Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms

by Joe Feldman

"Joe Feldman shows us how we can use grading to help students become the leaders of their own learning and lift the veil on how to succeed. . . . This must-have book will help teachers learn to implement improved, equity-focused grading for impact." —Zaretta Hammond, Author of  Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain Crack open the grading conversation Here at last—and none too soon—is a resource that delivers the research base, tools, and courage to tackle one of the most challenging and emotionally charged conversations in today’s our inconsistent grading practices and the ways they can inadvertently perpetuate the achievement and opportunity gaps among our students. With  Grading for Equity,  Joe Feldman cuts to the core of the conversation, revealing how grading practices that are accurate, bias-resistant, and motivational will improve learning, minimize grade inflation, reduce failure rates, and become a lever for creating stronger teacher-student relationships and more caring classrooms. Essential reading for schoolwide and individual book study or for student advocates,  Grading for Equity  provides As Joe writes, "Grading practices are a mirror not just for students, but for us as their teachers." Each one of us should start by asking, "What do my grading practices say about who I am and what I believe?" Then, let’s make the choice to do things differently . . . with  Grading for Equity  as a dog-eared reference.        

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction, Professional Development, School, Social Justice, Theory

294 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 25, 2018

Reviews

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has some great ideas and I have some takeaways that I love and plan on implementing. That being said, there were some aspects that I don’t think were well done.

There were small inconsequential errors that disrupted the flow, such as saying Galileo thought the Earth was at the center of the universe and that the hundredths place is the third number after the decimal. The author also seems to seriously underestimate the intelligence of teachers. He wrote repeatedly that I likely have no idea how my grades are calculated and that the mathematical calculations involved in grading software are “inaccurate.” Getting past this, I like some of his ideas, but also think some will amplify issues of bias (e.g. encouraging teachers to disregard assignments that they don’t think represent that individual student’s performance).

[Megan Lawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did enjoy this book, though it may have frustrated me even more (especially the parts about not understanding the math of grading, I mean come on, it's weighted percentages, that's not difficult math). I like the ideas presented, I think they are important ideas presented. But I also think we have a system in place around grading that is so deep that as one teacher, or even in my case of this book study, five teachers cannot remake the entire system.

So I wanted some practical solutions and this book did not really give them to me. This absolutely made me and my fellow teachers think about and discuss equity and grading and we will continue to look for ways to be better. However I don't think that we can rebuild an entire grading system on our own.

I wanted data. I wanted peer reviewed studies and methodology of why certain methods were better or more effective and representative then others. This book does not provide those things. BUT. It did get the conversation going and that is a good thing.

[Kira · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are misleading aspects of this book, such as describing traditional grading as "impenetrably complex" (pg. 200) and citing evidence as "every professor I've ever asked" (pg. 180). Sketchiness aside, I did learn some concrete ways to make a grade book more equitable.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This by far is the best book I have read that explains the toxic grading practices in depth and how they create more inequity in our classrooms. It is a must read for all educators.

[Christine Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read it. I get it.
And on paper, it all sounds so patently obvious. Good practices.

Except I take issues with lots of things in the book...lots of places where the teacher working in the real trenches with the real kids calls BS.

For instance, my students will NOT do work that will not be "graded" in some way. The author builds the argument on the premise that students are not doing work because they are embarrassed that they can't. For 1-2 high achieving students, this may be true. For my students who stay up working until 2 am when they have to be at school at 7:30, this isn't. There's a myriad of reasons that students don't do work in class--assuming they all will magically convert if I change the way I grade is a pipe dream.

Another spot that rubbed me wrong: the assumption that all my "grades" are on summative assessments only...that I don't recognize growth...and that every assessment assesses the same skills (and therefore a student's understanding of those skills changing from task to task).
1. I DO give credit to students for the attempt. I DON'T give grades on a standard until I've taught it several times and used formative assessments (which students get credit for just attempting).
2. No student fails my class because he struggles on a test, but the writers seem to assume that all teachers are basing grades on a couple random assessments.
3. Each assessed task/activity may tackle one of hundreds of standards that I am tasked to teach. It is ridiculous to assume that every assessment will assess the same skill.

