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Katie Oesau & Jennifer Wilking: Grading for Equity
setting
setting
Katie Oesau
During the Critical Consciousness FLC, Jen and I talked at length about equitable grading practices for our classes. This idea kept coming up no matter the topic of the month. We would like to explore these ideas further and implement real change in our classes. Our plan is to read the book Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman (and other articles) together during the Spring semester (meeting monthly to discuss), and implement grading changes to our courses during the Summer of 2022. We believe this implementation timeline will nurture equitable opportunities for student success starting in Fall 2022 with a new rollout of equitable grading practices in our courses.
Jennifer Wilking
One of the main areas in which I have the most autonomy to create equity and inclusion is within my own classrooms. Over the past two years, I have taken steps such as diversifying my syllabus, and incorporating discussions of power, privilege and systemic oppression into my Political Science courses. One of the main areas I feel still hinders equity is my grading system. I have used the traditional grading system many of us inherited, largely without question. During the pandemic, I began to interrogate this system, based on this article arguing against giving missing work a zero grade. While I feel this change has made my grading system less punitive, I would like to be more intentional and thoughtful about my entire grading system, for the purpose of promoting equity and inclusion.
Successes and Challenges
Successes and Challenges
What resources, policies, and co-conspirators do you believe are already available to support your plan?
There are several existing resources available on campus to assist in the implementation of equitable grading systems. First, “equitable grading practices” is a theme at the 2022 Tipping Point Summit on campus. Jen and Katie will attend all sessions relevant to equitable grading practices. Second, there are many available books and articles on equitable grading (see resources section below). While our focus will be on Joe Feldman’s Grading for Equity, we will avail ourselves of additional scholarship and other resources as necessary. Finally, Chico State staff are very fortunate to have a wealth of knowledge in the Technology and Learning Program (TLP). TLP staff can assist in advising how to use the current learning management system,, BlackBoard Learn, to implement the grading strategies we ultimately select.
What challenges do you anticipate?
The primary challenges we anticipate are logistical and institutional. First, BlackBoard Learn and other Learning Management Systems have point based grading as the default grading systems. We anticipate incorporating more completion based grading, and providing students more choice in how to demonstrate their knowledge of course material. BlackBoard Learn may not easily accommodate these changes, but fortunately, TLP can provide guidance on implementation in BBL. Second, I teach sections of multi-section classes in the College of Business, some of which have streamlined learning outcomes and pedagogies. Implementing a fundamentally different grading system may face some push back in these classes. If this occurs, we can propose my sections as an experiment to see if equitable grading reduces equity gaps in those classes, and point to equity and inclusion efforts on campus broadly.
IMPLEMENTATION
IMPLEMENTATION
Describe the equity strategy that you plan to implement into your course. What is it? How is it intended to work?
Katie Oseau: I would like to make my grading system in BCOM 300W more equitable. This topic keeps coming up again and again in my discussions with colleagues, and it continued to be present in my discussions with Jen during the Critical Consciousness FLC. As we examined our areas of power and the concept of belonging, I kept gravitating to an area of the course where I can affect change, and that is in the grading systems that I implement. Our plan is to read several resources to educate ourselves on what equitable grading is, why it matters, and what it can look like. The main resources we will engage with is the book Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman. My goal is to create a grading system for BCOM 300W that is accurate, bias-resistant, and motivational for students, while at the same time improving learning and reducing DFWs.
Jennifer Wilking: I propose to research equitable grading systems in the spring and summer of 2022, and implement a comprehensively revised grading system in my AY 22-23 courses, Introduction to Comparative Politics (POLS 142), Comparative Political Behavior (POLS 347), Introduction to Research Methods (POLS 331W), and the Capstone in International Relations and Comparative Politics (POLS 441W). A more equitable grading system should be reflected in reduced equity gaps.
My overall equity gap is 3.81% over the past three years (see table). The gaps are higher (7%) in my introduction to research methods courses. Note, I have not previously taught POLS 142 and POLS 441W, but can request this data from my chair. These equity gaps will serve as a benchmark against which we will assess future equity gaps.
What is needed in terms of planning and resources?
Luckily, Grading for Equity is available in our campus library, so we have access to the main resource that will help us with this deliverable.
The other main factor in terms of planning is time. I believe that the first step in this grading system transformation is to educate myself on the options available and figure out which system might work best for BCOM 300W. This is going to take time to read, research and discuss. Jen and I commit to meeting once a month during the Spring semester of 2022 to discuss the book, and with 14 chapters, that equals about 3 chapters per month.
What is your rationale for choosing and implementing this strategy?
In the Critical Consciousness FLC, we were asked to reflect on a number of different ideas, and our conversations always led us to the practice of grading. For example, we looked at our Areas of Power on campus, and we certainly have power over our own classrooms, and we agreed that we can affect a good amount of change here. We had a long conversation about belonging and our role in helping our students belong, which came back to areas of assessment in the classroom. And the discussion around social identity and positionality allowed us to explore how we were taught and question if that system is the best system for our students. We realized that this area could reasonably be addressed at this moment in time, making us more equitable educators in the process.
The more we learn about equity, the more we stop taking things at face value and instead dive deep into their roots and question them. In this case, the grading systems that we utilize came into question multiple times during this FLC, which means it’s the perfect time to deep dive into it!
References/Resources
References/Resources
Berns, Andrew, J. Philip East, and J. Ben Schafer. "Grading for Equity: A Curriculum Development and Grading Process to Enhance Instruction." In Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, pp. 1351-1351. 2021.
Boswell, M. and J. Feldman. Presentation at National Association of Independent Schools Conference, 2019.
Bowen, Ryan S., and Melanie M. Cooper. "Grading on a Curve as a Systemic Issue of Equity in Chemistry Education." Journal of Chemical Education (2021).
Feldman, J. (2018). Grading for equity: What it is, why it matters, and how it can transform schools and classrooms. Corwin Press.
Feldman, J. (2019). Beyond standards-based grading: Why equity must be part of grading reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 100(8), 52-55.
Grading for Equity Resource Guide
Harrington, C. (2019) “Examining the Why Behind Your Late or Missed Work Policies”
Hendrickson, Jo, and Robert A. Gable. "Collaborative assessment of students with diverse needs: Equitable, accountable, and effective grading." Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth 41, no. 4 (1997): 159-163.
Leading Equity Center. (2020). “Equity and Grading During Covid-19” - 9 lesson, asynchronous course (free).
National Education Association. (2021). “Rethinking Grading with Agency and Equity” Free asynchronous webinar.
Shepard, Lorrie A., William R. Penuel, and James W. Pellegrino. "Using learning and motivation theories to coherently link formative assessment, grading practices, and large‐scale assessment." Educational measurement: issues and practice 37, no. 1 (2018): 21-34.
NEXT STEPS
NEXT STEPS
Our timeline for this deliverable is as follows:
Spring 2022 - read through the references/resources listed above and discuss once per month
Summer 2022 - come up with ways to implement grade changes into our Fall 2022 classes
Fall 2022 - implement grade changes into our classes
One way we can assess if our changes are successful is to look at the DFW rates for our courses for Fall 2022 and compare them to previous semesters. I think a more beneficial way to assess will be to discuss student engagement, motivation and learning. In examining our grading systems, have we created not only more equitable classrooms, but improved learning, improved connections with our students and created more caring spaces?
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