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Jesse Stommel
Jesse Stommel!
Ungrading
Eliz. Gruner, U of Richmond
Jayme Dyer
Reading for today
Ungrading… or “alternative grading”
Greenfield Community College
New Faculty Seminar, April 11, 2025
Today’s Agenda
Here is what we will do!
Are you already using some alternative grading practices?
What might ungrading look like for you?
Discussion
Wrap up
We’ll talk about next steps, and our responses to these ideas.
Welcome, intro to this topic
We’ll talk about our own experiences being graded, why we grade, and how we feeling about grading.
Take a moment. Think about 2 or 3 different memories of times that you were graded. Write them down.
Plan to share one or two of your memories with a partner or us.
What came up?
What surprised you about what you remembered?
What feelings are associated with each of these memories?
There is copious evidence that grades are not a good measure of learning, that they inhibit intrinsic motivation, and that they create a competitive environment between students and hostile relationships between students and teachers. We can't entirely remove grades quite yet, because they are hard-coded into so many of our educational systems, but teachers can (and should) raise our collective eyebrows at grades. And we should do this work together with students (Stommel).
When We Talk about Grades, We Are Talking about People… - Sean Michael Morris
Consider: Why do you grade?
Make a list of ALL the reasons.
Share your list with a partner/us.
What are the most common reasons?
What do we hope grading does for our students?
What does it really do?
Evaluation vs. Assessment
Evaluation
the primary function of grades in our educational system
evaluation implies objectivity, but grades are not objective
the effect on students is varied - many equate their worth with their grades
Assessment
to help students grow and make progress
like a north star to aim towards
an act of care that demonstrates our commitment to their success
Intent vs. Impact
I got an 83…
What does that mean?
What else might it mean?
And what else… and what else?
How do grades affect students?
Research shows…
Less interest in learning, focus on grades
Ignores improvement, since it includes all the poor grades along the way to excellence
Creates competition with peers, rather than collaboration
Discourages competence because students cannot make up/change/fix what they got “wrong”
Preference for easier tasks, less risk-taking
How do grades affect you as a faculty member?
makes you a judge, rather than a coach
limits your ability to provide constructive feedback
limits you and removes your “subjectivity”
focus on grading, rather than assessment
requires uniformity rather than response to individual students
In traditional grading models
In Alternative grading models
Ungrading is…
. . . . an umbrella term for any assessment that decenters the action of an instructor assigning a summary grade to student work.
While there are many ways to do ungrading, instructors generally provide students with formative rather than summative feedback, which may be combined with student self-evaluation and/or peer feedback, as well as dialogue with the student (Lafayette College website).
Qualities of Ungrading
Emphasis on feedback
Self-paced learning
Opportunities to re-do, improve work
Supportive learning community
Student choices
A focus on competence, improvement, & excellence
(1) an active and ongoing critique of grades as a system, and
(2) the decision to do what we can, depending on our labor conditions, to carefully dismantle that system (Jesse Stommel)
Benefits of Ungrading
less stressful
focus on learning
takes less time
more fair & equitable
you can recognize the “whole” student
better relationships with students
Like lots of things!
Ungraded work, or minimal grading
Qualitative feedback with no number or letter grade
Pass/Fail or other simple/limited gradations
Students self-assessing
Peer Assessment
Contract grading
Standards-based
Portfolios
Collaborative grading
What does “ungrading” look like?
If you “ungrade”...
What can you start with?
Take one Step!
Inside Higher Ed article
Jesse Stommel is well known in the upgrading world and provides lots of resources
Ungrading (2020)
Recent Chronicle of Higher Ed article
(need to log in with subscription)
Grading for Equity - interview with Joe Feldman
References & Further Reading
new (2024) book by Josh Eyler
Thank You!
Do you have any questions?
email me!
mccarthyl@gcc.mass.edu
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