And ANY teacher working in the field will tell you that it's just not feasible to take late work over and over and over...unless you want all teachers to be martyrs to their profession. Again, deeply troubling messaging to young adults about how the adult world they are about to enter works (very few bosses will allow an employee to complete a project, and resubmit, resubmit, resubmit ad nauseum, and give employees half pay if they never even attempt it). Also, a deep lack of respect for the professionalism and time of teachers who already work way past contract hours assessing the work that was turned in on time (not including that kiddo who decides to turn in the entire term's work on the last day of school).

And so much more...

I get the issues with the 100% grading scale, and I've toyed with different ways of making it work. I still take issue with the message we send young people when they turn in nothing and receive something in return, even if that is a 50%. There are deep messages conveyed that may color a future in an unfair world. But I'm not averse to examining other methods for fixing this statistical conundrum.

On the whole, it's a good book for a conversation starter among staff, but the argument is poorly supported and the warrants underlying the argument are profoundly flawed if you want a practicing teacher to drink the Kool-Aid.

[David Schuster · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I think this book has some neat ideas, I was stunned at how little the author thinks of teachers' mathematical ability. While he kowtowed pretty carefully around general teacher ability and intention, he told me several times that I probably don't know how my grading software works. And even if I do, he said, it's not "mathematically accurate."

I know how very very difficult it is to try to get someone to want change what they're doing - you've got to convince them that there's something wrong with what their doing, but do it nicely enough that they still want to listen to you. He did not convince me.

But I'm still intrigued. I'd like to read some studies on the schools that have implemented these ideas rather just his closing chapter that says things have been going well at one single middle school that tried it. I guess that's the curse of the cutting edge.

[Isaac Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some laughably bad ideas written with a condescending tone, backed up by sketchy nonsense. Every school that has implemented these ideas has hated it and retreated from its ideals. This book needs to be retired to the tombs of bad experimental educational practices.

[Sacha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished my second read of this book recently, but I feel like I've read it many more times because I am constantly referencing pieces of it. While I am still struggling to activate some of the concepts that Feldman advocates for here, I have integrated several into my teaching, and I look forward to continuing that work.

If you're a teacher or professor looking to enhance equity in your classroom, this is an excellent place to start. It doesn't have to be an entire system overhaul, but reading about these strategies, applying as you go, and self-reflecting can make a marked impact on your students and you.

[Sean Deegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made so much sense! I’m feeling excited and invigorated to implement more equitable grading in my classroom. It will change my practice in a big way and it will make things was more clear. Hopefully, after adjusting to it, students will be able to understand the point of grades and become more intrinsically motivated.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very thought provoking, well designed, and fully grounded in research. After reading this book, I feel good about many of my school's grading policies, such as allowing late work and retakes/revisions. However, I am now even more aware of areas where we/I could improve, such as moving to standards-based grades rather than letter grades and calibrating grades with other teachers and external measures of achievement. I am also left with some questions that don't have easy answers.

For example, how do I evaluate whether my students are meeting reading standards? As an English teacher, I am a skilled reader, but I have very little training and understanding in assessing reading. I think that is true for most English teachers. Writing is a bit more clear and objective. With reading, interpretation is often very subjective. And then there's the question of text complexity. Should students have to demonstrate a skill with a text that's at grade level in terms of complexity? Whose definition of complexity? What if they can demonstrate the skill with one grade-level text and not another? Should they have to demonstrate the skill with a text that's completely new to them, without teacher support? What about the role of background knowledge?

This book suggests that if a student is performing below grade level expectations on external measures such as standardized tests, then they really should be receiving Cs or Ds on class reading assessments if the assessments are well designed. However, that is often not the case, since most English classes reward students who pay attention during class discussions with good grades even if they aren't able to independently comprehend and analyze what they're reading.

