The Grading Podcast

In part 2 of our interview with Dr. Jeff Anderson, we delve deeply into ideas about the connections between grades, behaviourism, and anti-democracy. This is a conversation that goes well beyond the "how-to" of alternative grading and explores the WHY of grades and how they connect to some of the biggest challenges we currently face in our world. Links Please note - any books linked here are likel...

In this, our first two-part episode on The Grading Podcast, Sharona and Bosley speak with Dr. Jeff Anderson, a community college math professor who has been thinking and writing about alternative assessment practices since at least March 2021. This interview was so interesting and nuanced we just couldn't fit it into a single hour! Join us for a in-depth personal and professional journey about the...

Now that we are a few weeks out from the 2024 Grading Conference, Sharona sits down with two of the organizers (and repeat guests on the pod) Dr. Ashleigh Fox and Dr. Drew Lewis. Hear about some of the highlights of the conference for each of them, as well as what they hope to achieve with next year's conference. Resources The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative...

In this episode Sharona and Bosley reflect on one year of The Grading Podcast. From memorable moments and guests to 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 Podcast Episodes mentioned in this episode (in the order they are mentioned): 6 – The Anatomy of a Learn...

A common pushback that practitioners of alternative grading get is that students "don't know how they are doing". In this episode, Sharona and Bosley take a hard look at progress tracking and communicating progress to students. We include a variety of examples of progress trackers provided by several different alternative graders and talk about the ways in which progress tracking is important, reg...

In this episode, Joe Zeccola and Dr. Ashleigh Fox join Sharona and Bosley as we look at a critique of standards-based grading written from someone in the trenches, already working in alternative grading. We discuss many of the main points of the article as a way of self-reflecting on our practices as we explore this world of alternative grading. Links Please note - any books linked here are likely...

In this episode, Sharona and Bosley speak with Dr. Latrice Bowman, a mathematics faculty member from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Latrice took the MAA OPEN intensive training on redesigning a course to use alternative grading and is back to talk about her first two times running the redesigned course. She shares lessons learned and changes made. We talk about reducing the number of learnin...

In this episode, Sharona and Bosley talk with Dr. Emily Pitts Donahoe about teaching writing in a world where ungrading is the system and AI exists. Emily is the Associate Director of Instruction Support at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning as well as a lecturer in writing and rhetoric at the University of Mississippi. She is also one of the organizers of the 2024 Grading Conferen...

In this episode we talk with Becky Peppler and Don Smith from First Educational Resources, an organization dedicated to providing K-12 school districts in North America with affordable options for professional learning to support social emotional learning, instructional coaching, professional learning communities, and grading reform efforts. We discuss their experiences with supporting grading ref...

In this episode we talk with Dr. Rachel Weir. Dr. Weir is a Professor of Mathematics at Allegheny College in Meadville, PA. She has been the Director of Faculty Development at Allegheny College for the past few years and is currently (as of when this episode was recorded) the new interim Associate Provost at Allegheny College. We talk with Rachel about her journey into alternative grading, how tha...

On this episode we welcome back the "sportscaster" of Alternative Grading, Dr. Matt Townsley, to talk about his new book Extinguishing the Fires within Assessment and Grading Reform. As Alternative Grading practices grow and take shape throughout the United States, efforts to resist these reforms are also growing. This incredible new book offers practical guidance to navigating the complexities of...

Join us as we explore some of the sessions at the upcoming Grading Conference! Sharona and Bosley share some details of the newly released schedule for the Grading Conference, as well as discuss which ones they would really like to attend. 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 yo...

If you base your grades on "authentic assessment of student work", then what do you do when technology catches up to the point where AI can do BETTER work than your students? And what about AI that can help the instructor do better work? Better feedback, easier workloads? In this episode, Sharona and Bosley share some initial thoughts and resources on how AI is going to impact the Alt Grading worl...

In this episode, Sharona and Bosley discuss some of the details of how to manage doing alternatively grading as a team. Given the extremely personal nature of grading, what are some of the steps needed to allow for personalization in an environment that is designed to have all the course sections be closely aligned. Links Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clic...

In this episode, Sharona and Boz sit down with Dr. Theresa Gaines (Gath) to talk about how they think about metacognition and power structures in the classroom. Having introduced ungrading in their previous institution, Gath shares how they are using ungrading and the principles of ungrading to address power structures in the classroom in their new institution. We also talk about metacognition, th...

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...

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...

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...

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 purch...

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 purchas...

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...

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 pur...

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...

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...

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...