News
Dr. David Clark and Dr. Robert Talbert publish Grading for Growth
March 18, 2024
Dr. Clark and Dr. Talbert of GVSU Math published Grading for Growth: A Guide to Alternative Grading Practices that Promote Authentic Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education.
The book offers readers a fundamentally more effective and authentic approach to grading that the authors have implemented for over a decade. The underlying principles of alternative grading involve evaluating student work using clearly defined and context-appropriate content standards, giving students helpful, actionable feedback, summarizing the feedback with marks that indicate progress rather than arbitrary numbers, and allowing students to revise without penalty, using the feedback they receive, until the standards are met or exceeded.
This book offers a comprehensive introduction to alternative grading, beginning with a framework and rationale for implementation and evidence of its effectiveness. The heart of the book includes detailed examples – including variations on Standards-Based Grading, Specifications Grading, and ungrading -- of how alternative grading practices are used in all kinds of classroom environments, disciplines and institutions with a focus on first-hand accounts by faculty who share their practices and experience. The book includes a workbook chapter that takes readers through a step-by-step process for building a prototype of their own alternatively graded class and ends with concrete, practical, time-tested advice for new practitioners.