This book also suggests that students should always know "exactly what they must do to get the grade that they want." While this goal is noble, again it's more applicable to skills such as writing rather than reading. There is not always a very direct path to improving reading. It involves reading a lot and reading texts that are appropriately challenging. A high school student who is reading significantly below grade level will be able to improve over the course of an English class, but just reviewing a few reading strategies with a teacher before a test retake probably won't solve the underlying struggles that are many years in the making.

Basically, what I really want and need after reading this book is another book on how to apply these concepts to reading assessment.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Broadly, this is an important read for all educators. Evaluating our own grading practices has never been more important. I appreciated the nuance, detail, and scope of this text, starting with a foundational understanding of "how we got here", the roots traditional grading practices have in the industrial revolution and capitalism, and how these traditional practices provide hugely inaccurate understandings of student progress. The book goes on to ask important questions of educators about their practices and provide meaningful ways to reflect on and change their grading. I will say that once the book got down to actually providing meaningful ways to implement these theories, it gets a little stuck in mechanical applications of standards that I think can be equally damaging to student progress, such as implementing strict rubrics (which, as an English teacher I can tell you--super strict rubrics often do not benefit student learning and encourage students to work towards the points allotted for each "category" rather than wholistic writing--which is ironically the OPPOSITE of the author's assertion). The truth is somewhere in the middle. : )

Overall, some really important things happening here. I appreciated the perspective and thorough research.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently worked with a group of college teachers who are big fans of this book and pressed me to read it. I have to say that I’m not much taken by it. I get the premise: You want to grade students on outcomes, on what they know or can do, not on their compliance with classroom rules about attendance, deadlines, and the like.

Fair enough, I suppose, but it seems to me that this emphasis on individual outcomes tends to gloss over the value of becoming part of an intellectual community. What if what you most want to teach is how to become an active member of an ongoing intellectual conversation— how to respond to work in progress, to advance the group discussion of a particular text, to acknowledge and make thoughtful use of feedback to your own work? It seems to me that deadlines and attendance—the act of showing up having done the work—play a crucial part in such learning. I don’t get, that is, how a devaluing of process and an emphasis on outcomes promotes intellectual community.

[Gretchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parts of Feldman’s assessment of the problems with traditional grading resonate deeply and are places to which I’d largely worked myself in my thinking about what needs to change: the way a single letter grade unhelpfully collapses information about all kinds of things into one metric, the deeply embedded notion that grades are for ranking students against each other and that we need some sort of bell curve for our grades to be legitimate. Isn’t our mandate to educate every student as best possible? If that means allowing revision and retakes, doesn’t that make sense? (Although I'd argue that there are practical limits to what's possible here, as Feldman does seem to acknowledge.) And of course, there’s the devastating math of the 0 for missing assignments averaged into grades, when the part of the scale in use these days really is the C to A range, with very rare Ds and virtually no Fs. I also like Feldman’s point about not averaging assignments equally across the year, because students come in with different levels of ability and so one might want to privilege the learning that happens in one's class instead of in prior years and weight later assignments more heavily.

Other parts of the book grated, because there was a self-righteousness about them that presumed only Grading for Equity devotees (1) use rubrics, (2) define for students the goals they’re trying to get them to meet, (3) think about the skills they want students to gain, (4) design curriculum intentionally, (5) vary their methods of assessment, (6) refrain from grading classroom behavior, (7) refrain from grading homework, (8) do their own gradebook calculations, rather rely on software to do it for them. I don’t know any teacher who lets the LMS calculate grades for them! While it also may be out of step with grading norms today, it's also not de facto "mathematically inaccurate" to use a traditional 100-point grading scale to indicate that mastering 60% of content is the acceptable minimum bar.

I also know very few teachers who have time or inclination to grade homework. To some extent I wonder how much Feldman is speaking about elementary and middle school classroom practices as opposed to high school at college prep schools much more likely to operate closer to a college model.

