As a school year is completed, it's natural to reflect on what worked, what didn't, and what you'd like to do differently next year. But beyond lessons, units, and classroom management, there's another area that deserves our attention: assessment. In this episode, Tom and Natalie guide listeners through an end-of-year assessment audit built around 10 powerful questions designed to help teachers examine the effectiveness, accuracy, and impact of their assessment practices. From the quality of evidence we gathered to the role feedback played in student growth, this conversation is all about learning from the year that was.

Along the way, we explore whether grades truly reflected achievement, where compliance may have quietly influenced reporting, how students developed as self-assessors, and which assessment routines delivered the greatest return on time and energy. Rather than encouraging a complete overhaul, this episode helps educators identify a few meaningful adjustments that can make next year more accurate, more sustainable, and more supportive of student learning. Before you close the door on this school year, take a moment to learn from the evidence your own classroom produced.

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Self-assessment has become one of the most widely embraced practices in education. We want students to reflect on their learning, understand success criteria, monitor their progress, and take ownership of their growth. But what if we've underestimated how difficult self-assessment actually is? In this episode, Tom and Natalie explore the idea that students don't become effective self-assessors simply because we provide rubrics, post success criteria, or ask reflective questions. Instead, they argue that the ability to recognize quality (what researchers call evaluative judgment) must be intentionally developed through exposure, comparison, discussion, and calibration.

Together, they unpack why success criteria often fall short, how expert blind spots can unintentionally create barriers for learners, and why exemplars, feedback, and calibration conversations are so critical to helping students see quality more clearly. Along the way, they share practical strategies educators can use immediately to strengthen students' ability to judge their own work, use feedback more effectively, and become more independent learners. If you've ever wondered why students struggle to revise, self-assess, or accurately gauge the quality of their work, this episode offers a fresh perspective and a practical path forward.

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Self-assessment has become one of the most widely embraced practices in education. We want students to reflect on their learning, understand success criteria, monitor their progress, and take ownership of their growth. But what if we've underestimated how difficult self-assessment actually is? In this episode, Tom and Natalie explore the idea that students don't become effective self-assessors simply because we provide rubrics, post success criteria, or ask reflective questions. Instead, they argue that the ability to recognize quality (what researchers call evaluative judgment) must be intentionally developed through exposure, comparison, discussion, and calibration.

Together, they unpack why success criteria often fall short, how expert blind spots can unintentionally create barriers for learners, and why exemplars, feedback, and calibration conversations are so critical to helping students see quality more clearly. Along the way, they share practical strategies educators can use immediately to strengthen students' ability to judge their own work, use feedback more effectively, and become more independent learners. If you've ever wondered why students struggle to revise, self-assess, or accurately gauge the quality of their work, this episode offers a fresh perspective and a practical path forward.

The Grading Reform Leadership Lab Description

Book a Call with Tom to discuss participating in the Grading Reform Leadership Lab

Check Out Edsby Destinations

Assess THAT on YouTube!

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What happens when grading reform moves beyond theory and starts colliding with real people, real beliefs, and real resistance? In this episode, Tom and Natalie unpack the leadership side of grading reform, the part that often gets overlooked in conversations about standards-based grading, assessment reform, and reporting practices. They explore why so many initiatives lose momentum, not because the ideas are flawed, but because leaders are navigating competing pressures without a fully defensible process to anchor the work.

Throughout the conversation, they dig into the realities of leading change in schools: staff pushback, parent concerns, mixed messaging, and the tension of trying to stay grounded while moving a system forward. Tom and Natalie discuss the importance of clarity, credibility, and coherence in leadership, why pushback is not a sign of failure, and how strong assessment leadership requires more than technical solutions. Whether you’re a principal, district leader, instructional coach, or teacher helping shape grading conversations in your school, this episode offers a candid and practical look at what real leadership in grading reform actually requires.

The Grading Reform Leadership Lab Description

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Check Out Edsby Destinations

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Participation grades are still widely used in education. In this episode, Tom and Nat challenge the assumption that participation belongs in academic grades by unpacking a critical distinction: participation may support learning, but it is not the same as learning. Through a candid and thought-provoking conversation, they explore what participation grades often end up measuring: personality, confidence, compliance, and cultural norms, rather than actual understanding. The result? Grades that can unintentionally distort achievement and disadvantage certain learners.

But this episode doesn’t stop at critique. Tom and Nat reframe participation as something too important to reduce to a number, offering practical ways to make it more inclusive, intentional, and aligned with sound assessment practices. From expanding how participation is defined to separating it from academic achievement and using it as a tool for feedback and growth, this conversation will challenge your thinking and give you concrete ways to better support student engagement, without compromising the integrity of your grades.

While this episode is timely, given the recent announcement by the Ontario government, it was recorded on March 27, before the government's "Putting Student Achievement First Act, 2026" was announced in April 2026.

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In this episode, Tom & Natalie are joined by Jon Asbury, co-founder of Edsby, to discuss their new platform, "Edsby Destinations." Previously, Jon was one of the three co-founders of a company called SoftArc. SoftArc built an email and collaboration system called FirstClass back in the 90s that took the world by storm and is credited as, among other things, the first learning management system.

