter 5. Traditional Grading Demotivates and Disempowers
  PART III: EQUITABLE GRADING PRACTICES
  Chapter 6. A New Vision of Grading
  Chapter 7. Practices That Are Mathematically Accurate
  Chapter 8. Practices That Are Mathematically Accurate (Continued)
  Chapter 9. Practices That Value Knowledge, Not Environment or Behavior
  Chapter 10. Practices That Value Knowledge, Not Environment or Behavior (Continued)
  Chapter 11. Practices That Support Hope and a Growth Mindset
  Chapter 12. Practices That "Lift the Veil"
  Chapter 13. Practices That Build "Soft Skills" Without Including Them in the Grade
  Chapter 14. Putting It All Together: Nick and Cathy
  Chapter 15. Systemwide Grading Coherence
  Epilogue: A Return to Mallory's School
  Bibliography
  Index