Toward that end, the part that’s most problematic for me is the standards-based grading. It’s mechanistic and assumes that all learning is a process of linear acquisition of explicit, discrete skills and content. I finally don’t think that creative and critical thinking, talking and writing about literature or other ideas is reducible to those kind of binary measurements: mastered/not mastered. I do think it is possible to teach students what we value in engaging with texts and ideas and to help them become better at that. But mastery is a lifelong process--and performance varies from day to day and text to text, even for the best in the field. Having taught writing at the freshman undergraduate level in a program devoted to thoughtful pedagogy, I do know that both those faculty and the faculty in the other two undergraduate humanities departments in which I have taught strongly agree with Feldman that what gets graded is not effort. But neither is it a checklist of discrete skills and whether a student has acquired them. It’s the quality of the piece on the page. There are chances for revision. There is iteration and investment in a common vocabulary for talking about the elements of the essay. There are explicit examinations of writing’s structure and organization. But at the end of the day, for a multiplicity of reasons, a given piece may excel, be passable, or just not work. Progress is rarely linear. As any novelist or moviemaker or reporter or essayist or scientist knows, they may have a stellar debut book, film, lead story, or scientific finding, but it’s no guarantee that the next one will shine as brightly. Students can learn to read, think, discuss, and write better. But there’s no moment when, check, they’ve definitively mastered those skills.

I also disagree that classroom behavior is an irrelevant soft skill. Learning to sustain a dialogue with others in which your ideas build on each other is, in fact, a core skill I’m teaching. I can happily work with introverts, anxious kids, quiet intense thinkers, exuberant talkers, students with ADHD, etc. But if they don’t listen to and respond to what others say in some form, and instead try to operate in a silo, making their learning about me and them alone and disregarding classmates, they have missed a core purpose of the class. I have a rubric for all the ways a student can legitimately contribute to a class conversation or other endeavor that don’t involve quantity of contributions or brilliance of ideas. Students like that rubric. But I firmly believe in grading this aspect of a high school class full of future scientists, businesspeople, non-profit leaders, community organizers, institution directors, and Congresspeople. It's about creating intellectual community and making the whole better. In that respect my class is about civics as much as anything else.

A quibble in that vein: Feldman stands firm against grading class participation, in large part because he says that doing so is more subject to teacher bias and subjectivity than other metrics. Yet at the end of the book, he argues that teachers are experts who can lay aside a student's performance on summative assessments if the student doesn't test well and decide to weigh their memory of the student's contributions to class discussion as better proof of student mastery of the content than tests. Um, what happened to not relying on subjective memories of students' class participation?! What is a class participation grade if not an assessment of the quality of student's understanding and ideas as shared in class?

[Bowman Dickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good. I struggle sometimes thinking about tangible ways to dismantle white supremacy in the classroom and folks, your grading systems are certainly one! Thoughtful, easy to read, practical, really well done.

[Elizabeth Jorgensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you’re looking for a quick, practical read, this book is not it. You’ll have to read at least 100 pages to get any tangible examples or tips you can take and implement into your classroom.

Although Feldman recommends you read the book from start to finish, there is a lot of repetition and I found myself feeling like a frustrated student, thinking, I’ve already learned this! Why do we have to go over it again?

When the meat of the book began and Feldman actually began discussing grading in a way that I could implement, I found holes and glaring inadequacies. Even inconsistencies. For example, he advocates for removing the zero (and favors a four point system). I found myself wondering about atypical grading practices. In my grading practices, I use a one or zero, and I wanted some more examples of how to grade within non-traditional grading models and structures (within pass/fail, for example). I had problems with the “no late work” section; at first he says students should be able to hand in work over and over, but then he contradicts this and states there has to be an end point (at the end of a unit, for example).

On page 167 was this quote: “A summative assessment by definition occurs at the end of the student’s learning, after all the practice, support, and intervention has occurred and is completed.” I do not believe learning is ever done—and the process-based model of assessment I use, values learning that is always in progress.

Feldman has clearly done his research and Grading for Equity is a well-intentioned and thorough book. I agree with the vision of the book (although I had to read to page 71 to receive it): “1) grades should be accurate, vividly reflecting a student’s academic performance; 2) They are bias-resistant, preventing biased subjectivity from infecting our grades and 3) motivate students to strive for academic success, persevere, accept struggles and setbacks, and gain critical lifelong skills.”

