Equitable Grading: A Competency-Based Education Entry Point and Core Practice
CompetencyWorks Blog
For anyone who has tried to improve grading – whether as a teacher in their classroom, a school leader among their faculty, or a district leader in their school communities – to say it is a bumpy path is often a gross understatement. Grading, to most teachers, represents their sense of identity in the classroom, how they relate to their students, and key beliefs about how students learn and are motivated. Regardless of how involved parents and families are in their children’s education, grades represent access to post-secondary opportunities, fair competition, upward social or economic mobility, status, and a return on investment. When we want to improve grading, everyone has an opinion, because everyone has a stake.
And yet this bumpy path is critically important, and one that increasing numbers of educators are willing to walk – whether directly through equitable grading or in the process of larger educational shifts, such as to a competency-based education (CBE) system – in order to improve learning outcomes for young people. In the ten years that my organization and I have been researching, advocating for, and supporting schools and districts with equitable grading, we have guided teachers and leaders on this path, helping them pivot around potholes. Fortunately, two factors make this path a bit smoother, or perhaps provide a tailwind to the journey.
First, decades of research, catalogued extensively in my book, overwhelmingly shows that traditional grading perpetuates achievement disparities, undermines effective teaching, harms students, and is often inaccurate. Recently, in the Equitable Grading Project’s review of over 33,000 student grades, over 60% of grades did not match the student’s understanding of course content on an external assessment. The best argument against improvements to grading is that those changes “won’t work,” but ample evidence from teachers shows that more equitable grading results in improvements to grade accuracy (both less grade inflation and less grade depression), fairness, and student motivation – particularly of those students historically underserved: students from families of lower income, with special needs, and who are Black or Latinx.
Second, because few teachers receive any training or coursework on grading, in our experience they are often curious to learn about one of the most under-supported aspects of their profession. Filling this knowledge gap provides the opportunity for teachers to learn about the beliefs and inequities initially embedded into our current grading practices during the Industrial Revolution and how much those ideas conflict with our contemporary understanding about schools, effective teaching and learning, and what students are capable of. With this foundation, and despite trepidations, teachers are excited to try improved, more equitable, grading practice.
Mapping the Connections Between Equitable Grading and CBE
One thing that engages teachers and leaders on this path, and that sometimes surprises them, is that by reflecting on grading practices, they necessarily encounter important questions not just about grading, but about our work as educators: What are our course outcomes? How do we transparently communicate those expectations and each student’s position relative to those outcomes? How and what do we validly assess to confidently know each student’s current understanding? How do we report that information accurately, fairly, and consistently?
On the road toward more equitable grading, teachers make key decisions: to improve the grading scale to be more mathematically sound, to separate student understanding of course standards from their behaviors, to distinguish summative and formative assessments, and to give students multiple opportunities to demonstrate understanding. These decisions often prompt teachers to explore larger principles and strategies to improve their classrooms and schools, like those in competency-based education. For example:
- Changing the grading scale requires getting clear on the learning outcomes – the competencies of a CBE system – and separating habits of work and behaviors from academic knowledge and transferable skills.
- Distinguishing between summative and formative assessments is an essential part of making decisions about progress based on mastery.
- Providing multiple opportunities to students to demonstrate understanding makes assessment meaningful and gives students more agency over their learning.
Improving grading is not applying a set of technical “fixes;” it is a pathway to improving teaching and learning. That’s why so many school and district leaders prioritize grading to be a lever for wider instructional improvements.
What I personally didn’t realize until more recently was that this path – from grading to larger questions about teaching and learning – goes in both directions. CBE starts with the fundamental questions of our work as educators: What does learning look like? What do we expect students to know and do? How can we recognize and construct different learning pathways and timelines? In answering those questions, educators necessarily encounter, and must resolve, the practical and philosophical elements of grading. That’s why grading is woven throughout Aurora Institute’s comprehensive and visionary Quality Principles for Competency-Based Education. More accurate, fair, and motivational grading – in other words, equitable grading – is inextricably part of CBE.
In other words, while CBE often starts with the big questions that, over time and translation, can lead to improved grading, equitable grading starts from the other direction.
Choosing an On Ramp to Improved Learning Experiences
Each starting point has its appeal. CBE exists within a larger ecosystem of learner-centered transformation and invites us to address larger philosophical and pedagogical questions as individual educators and as a community. Grading is just one consideration among a complex, interconnected set of curricular, instructional, and assessment systems that reflect larger ideas about what learning looks like and our vision for student success.
On the other hand, if the large philosophical questions in CBE seem overwhelming, equitable grading doesn’t require educators to answer them before moving forward. Equitable grading provides an accessible, immediate starting point for teachers seeking to improve their day-to-day work.
The synergy between equitable grading and CBE creates a check-and-balance relationship as well. CBE ensures that we aren’t treating grading improvements as a set of simplistic remedies independent of deeper questions of education, questions that CBE can help us answer when we’re ready. And equitable grading ensures that we don’t just develop a policy document of aspirational student outcomes that makes a nice poster or sits on a shelf with minimal translation into classroom practices. Plus, the lens of equitable grading helps us to better understand the impact of our policies and initiatives: Do these changes result in all students having access to opportunities they are prepared for, leveling the historically-uneven playing field?
The bottom line? It doesn’t matter how educators get on the path of improved learning – whether attracted by the world of competency-based education, or drawn to the concrete practices of equitable grading. What matters is that both provide an on-ramp to high-quality educational experiences for all children.
Learn More
- Equitable Grading Project report: Can We Trust The Transcript?
- CBE in Practice: Grading
- Equitable Grading Anchors NYC’s New Grading Policy Toolkit
Joe Feldman has worked in education for over 20 years, including as a teacher, principal, and district administrator, and is the founder and CEO of Crescendo Education Group, which since 2013 has supported hundreds of K-12 schools, districts, and colleges/universities nationwide and thousands of teachers and administrators to improve grading and assessment practices. He has presented at numerous education conferences, including the California School Boards Association and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and has been interviewed by many local and national media outlets, including CNN and the Los Angeles Times. His writings have been published in Education Week, Kappan, Education Leadership, District Administrator, and Black Press USA, and his book, Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms (Corwin) first published in 2018, has just been published in its second edition. Joe earned his B.A. from Stanford University and a Master’s degree in Teaching and Curriculum from the Harvard School of Education. He lives in Oakland with his wife and two children.