The Grading Podcast

In this episode, Sharona and Bosley sit down with Dr. Brie Tripp and Dr. Rob Furrow, both from the University of California, Davis. Brie and Rob share their fascinating foray into introducing "second-chance grading" into their classes. They also share how this introduction led them into a research project with very interesting connections to Self-Determination Theory as a theoretical framework for evaluating the impact of Alternative Grading Practices.

Links

Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!

• Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research
• Center for Self-Determination Theory
• Content Coverage as a Persistent Exclusionary Practice: Investigating Perspectives of Health Professionals on the Influence of Undergraduate Coursework, Tripp, Et Al.
• Dr. Brie Tripp, UC Davis
• Dr. Rob Furrow, UC Davis

Resources

The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.

Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:

• The Grading for Growth Blog
• The Grading Conference
• The Intentional Academia Blog

Recommended Books on Alternative Grading (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):

• Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
• Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
• Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
• Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.

If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.

All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Music

Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation

Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

In this episode, Sharona and Bosley go into more depth about how tracking student progress on learning outcomes can provide a wealth of data to use in supporting students, improving course designs, and communicating with administrators.

Links

Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!

• How Alternative Grading Helps Me Support Struggling Students, by David Clark

Resources

The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.

Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:

• The Grading for Growth Blog
• The Grading Conference
• The Intentional Academia Blog

Recommended Books on Alternative Grading (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):

• Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
• Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
• Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
• Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.

If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.

All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Music

Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation

Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

In February 2024, with very little fanfare, Los Angeles Unified School District introduced a new grading policy, the first update since 2005. Based in Equitable Grading and Instruction principles, this new policy recommends that teachers to use equitable grading practices and states that grades should reflect student proficiency in learning outcomes. In this episode, Joe Zeccola joins Sharona and Bosley for a look into the process that went into crafting this new policy. This conversation provides some opportunities for reflection for school administrators thinking about doing this at a systemic level, as well as teachers who want to be change agents for their districts.

Links

Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!

• Los Angeles Unified School District Equitable Grading and Instruction

Resources

The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.

Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:

• The Grading for Growth Blog
• The Grading Conference
• The Intentional Academia Blog

Recommended Books on Alternative Grading (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):

• Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
• Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
• Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
• Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.

If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.

All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Music

Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation

Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

A recent post on the Grading for Growth blog sparked this interesting conversation about different entry points to starting down the alt grading path. Sharona and Bosley share their favorite choices out of the twenty shared on the blog post as well as discussing some other options of their own.

Links

Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!

• Grading for Growth - 20 Small Starts for Alternative Grading, Robert Talbert

Resources

The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.

Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:

• The Grading for Growth Blog
• The Grading Conference
• The Intentional Academia Blog

Recommended Books on Alternative Grading (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):

• Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
• Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
• Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
• Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.

If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.

All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Music

Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation

Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

In this episode, Sharona and Bosley introduce the three keynote speakers for the 2024 Grading Conference. They then share some of the new(er) and upcoming publications in the realm of grading reform. If you are looking for something new to read and a conference to attend, this is the episode!

Links

Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!

• Keeping Receipts: Thoughts on Ungrading from a Black Woman Professor, Dr. Laila McCloud, Grand Valley State University and keynote speaker at the 2024 Grading Conference
• The Tyranny of Content: “Content Coverage” as a Barrier to Evidence-Based Teaching Approaches and Ways to Overcome It, Professor Jeff Schinske, Foothill College and keynote speaker at the 2024 Grading Conference
• Grading for Equity, 2nd Edition, Joe Feldman
• Off the Mark: How Grades, Ratings and Rankings Undermine Learning, Jack Schneider and Ethan Hutt
• Human Restoration Project Podcast Interview with Jack Schneider and Ethan Hutt
• Implementing Mastery Learning, 3rd Edition, Dr. Thomas Guskey
• Standards-Based Grading: A School District's Pillar to Student Success: Matteson Elementary School District 162's commitment to student success by ... and high expectations for all students.
• Failing Our Future, How Grades Harm Students and What We Can do About It, Josh Eyler
• Grading Reform That Lasts, Eight Steps to Transforming Your School's Assessment Culture, A Roadmap to Navigating the Complexities of a Standards Based Grading System, Tom Schimmer, Megan Knight, and Matt Townsley
• Schoolishness: Alienated Education and the Quest for Authentic, Joyful Learning, Dr. Susan D. Blum

Resources

The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.

Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:

• The Grading for Growth Blog
• The Grading Conference
• The Intentional Academia Blog

Recommended Books on Alternative Grading (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):

• Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
• Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
• Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
• Grading for Equity 2nd Edition, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.

If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.

All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Music

Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation

Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

In this episode, Sharona and Bosley sit down with Jeffrey Schinske, author of the article Teaching More by Grading Less (or Differently). Jeff is a professor of biology at Foothill College, a California Community College. In 2014, Jeff co-authored the article mentioned above, which has since become a foundational article for many people who are beginning their alternative grading journey. In our conversation, we touch on why Jeff and his co-author, Dr. Kimberly Tanner, chose to write this article, how the concepts in it have played out in his own teaching over the subsequent 10 years, and where Jeff sees alternative grading going today. Jeff is also going to be one of the keynote speakers at the upcoming Grading Conference, to be held June 13 - 15, 2024.

