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In the article Harvard EdCast: Grading for Equity, Joe Feldman stated that teachers become teachers to "empower students over their learning, and help students see the path to success that each one of them can have." This resonates with me because in a social studies project, when students were given full control about their learning they were going home to research more about their topic which was not homework. These students were motivated by the topic and thought about how they were going to present the information effectively to an audience. For a teacher, it is a very difficult outcome to achieve most of the time with the grading system.

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I would like to use the strategy of being very transparent and explicit in the goals for the students. After having written numerous rubrics, stating relevant goals related to the standards and being explicit enough for students to understand and master was very difficult of me.

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How do you change parents' ideas about homework, participation, and grades? Parents are looking at college exams and transcripts. How do you change college acceptance criteria?

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In the interview with Joe Feldman, he said, “We as teachers I think, have to forgive ourselves and give ourselves the license, to when we learn new information, to now be okay with being smarter than we were yesterday and trying these new practices…” This resonated with me because while I emphasize this kind of thinking with my students, I struggle with it as an educator. I went to bed last night agonizing over all the changes I wish I had already made, so reading this was the perfect antidote to my initial despair and guilt.

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In terms of practical next steps, I want to stop awarding points for homework (even though, or maybe especially, because I give them for completion and effort, not quality). I also want to start thinking about how to shift towards competency grading, not an averaged grade that often disadvantages students who are truly learning and growing.

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Feldman proposes that in order to generate energy and buy-in, we could frame equity in assessment this way: “If we are committed to equity as we are in our school, this is perhaps one of the last frontiers that we have to tackle if we're really serious about this.” My challenge is to make more progress on doing this work myself so I can encourage others to join me! (The "puzzles" that emerged for me are related to my stop/start/continue from days 1 and 2!)

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Feldman's comment, "I'm just saying we don't need to add the additional cognitive load of students having to figure out grading systems as well, particularly when the import of grades is so high on student outcomes and students self image," made me think about Shelly Moore's comment that each class is like traveling to a foreign country where we keep asking to students to figure out a new system. It must be super taxing on students.

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It's not that I want daily work to count for points or to factor into a final grade, but I do feel that there could be some other ways (fun ways) to track work/progress. I think about my Apple Watch and there are many days when my fitness rings reveal that I need to stand up a little more or walk a few more steps, and I do because I want to close my rings. I wonder what kind of visual progress goals learning management systems could help us create to motivate students to do the small things so they can do better on the big things? Haptics? Badges? Leaderboards?

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We've been changing up our grading practices at my school and there are still some resistant teachers. "What about accountability?" seems to be their biggest pushback. I like how Feldman explains the need for these changes in his long response that starts with this great acknowledgement: "this can be very disorienting to teachers and cause a lot of disequilibrium, because it is helping them see that the practices that they believed were right may actually be hurting students and giving inaccurate information. This is often very difficult and exciting work for teachers."

I just forwarded the long section that follows to all the teachers.

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Every student benefits, even if their grade doesn't (Brandon)

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Every student benefits, even if their grade doesn't (Brandon)

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This comment from Feldman struck me as pretty blunt and bold: "When parents first get lower grades, they get really nervous because, oh my child has been an A forever, and now they got a B in your class, and the teacher's response is, well I'm being honest with you, your child may have actually been at the B level before, but because they were doing all the stuff, and all the extra credit, it was miscommunicating to you what their level of mastery is, and I believe that they still can get an A, but now it's much clear to them of what they have to know and do."

I had a conversation with some concerned parents who were worried that their hard-working daughter might have her grades go down as a result of our changes. I had a similar response as above--but hearing it expressed in this way helps for the next time I need to have this conversation.

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I can defend equitable grading practices to students, parents, and teachers with full confidence. What I'm not fully confident about is the "But what about" responses. But what about GPA? College acceptance? What about the traditional structure of the colleges students might go to? How are we preparing them for this?

These are the arguments I get from some parents and teachers. I need that silver bullet of a college admissions representative that blesses the changes and progress we're making.

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"From the student [perspective], it adds to my cognitive load. I not only have to understand the content and try and perform at high levels of the content, but now I also have to navigate a grading structure that may not be totally transparent, and may be different for every teacher, and particularly for students who are historically underserved and have less education background, and fewer resources and sort of understanding of how to navigate those really foreign systems."