This book had wonderful points—grades are notoriously unreliable and do little to motivate life-long learning; extra credit is riddled with pitfalls—but it just felt too long-winded for busy, practical teachers who want to quickly and efficiently instill grading practices that are accurate, unbiased, and motivating. Perhaps I should have taken cue from the book’s subtitle: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms. I wanted a book that was mostly the latter and Feldman spent at least two thirds of the book on the What and Why.

[Jamie Jobe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great summer read to get re-energized and refocused for the upcoming school year. I loved reading this and dissecting it for a book club with fellow educators from different departments. Looking forward to trying some of these things out!

[Rebecca Brenner Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

with less than a day to spare I just finished reading GRADING FOR EQUITY which is required reading for returning faculty. while not perfect, it’s pretty great & widely applicable, so I’ll share what I learned!
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ditch the participation grade, which perpetuates a “culturally narrow definition of what effort looks like”
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teaching is a high stakes activity at a formative stage: “any given day we may provide a learning experience that fundamentally alters a student’s life trajectory”
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grades are a commodity in the social relationship between educator & student. wasn’t always this way and doesn’t have to be
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“the irony in our vigorous defense of our grading is that most teachers detest the act of grading. it’s unpleasant, time consuming, and anxiety provoking.”
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don’t grade “subjectively interpreted behaviors such as a student’s ‘effort’ or ‘growth’”
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crucial to encourage “mistakes as part of the learning process”
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grades: “it can be easy to perceive them as both fixed and inevitable — without origin or evolution”
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meritocracy is a myth
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“students are motivated, engaged, and have higher achievement when they have supportive classroom climates anchored by positive relationships with their teacher”
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“how does student decide whether to trust/not trust teacher w/ that vulnerability? she evaluates teacher’s behavior when her weaknesses are exposed: ‘if I make a mistake/reveal idk something’”
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the more marginalized the student, the less likely they are to trust, which makes this dynamic crucial for equity
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mistakes are important: “teachers actually depend on students taking risks & revealing mistakes in order to help them — teachers can’t correct mistakes or misconceptions that students don’t reveal”
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don’t use grades to penalize behavior
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uniform polices support transparency & students’ sense of security
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best to communicate across departments whenever possible
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3 pillars: 1️⃣accuracy: “want grading to be accurate” 2️⃣bias-resistance: “traditional grading promotes/reinforces system that sorts students/replicates disparities” 3️⃣motivation: “orient students to value of learning rather than point collecting”
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no group grades because they distort accuracy and attempt to use grades to motivate ‘soft skills’ like collaboration, which are important but shouldn’t happen through grades
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more math doesn’t mean more fair
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extrinsic motivation techniques undermine students’ intrinsic motivation
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second chances like redos and rewrites are good- they mirror the second chances that life does give you sometimes rather than softening students
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rubrics are good to maximize transparency and minimize bias: “perhaps the most effective and pedagogically powerful ways to lift the veil on our academic targets”

[Chris Peck · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concepts are great but I felt the whole book was trying to convince me of practices I already use so for me it was rather boring. I'd probably rate it higher if I was a first year teacher.

[Jen Ghastin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Transformative. I read this book as part of an inter district book club. By the last chapter, my gradebook, grading, and teaching practices had completely transformed. I think talking about grading is a little like Plato’s allegory of the cave - you have to get in there and experiment in order to really see how it all works. When I finally made a “standards” category in my gradebook (and entered each of the standards as a non-graded assignment) I finally saw the big picture, the whole story, where the gaps were— and what my next steps are to continue to grow and be an equitable and effective teachers.

[Kirsten Higman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was foundational in changing how I grade in my classroom. I've switched to standards based grading and I believe that my grades are more meaningful because of that. I highly recommend any teacher read this book to get a good perspective on why giving zeros isn't in the best interests of your students and how to deal with instilling 'good habits' when you aren't grading for participation.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good synthesis of the problems with traditional point-based grading and clear suggestions on alternative practices that make grading more transparent to students and less susceptible to implicit biases.

