Grow Beyond Grades

Miriam Plotinsky is an author and instructional specialist who addresses challenges in both teaching and leading across schools with a wide range of differentiated needs. A strong advocate for student-centered learning, she provides coaching and professional development for teachers and administrators. She is the author of Teach More, Hover Less: How to Stop Micromanaging Your Secondary Classroom and Lead Like a Teacher: How to Elevate Expertise in Your School (Norton Books in Education, 2022 & 2023). Miriam is widely published in Education Week, Edutopia, ASCD Express, Middleweb, The Teaching Channel, EdSurge, K-12 Talk, and Education World. She is also a National Board-Certified Teacher with additional certification in administration and supervision.

Sarah M. Zerwin teaches Senior Language Arts and AP Lit at Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado, and author of the book Point-Less: An English Teacher’s Guide to More. You can follow her blog The Paper Graders and on twitter at @SarahMZerwin

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This episode is the continuation of my conversation with college educators Maha Bali, Jesse Stommel, and Asao B. Inoue (you can listen to the first half here). As college institutions struggle with the implications of COVID-19, it’s important for them to place equity and access at the center of considerations about ways in which college can resume. As Professor Inoue pointed out, however, we also have an opportunity to fundamentally revolutionize the academy and the way we identify and support student success.

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In this episode, I sit down with three college educators known for their commitment to creating inclusive, humane educational spaces—both in the classroom and online. All three of them have experimented with different forms of going gradeless as part of this commitment. All three have given considerable thought about teaching under the current pandemic. You can check out Part 2 of this interview here.

Maha Bali is associate professor of practice at the Center for Learning and Teaching at the American University in Cairo. She is also the co-founder and co-director of Virtually Connecting, a grassroots movement that organizes hybrid hallway conversations at conferences for virtual participants, and co-facilitator of Equity Unbound, an equity-focused intercultural curriculum for teaching digital literacies. You can find more of Maha’s writing at her blog Reflecting Allowed and follow her on Twitter at @Bali_Maha.

Asao B. Inoue is Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Equity, and Inclusion for the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts at Arizona State University. He is the 2019 Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication. He has published a co-edited collection, Writing Assessment, Social Justice, and The Advancement of Opportunity, and a book, Labor-Based Grading Contracts: Building Equity and Inclusion in the Compassionate Writing Classroom. You can find more of Asao’s writing at his blog Asao B. Inoue's Infrequent Words and follow him on Twitter at @AsaoBInoue.

Jesse Stommel is a Digital Learning Fellow and Senior Lecturer of Digital Studies at University of Mary Washington. He is co-founder of Digital Pedagogy Lab and Hybrid Pedagogy: the journal of critical digital pedagogy. He is co-author of An Urgency of Teachers: the Work of Critical Digital Pedagogy. Jesse is a documentary filmmaker and teaches courses about pedagogy, film, and new media. Jesse experiments relentlessly with learning interfaces, both digital and analog, and his research focuses on higher education pedagogy, critical digital pedagogy, and assessment. You can find more of Jesse’s writing at jessestommel.com and follow him on Twitter at @jessifer.

Sheldon L. Eakins, Ph.D. is the founder of the Leading Equity Center and host of the Leading Equity Podcast. With over 11 years in education, he has served as a teacher, principal, and Director of Special Education. Dr. Eakins has a passion for helping educators accomplish equitable practices in their schools. You can follow him on Twitter at @sheldoneakins.

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As the school year draws to a close and final grades are calculated, it is becoming clear that traditional grading is inequitable. Some students are able to remain engaged while others, for various reasons, cannot. Schools need to provide some form of summative reporting. The question is, “How can we move forward?”

Jay Percell, Ed.D. is an Assistant Professor of Teaching and Learning at Illinois State University, an author of several academic essays, and a TEDx presenter. In this episode, Jay discusses the problems with traditional grades and how the pandemic can help push us toward practices that are more accurate, equitable, and humane.

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This episode explores "Do No Harm" grading as a response to distance learning in the midst of COVID-19. Educators across the country are experiencing first hand how online distance learning exacerbates inequities in education. Students are struggling with more than access to proper technology and internet connectivity. There are inequities in supports, environments, and time constraints.

On April 22nd, Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Chris Reykdal, released a video announcing its Do No Harm grading policy. The State’s policy was written to ensure that students were not punished for a situation outside of their control that could impact future opportunities. The policy states that high schools will only give letter grades of A-D, no student can receive an F, and student grades cannot be negatively impacted—they can only improve.

This episode explores three perspectives on grading during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Monte is an English teacher in Chaney, Washington. He is a 2013 Washington State Teacher of the Year finalist, Adjunct professor at Eastern Washington University, and the author of the blog Project 180.

Let's Change Education Blog

Dr. Manuel Rustin. Manuel is a high school history teacher in Pasadena California. He is the co-host of the show All of the Above, authors a blog on Medium, where he published his piece, Give them All A’s and the recipient of the Milken Educator Award in 2011.

Dr. Rustin's Blog on Medium

All of the Above Podcast

Ken O’Connor is an education consultant, speaker, and author. Ken’s books include 15 Fixes for Broken Grades and How to Grade for Learning,

O'Connor Grading