Robert Talbert shares about the principles of grading for growth on episode 510 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast.

In one shot, she can’t get a B in the class. And I sat there and just watched her sense of self worth and her excitement in the class just decay away right before my eyes.

When you look at grades as we often use them in a traditional setting, they are much of what we do is under the guise of object what we think is objectivity.

The biggest thing that’s broken about grades is that traditional grading is completely disconnected from the notion of a feedback loop.

Give helpful feedback that doesn’t humiliate the student, affirms their basic dignity as a human being, and highlights what went well. Helpful feedback also highlights what could use some work and invites students to collaborate with you to make it better.

Reattempts without penalty, that’s the closing of the feedback loop.

Points used for grades are a judgment call that results in a label.