Education Upgrade with Jake Schulke

Should cheating mean an automatic zero?

When a student cheats, should the consequence always be a zero—or should a grade continue to measure what the student actually knows?

In this Essential Question, Jake Schulke and Morgan Torres-Unger-Castleberry explore academic integrity, cheating, and grading through the lens of Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman. They discuss whether cheating should be treated as a disciplinary issue, an assessment issue, or both, and examine how teachers can uphold academic honesty while ensuring grades remain an accurate measure of student learning.

Topics include:

• Academic integrity and cheating
• Whether cheating should result in an automatic zero
• Punishment vs. measuring learning
• Mastery-based grading
• Retakes and reassessments
• Formative and summative assessment
• Grading for Equity (Chapters 9–10)

This clip is part of Episode 18 of Education Upgrade, a discussion of Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman and how grading practices influence learning, motivation, and student success.

📚 Book Discussed: Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman (Chapters 9–10)

🎙️ Watch the full Episode 18 for the complete conversation on grading, assessment, educational equity, and mastery learning.

#Education #Teaching #EducationReform #GradingForEquity #AcademicIntegrity #Assessment #Teachers #EdChat #MasteryLearning #EducationUpgrade

What makes a teacher truly effective?

In this conversation, Jake Schulke sits down with educator and Navy veteran Brett Barker to explore classroom leadership, student relationships, and what movies can teach us about education, adolescence, and growing up.

Drawing from experiences in the military, continuation high schools, and middle school classrooms, Brett and Jake discuss why relationships matter more than authority, how healthy boundaries create better learning environments, and why the best educators never stop learning from their students.

The conversation eventually turns to storytelling and film, exploring how movies like Mean Girls, Dead Poets Society, and Dangerous Minds continue to shape the way we think about teachers, teenagers, and the human experience.

Questions explored

• What makes students respect a teacher?

• Can military leadership improve classroom management?

• Why do relationships matter more than authority?

• How do continuation high schools differ from traditional schools?

• What can teachers learn from their students?

• Why do movies resonate so strongly during adolescence?

• What does Dead Poets Society teach us about education and purpose?

• How do stories shape our beliefs about teachers and schools?

Topics covered

• Classroom management

• Educational leadership

• Continuation high schools

• Teacher-student relationships

• Military leadership

• Adolescent psychology

• Student motivation

• Film and education

• Mean Girls

• Dead Poets Society

💬 We'd love to hear from you. Which teacher had the greatest impact on your life? And what movie best captures adolescence? Share your thoughts in the comments or connect with us using the link below.

🎙 Education Upgrade explores education, psychology, leadership, and learning through conversations with teachers, researchers, and educational leaders.

New full episodes, Reel Talk, educational clips, and Essential Questions are released regularly.

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Chapters

0:00 Introduction & Brett's Journey into Education

9:42 What Continuation High School Taught Us About Students

24:30 The Teachers We'll Never Forget

42:43 Are Schools Teaching the Right Things?

1:03:25 What's Holding Public Education Back?

1:17:26 What Can Teachers Learn from the Military?

1:29:20 Why Literature Still Matters

1:34:32 Reel Talk: The Movies That Shaped Our Generation

1:53:24 Dead Poets Society and the Purpose of Education

2:02:03 The Evolution of Teen Films

2:19:06 Do Movies Shape Culture—or Reflect It?

What should grades actually measure?

Should a student's grade reflect what they know—or how well they comply with deadlines, homework, participation, and extra credit?

In this Essential Question, Jake Schulke and Morgan Torres-Unger-Castleberry explore one of the most fundamental questions in education: What is a grade actually supposed to measure?

The discussion examines mastery-based grading, formative versus summative assessment, behavior-based grading, extra credit, homework, classroom compliance, and why so many grading systems unintentionally reward behavior instead of learning. They also discuss why students often ask, "How can I get my grade up?" instead of "How can I understand this better?" and what that reveals about the way we've designed school.

Topics include:

• What grades should actually measure
• Mastery vs. compliance
• Homework, deadlines, and participation points
• Why extra credit often undermines equity
• Formative and summative assessment
• Student motivation and grading
• Standards-based and mastery-based grading
• Grading for Equity (Chapters 9–10)

This clip is part of Episode 18 of Education Upgrade, a discussion of Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman and how grading practices influence learning, motivation, and student success.

📚 Book Discussed: Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman (Chapters 9–10)

🎙️ Watch the full Episode 18 for the complete conversation on grading, assessment, educational equity, and mastery learning.

