Grading student work is a core aspect of education. Traditional grading practices using points-based systems are ubiquitous, where numeric scores representing individual assignment grades are combined using variations of weighted averaging to determine an overall course grade. However, educators are more frequently recognizing that such approaches may have negative consequences. As a result, educators are exploring alternative approaches to grading that aim to address drawbacks of traditional practices.
Such approaches are often labeled equitable grading practices (EGP), because they are less subject to the implicit biases embedded in traditional grading practices. They also offer increased opportunities to accommodate factors outside the classroom that can negatively affect students, including work schedules, family life situations, or caretaker roles. These factors can disproportionately affect students from marginalized communities. By providing greater opportunities to reduce the grading impact of such external factors, which have nothing to do with content mastery or learning outcomes, such alternative practices can be more "equitable."
However, educators interested in EGPs often do not know where to start or how to adapt practices to their specific classroom situation. While many educators would explore alternative grading if they knew how, lack of easy access to clear descriptions of practical techniques is a significant obstacle. This situation is complicated by the fact that not all techniques work in every situation, instead embodying trade-offs that require consideration, with some being more advantageous for particular class sizes, or particular learning tools, or particular course content, etc.
This Playbook collects practical recipes (or "plays") describing specific grading practices instructors can choose to employ. It is organized into chapters that are each centered around specific aspects of a course's grading policy. Plays within a chapter aim to describe various practices one might consider, including a discussion of the tradeoffs and an explanation of how to apply the grading practice. Individual plays also include a discussion area at the bottom where anyone in the community can add their own experiences with the practice, ask questions, or further develop ideas.
This Playbook is a community-driven resource that welcomes contributions. All contributions are covered by the CC BY-NC-SA license (see LICENSE). We welcome contributions of all of the following types:
- Suggestions for new plays/recipes to include
- Comments or shared experiences added to the discussion of existing plays
- Writing entirely new plays
- Editing/fixing content
Please read How to Contribute for instructions on how to file an issue (to suggest new plays or corrections) or to create a pull request (for new/revised content contributions). Or, when viewing any page in the playbook in the live online site, you can click the GiitHub icon in the header of the left sidebar table of contents to go directly to the corresponding source file on GitHub, and use GitHub's inline editing features to initiate a pull request right from your browser.