Links

Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!

• CBE-Life Sciences Education, Editors-in-Chief: Jeff Schinske and Kimberly Tanner
• Content Coverage as a Persistent Exclusionary Practice: Investigating Perspectives of Health Professionals on the Influence of Undergraduate Coursework, Jeffrey Schinske and Kimberly Tanner, January 2024
• SEPAL: The Science Education Partnership & Assessment Laboratory

Resources

The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.

Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:

• The Grading for Growth Blog
• The Grading Conference
• The Intentional Academia Blog

Recommended Books on Alternative Grading (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):

• Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
• Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
• Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
• Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.

If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.

All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Music

Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation

Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

In this week's episode, Sharona and Bosley sit down with Dr. Joshua Bowman, mathematics professor at Pepperdine in California. Join us as we explore how the seeds sown through a blog over ten years old has had lasting impact on faculty and students, as well as our entire grading reform community.

Links

Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!

• Blog posts about Alternative Grading from Joshua Bowman:
• The audience for our grades, June 2022
• My One Goal for Teaching Next Year, July 2014
• A Reflection on Course Structure, and Standards for Calculus, August 2014
• Other Blog Posts on Alternative Grading:
• 1 Standard Per Day, Andy Rundquist, July 2014
• Computational Data Science Capstone Class, Andy Rundquist, January 2023

Other interesting links that have inspired thinking about our courses:

• The Tyranny of the Curriculum, TEDx talk by Shawn Cornally
• Assessment Idea for Calculus 1: Near Final Draft, blog post by Bret Benesh, August 2014

Resources

The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.

Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:

• The Grading for Growth Blog
• The Grading Conference
• The Intentional Academia Blog

Recommended Books on Alternative Grading (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):

• Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
• Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
• Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
• Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.

If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.

All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Music

Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation

Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

In this episode Sharona and Bosley go deeper into the comparison between standards-based grading and specifications-based grading. Looking at the four grading architecture decisions, what looks the same and what looks different between these two systems? Join us for another great conversation about grading. AND! Registration for the Grading Conference is open. Please join us virtually in June for the 5th annual conference!

Links

Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!

• American Society for Engineering Education, CoNECD conference
• What is Specifications Grading? From the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Center on Transformative Teaching
• Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilson
• How an Alternative Grading System is Improving Student Learning, from Chemical & Engineering News
• Specifications Grading: We May Have a Winner, by Robert Talbert

Resources

The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.

Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:

• The Grading for Growth Blog
• The Grading Conference
• The Intentional Academia Blog

Recommended Books on Alternative Grading (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):

• Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
• Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
• Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
• Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.

If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.

All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Music

Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation

Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

We are so very excited to be joined this week by Dr. Thomas Guskey, one of the pioneers in the area of grading reform and a huge inspiration to so many of us in this community. Join us for this extremely fun episode where we talk with Dr. Guskey about studying with Dr. Benjamin Bloom (of Bloom's Taxonomy fame) and his early work with Mastery Learning in the Chicago Public Schools. We also explore the last five decades of research into grading reform efforts, and what it takes to get people to change their grading systems.

Links

Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!

• Wad-Ja-Get? The Grading Game in American Education, Kirschenbaum and Simon
• Reliability of the Grading of High-School Work in English, Daniel Starch and Edward Elliott
• On Your Mark, Dr. Thomas Guskey
• Off the Mark, Jack Schneider and Ethan L. Hutt
• USC Center for Enrollment Research, Policy and Practice

Resources

The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.

Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:

• The Grading for Growth Blog
• The Grading Conference
• The Intentional Academia Blog

Recommended Books on Alternative Grading (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):

• Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
• Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
• Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
• Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.

If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.

All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Music

Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation

Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

On this week's episode, Sharona and Bosley speak with Dr. Theron Hitchman (TJ) about his experience with "accidentally" changing his grading while intentionally changing his classroom pedagogy to bring in Inquiry-Based Learning. Dr. Hitchman is a mathematics professor at the University of Northern Iowa. He teaches a variety of courses from upper-level Mathematics courses for majors to courses for future teachers, biologists, and physicists.

His story of intentionally and transparently changing his pedagogical practices by getting colleague and administrative buy in while simultaneously changing his assessment practices "under the radar" provides an interesting look at how pedagogy and assessment intertwine to allow each to become more effective.

Links

Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!

Mentioned in the Episode:

• Jane Shevtsov on Twitter
• The Academy of Inquiry Based Learning
• Stan Yoshinobu, University of Toronto
• Mike Starbird, University of Texas at Austin
• Carol Schumacher, Kenyon College

Resources

The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.

Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:

• The Grading for Growth Blog
• The Grading Conference
• The Intentional Academia Blog

Recommended Books on Alternative Grading (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):

• Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
• Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
• Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
• Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.

If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.

All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Music

Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation

Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.