#Education #Teaching #EducationReform #GradingForEquity #MasteryLearning #Assessment #Teachers #EdChat #StandardsBasedGrading #EducationUpgrade

Many grading systems treat meeting deadlines as part of academic achievement... but should they? In this discussion from Education Upgrade, Jake Schulke and Morgan Torres-Unger-Castleberry explore the purpose of deadlines, homework, late work, and grading through the lens of Grading for Equity. They compare school expectations with the real world and ask whether grades should measure learning or compliance.

Watch the full Episode 18 for the complete conversation.

#EducationUpgrade #GradingForEquity #Assessment #Education #Teachers

This video is a focused clip from Education Upgrade Episode 17.

Why do some students believe they're "just bad at math" or "just not good writers"? Jake and Morgan explore the idea that many long-term academic struggles begin with missed foundational skills in elementary school.

From multiplication and division to paragraph writing and essay structure, they discuss why third grade may be one of the most important years in a student's education—and why moving students forward without mastering those fundamentals can create learning gaps that persist for years.

For the full conversation and additional context, watch or listen to Education Upgrade Episode 17.

This is a clip from Education Upgrade Episode 17.

Jake and Morgan explore why many people spend years chasing happiness, only to discover that peace may be the better goal. They reflect on growing up, finding purpose, and what truly matters.

For the full conversation, watch or listen to Education Upgrade Episode 17.

#EducationUpgrade #EssentialQuestion #PersonalGrowth #Happiness #Peace

In this episode of Education Upgrade, Jake Schulke and Morgan Torres-Unger-Castleberry continue their Grading for Equity book study with an in-depth discussion of Chapters 9 and 10, the core of Joe Feldman's framework for equitable grading.

The conversation examines fundamental assumptions about grading, including what grades are intended to measure, the role of homework and deadlines, mastery learning, reassessment, cheating, classroom authority, assessment design, and the use of AI to develop high-quality rubrics. Throughout the discussion, they explore practical strategies for designing grading systems that more accurately measure learning while encouraging teachers to critically evaluate and refine their own grading practices.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction & Returning to Grading for Equity

02:00 Why Chapters 9 & 10 Matter Most

08:24 Study Strategies: How to Read Educational Books

13:05 Deadlines, Homework, and What Grades Should Measure

27:00 From Percentages to Mastery-Based Grading

39:30 What Should Grades Actually Measure?

53:55 Creativity, Assessment Design & AI-Generated Rubrics

1:01:30 The Illusion of Control in Education

1:13:30 Cheating, Motivation & Student Behavior

1:30:20 Building an Ethical Grading System

1:46:35 Reengineering Your Grading Philosophy

1:52:00 Final Reflections & Looking Ahead

#EducationUpgrade #GradingForEquity #Education #Teachers #Assessment #MasteryLearning #StandardsBasedGrading #EducationalLeadership #Teaching #Cheating #Learning #EdChat #AIInEducation

This clip is an excerpt from Education Upgrade Episode 17.

In this conversation, Jake and Morgan explore a deceptively simple question: What is a teacher's most important job? Drawing on experiences in traditional and continuation high schools, they discuss relationships, mentorship, student engagement, and why helping students feel seen may matter as much as the curriculum itself.

For the full conversation and additional context, watch or listen to Episode 17.

#Education #Teaching #EducationUpgrade #AlternativeEducation #StudentSuccess #Mentorship #Teachers #Learning #SchoolCulture #EssentialQuestions

This Reel Talk episode is an edited segment from Education Upgrade Podcast Episode 17 featuring Morgan Torres-Unger-Castleberry.

In this conversation, Jake and Morgan discuss Mean Girls and explore a larger question: What role did movies once play in adolescent development?

Drawing on themes from the Education Upgrade essay Reel Talk: The Role of Teen Movies in Adolescent Development, they examine why films like Mean Girls, The Breakfast Club, and Dazed and Confused resonated so deeply with generations of young people. The conversation explores belonging, identity, social dynamics, and the universal challenges of growing up.

Related essay:
https://educationupgrade.substack.com/p/reel-talk

For the full conversation, including discussions on education, mentorship, learning gaps, and student development, watch or listen to Education Upgrade Podcast Episode 17.

Topics include:

• Mean Girls and adolescent development
• Why teen movies mattered
• Belonging and social identity
• Shared cultural experiences
• The lessons movies teach about growing up
• Why these stories continue to resonate today