Edsby Destinations is a scalable, competency-based assessment and reporting system designed to help K-12 districts and state governments clearly articulate and track what students are learning, where they are headed, and how to get them there. Destinations aligns performance to local outcome frameworks and standards, enabling a student “GPS for learning” with real-time educator visibility into progress against defined success criteria. Teachers, students, and families benefit from clear, student-friendly language, multimedia evidence capture, two-way feedback, and dashboards that illuminate learning pathways at individual, class, and regional levels. Designed for large K-12 organizations and linked with existing SISes and LMSes, it ensures assessment practices scale with transparency and consistency.

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In this episode, Tom and Nat take a hard look at one of the most celebrated and misunderstood elements of teaching: feedback. While research consistently shows that feedback can significantly improve student achievement, the reality in many classrooms is very different. Too often, feedback is given but not used, leaving teachers frustrated and students unchanged. Together, they unpack five key reasons feedback fails, including the impact of grades, cognitive overload, poor timing, over-directiveness, and the emotional side of how feedback lands with students.

More importantly, this episode shifts the conversation from effort to design. Tom and Nat explore what actually makes feedback effective (not in theory, but in practice), offering clear, actionable principles that help ensure feedback leads to thinking, revision, and growth. If you’ve ever wondered why your feedback isn’t getting the results you hoped for, this episode will challenge your assumptions and give you a more intentional, impactful way forward.

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PROFESSIONAL LEARNING EVENTS

-Apr. 1-2, 2026 (Tom) Grading from the Inside Out (Franklin, TN)

-Apr. 9-10, 2026 Canadian Assessment Spring Conference (Vancouver, BC)

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Averaging feels neutral, objective, and mathematically sound, but in the context of student learning, it can quietly distort the story a grade is meant to tell. In this episode, Tom and Natalie take a deep dive into the statistics that dominate most gradebooks (mean, median, and mode) and unpack why tools designed to summarize stable data can mislead us when applied to something as dynamic as human learning. Along the way, they explore the hidden problems of equal weighting, outliers, small sample sizes, and the false precision created by decimals that suggest more accuracy than the evidence can truly support.

Through practical examples and thought-provoking scenarios, Tom and Natalie show how averaging can punish growth, hide mastery, and cement early struggles into final judgments. But this episode isn’t anti-math; it’s about measurement clarity. They explore the limited situations where averaging can be helpful and offer practical alternatives for blending statistical summaries with professional judgment so that grades communicate what they’re supposed to: a meaningful and defensible interpretation of student learning.

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PROFESSIONAL LEARNING EVENTS

-Apr. 1-2, 2026 (Tom) Grading from the Inside Out (Franklin, TN)

-Apr. 9-10, 2026 Canadian Assessment Spring Conference (Vancouver, BC)

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Across education, we hear constant concern about teacher shortages. On the surface, it seems like recruitment pipelines, retention rates, burnout, and workload are the issues. But beneath those very real challenges lies a quieter, more systemic issue: many educators have never received deep, sustained support for developing assessment literacy. When teachers lack clarity around evidence, criteria, professional judgment, and grading accuracy, everything becomes heavier. Grading expands, decision fatigue sets in, parent conversations feel tense, and confidence erodes.

In this episode, Tom & Natalie argue that strengthening assessment literacy isn’t just about improving grading practices, it’s about stabilizing the profession itself. When teachers understand what counts as evidence, how to separate behaviour from achievement, and how to make defensible judgments about learning, workload becomes more manageable, and confidence grows. Assessment literacy reduces friction, restores professional agency, and creates coherence across classrooms and schools. If we want teachers to stay (and thrive) this is foundational work we can’t afford to overlook.

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PROFESSIONAL LEARNING EVENTS

-Mar. 18-21, 2026 (Tom) EARCOS Teacher Conference (Bangkok, TH)

-Apr. 1-2, 2026 (Tom) Grading from the Inside Out (Franklin, TN)

-Apr. 9-10, 2026 Canadian Assessment Spring Conference (Vancouver, BC)

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In this episode, Tom and Nat explore a tension many educators are feeling right now: our deep desire to be compassionate in assessment and the unintended consequences that can arise when compassion gets confused with lowering expectations. Responding to student stress, disengagement, and inequity is real and necessary work. But when clarity fades, standards soften, and expectations become negotiable, students often lose the very signals they need to grow, build confidence, and trust the learning process.

Through stories, reflection, and practical examples, this conversation reframes rigour and care as partners rather than opposites. Tom and Nat argue that the most humane assessment practices are grounded in clear expectations, honest feedback, and meaningful support, not diluted standards. If you’ve ever wrestled with flexibility, fairness, or how to hold the bar while honouring students’ realities, this episode invites you to rethink what compassion truly requires in assessment.

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Join our mailing list for assessment strategies, new podcast episodes, upcoming events, and all things Canadian Assessment. JOIN HERE

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING EVENTS

-Mar. 18-21, 2026 (Tom) EARCOS Teacher Conference (Bangkok, TH)

-Apr. 1-2, 2026 (Tom) Grading from the Inside Out (Franklin, TN)

-Apr. 9-10, 2026 Canadian Assessment Spring Conference (Vancouver, BC)

NEW BOOK FROM TOM & NAT

CONNECT WITH TOM & NATALIE