Secondary School Grading Policies and Methods by Diane P Tutin

How Grades Fail (And What YouCan Do About It)

dtutin — 2025-09-13 01:44:18 UTC

Grading is an area of personal challenge (and frustration) for me. I'd prefer to avoid it and focus on feedback, as well as goal setting for future growth. I agree that grading often lacks value beyond being used as currency. I feel strongly that students shouldn't be graded based on knowledge and skills developed outside of the course's content.

A restorative approach to grading

2025-09-13 13:35:54 UTC

This article is about a 'restorative' approach to grading. This teacher grades her students with a combination of assessments and 'daily grades', which reflect effort, attendance, behavior, and engagement more than testing any skill or memorization. She also refers to her grading practice as a 'no zero policy', where students aren't punished for factors beyond their control, such as tardiness or distraction.

Contract Grading

sd114_2 — 2025-09-13 16:46:14 UTC

As a student, I really enjoyed contract grading because I know exactly what was expected of me to get the grade I signed up for. It really gave me more motivation for the class. Then again, the student experience is very different than the educator experience.

2025-09-16 14:15:54 UTC

My school tried to switch to the type of solution the article brings up - and it really didn't go well. I do think grades are important, but it was interesting to see the points that this article brings up.

Our Grading System Was Setting Students Up to Fail Until This Change

2025-09-16 20:32:56 UTC

This article details one school's efforts to implement standards-based grading. This switch did not automatically have a positive impact, rather, teachers and the school community had to negotiate elements of the new grading system in order to make it work.

Summit Reflection: Grading, Gamification, and the “Game” of School

2025-09-17 00:42:24 UTC

When searching for articles on grading, I came across the idea of gamification. Gamification refers to grading and engaging students like they would be in a game. This could look like using a point system, badges, leaderboards, etc. The article I chose summarizes a presentation done by Barry Fishman, a professor of learning technologies. He shares a new take on gamification, explaining the difference between using games to teach and developing the classroom like one would develop a game.

Equity vs Quality?

mf109_1 — 2025-09-17 07:02:50 UTC

Ughh this is such a critical conversation! At what point do we need to consider the quality of work over the effort of work? In some respects, I am a major proponent of everyone’s best is individual and personal based on their experiences and abilities; however, in the name of equality, I do feel guilty when Student A’s best is completing two questions and Student B’s best is completing the entire assignment. I want to employ equitable practices in my classroom, but how do I continue to motivate Student B? So much food for thought 😮‍💨 (The above article is a definitions guide and my article of choice is below!)

Mastery-Based Grading

cm104 — 2025-09-17 19:47:54 UTC

I had one math professor use mastery grading, and I really enjoyed the approach of having questions with increasing levels of difficulty. Even before I received a "grade" on an assessment, I could concretely understand my level of mastery of each topic based on my ability to complete each level of questions on the assessment.

Getting Rid of Zeros Won’t Fix the Grade Book

2025-09-24 18:24:36 UTC