I wonder how I might do things differently in my classes to reduce this very real cognitive load students face? I try to be very explicit with expectations, rubrics, etc., but I'm sure there's more to be done!

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Borrowing from Kathy, I also want to stop awarding points for homework. Students still need the practice that homework affords, so maybe I can offer more time in-class for this?

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We do not calculate average of grades overtime. At the end of each standard being assessed we decide with the student the level that the student achieved

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I think that the challenge is getting parents to rethink education too. As educators, we get PDs like this, lunch conversations, TEDtalks, etc., but that conversation is not being held in the public sphere. Parents and guardians always default to their own experiences, which doesn't lend itself to innovation, only replication.

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I am certainly guilty of the "grade sprinkling" and adding effort grades to make kids feel better. The video made me realize that doing so is still only motivating the kids extrinsically.

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What resonated with me was the directive to be more explicit about expectations in order to better empower the students, giving them greater agency over their own "grades." We, as teachers, often go "easy" on those kids we know who have a more challenging home life. We need to keep our expectations for academic mastery at the same level for all and do our best to disregard extraneous factors (which is a BIG change for most teachers/human-beings who maintain a close relationship with their students and their families.

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I think the challenge for me is to create a rubric that has multiple "levels." Because I have boys who are in the age range of 4 through 6, the rubric for certain skills simply cannot be the same for all. Fine motor and gross motor skills are one example of great developmental differences. While some 4 year-olds can write legibly, some 6 year-olds can not yet appropriately manage a writing implement.

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A challenge for me is separating those "extraneous" factors such as behavior and home life from academic mastery. So much of kindergarten is social and emotional. Nevertheless, the benchmarks ARE quite clear and "grading" should reflect true academic mastery. I am not a point fairy, but I tend toward empathy when writing a narrative report that does include behavior and attitude evaluations when I know the family is going through a divorce, or moving, etc.

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I am the head of the Spanish department and for several years I have worked to change traditional assessment practices. Something that Joe Feldman comments in the video. We continue to host professional development workshops to improve our assessment practices.

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It strikes me that they can keep a journal where they write and intentionally make connections.

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One of my challenges is to make parents and students see that the grade is not the most important thing, that we must focus on the skills we are developing, what we are learning and useful for life.

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The video talked about the Whole Child, we need to be transparent, so explicit. This is what I try to do in my class provide examples of what is expected by providing visuals for my students.

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The challenge for me is their home life and how to change their negative think that is told to them from home.

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As an elementary teacher, I try to get to know my students and their families as much as possible.  When giving assessments or grading, it's important to not use what I know might be going on outside of school to change or manipulate my grades in any way.  It is hard though because I know some of my families who work more than one job don't have the time to help their child practice skills at home which ultimately ends up being a detriment to the child because they don't always do as well in school.

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How do we make things fair and as equitable as possible when away from school we don't have control or a say over who gets help from family members, extra support, tutoring, etc. The kids with more access to these things seem to do "better" in school but that in itself isn't equitable.

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What resonated with me was the struggle between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation for marks. In my Social Justice course, we co-construct the assignment, the rubric and the final grade with every student.

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The puzzle for me is to bring forward what I know is right to my supervisor who still wants to give 1 mark per thing rather than focus on mastery

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I think for me as a lower elementary school educator is being consistent, teaching independence and creating a space for a student to take ownership of his learning. When I am grading work, I will not identify the specific mistake instead I will circle #3 and say "Fix 1." What I like about this is it allows a child to search for the mistake and then internalize the error and fix it. More times than not, he can find the mistake quickly and makes the adjustments. I find this helps the students to slow down and it avoids careless mistakes because I am not spoon feeding him the answer.

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I have not used grades as I am a lower school teacher. I put a star on the top if the work is complete. I do feel I could be more consistent with my students teaching their families the lessons we have learned to show mastery. I have sent home our class games (math games, ELA games etc) as homework so the student can become the teacher. I have received great feedback about this as it is decreases screen time and builds quality time with family. On the flip side, I know not every family can do this and I too have not sent this style of "homework" home consistently. I wish I could find a way to do this style or homework because it will support mastery of taught lessons in the classroom.