[Mr. Joffre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good ideas, but not as compelling as Grading Smarter, Not Harder.

Overly utopian at times. Likely won't convince anyone who has concrete concerns about the implementation.

[Terry Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was finally able to unpack the box with this book and get back into it. It really is THE text on grading. Preservice teachers should have it as required reading and schools need to take deep dives into it. I had been hypercritical of my own grading practices over the last four years and had developed an equitable, standards based grading model for my classes, and this book put a lot of data and reasoning into words that validated my choices. It is all useful for those still using traditional grading methods, but for me personally, the discussion of group work in Ch 8 and lifting the veil in Ch 12 were especially useful. The chapter on Homework needs to be reread several times by educators until it sinks in! Also, shout out to Joe for intentionally using female pronouns throughout the text. I could tell it was a conscious choice and highlights how often male pronouns are used without notice.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book lays out a very clear argument for why traditional grading practices
1. are bias-prone
2. mathematically unsound
3. demotivating for students
4. obfuscate information about student learning

A worthwhile read if you're working in school that uses A-F and 0-100 grading practices/software and incorporates things like attendance, HW, participation and effort into grades. More attention is given to what's wrong with this system than what we should replace it with and, it is longer and more repetitive than it needs to be. But, if you feel frustrated by your grading system or need to prepare for conversations about changing grading practices with students, parents, coworkers, admin this will provide you will all the info you need.

Four star read. Five star info.

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book that is desperately needed

I can’t explain in words how fortunate I am to have come across this book at the suggestion of a colleague. It articulates my pedagogical perspective perfectly. As someone who grew up in a household and family of educators, I came to the profession later than most at 33. I have struggled to articulate why I believe what I believe when it comes to teaching and learning. I’ve always been equitable, but sometimes that equity was seen by colleagues (especially at the HS level), as lenient, soft, or a push over - none of which describes me.

Thank you for putting the science behind what I have known in my gut for decades!!! A must read not just for educators but parents too. Grades are less important than learning.

[Jen Dotsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many good ideas here, but whew it felt repetitive.

Also, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to produce anticapitalist education within the context of grinding capitalism...like, especially during pandemic, teachers are getting pretty chewed up.

I wish there were more about how grading functions elsewhere. Are there less capitalistic nations--Scandinavia--whose assessment systems are less about forming people into compliant and efficient workers?

Finally, I'm curious what critiques exist of this text. It feels weird to me when a quick Google yields nothing but praise. Sus.

[Temple Chestnut · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was hard to reflect on myself and my grading style and understand that I was not grading as equitable as I thought.

This book was a massive eye opener. And even though the book didn't have the best follow through on some topics, it was all wildly relevant to everyday teaching. It took some mental bending to apply this to post secondary education, but worth every extra bit of effort to make the leap.

I guarantee every teacher/instructor/educator will benefit from this book in at least one very impact filled way.

[Jenn Neely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grading for Equity takes a deep look into how public education uses a traditional grading system that is based on behaviors and "soft skills" rather than content knowledge. This book offers many ways to change the way teachers grade from using rubrics, to minimum grading, and a 0-4 grading scale. As a teacher I implement some of the ideas that are presented in this book, but not all. I think teaching the students the importance of completing homework and classwork without grading some or even all of it, is one of the most important pieces I'm taking away from this book. Good read.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading for all educators! It's kinda shocking how many of these equitable grading practices tie back to concepts of simple arithmetic and averages. I found the chapter on rubrics and standards-based grading to be particularly thought-provoking and an enticing challenge to incorporate into my teaching. As a newly minted department head, I am excited to have these conversations with my team!

[Tori · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t need to be convinced of many of the problems with how we grade so I could skim through many sections. However, the grading practices they suggested felt achievable (with time). Looking forward to applying some of those practices this year and building on them in subsequent years. Wish me luck!