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!