Group work is a growing trend in schools, as educators seek more complex, more authentic assessment tasks and assign projects and presentations for students to work on together. The Common Core State Standards call for increased student collaboration in various subject areas, and collaboration is considered one of the 21st century skills that students need to master in order to succeed in school and beyond. Many teachers, though, are uncomfortable giving group grades, which may or may not actually reflect an individual student’s learning. How else to proceed? Assessment expert Susan M. Brookhart offers practical advice, strategies, and examples to help teachers understand the following: ? What the differences are between group projects and cooperative learning. ? How to assess and report on (but not grade) learning skills and group interaction skills. ? How to assess and grade individual achievement of learning goals after group projects. ? Why having students work together is a good thing—but group grades are not.

"Group work is a growing trend in schools, as educators seek more complex, more authentic assessment tasks and assign projects and presentations for students to work on together. The Common Core State Standards call for increased student collaboration in various subject areas, and collaboration is considered one of the 21st century skills that students need to master in order to succeed in school and beyond. Many teachers, though, are uncomfortable giving group grades, which may or may not actually reflect an individual student's learning. How else to proceed? Assessment expert Susan M. Brookhart offers practical advice, strategies, and examples to help teachers understand the following: What the differences are between group projects and cooperative learning. How to assess and report on (but not grade) learning skills and group interaction skills. How to assess and grade individual achievement of learning goals after group projects. Why having students work together is a good thing--but group grades are not"--Provided by publisher.

"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 schools: 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 A critical historical backdrop, describing how our inherited system of grading was originally set up as a sorting mechanism to provide or deny opportunity, control students, and endorse a "fixed mindset" about students’ academic potential—practices that are still in place a century later A summary of the research on motivation and equitable teaching and learning, establishing a rock-solid foundation and a "true north" orientation toward equitable grading practices Specific grading practices that are more equitable, along with teacher examples, strategies to solve common hiccups and concerns, and evidence of effectiveness Reflection tools for facilitating individual or group engagement and understanding 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.

Group work is a growing trend in schools, as educators seek more complex, more authentic assessment tasks and assign projects and presentations for students to work on together. The Common Core State Standards call for increased student collaboration in various subject areas, and collaboration is considered one of the 21st century skills that students need to master in order to succeed in school and beyond. Many teachers, though, are uncomfortable giving group grades, which may or may not actually reflect an individual student’s learning. How else to proceed? Assessment expert Susan M. Brookhart offers practical advice, strategies, and examples to help teachers understand the following: ? What the differences are between group projects and cooperative learning. ? How to assess and report on (but not grade) learning skills and group interaction skills. ? How to assess and grade individual achievement of learning goals after group projects. ? Why having students work together is a good thing—but group grades are not.

The moment is right for critical reflection on what has been assumed to be a core part of schooling. In Ungrading, fifteen educators write about their diverse experiences going gradeless. Some contributors are new to the practice and some have been engaging in it for decades. Some are in humanities and social sciences, some in STEM fields. Some are in higher education, but some are the K-12 pioneers who led the way. Based on rigorous and replicated research, this is the first book to show why and how faculty who wish to focus on learning, rather than sorting or judging, might proceed. It includes honest reflection on what makes ungrading challenging, and testimonials about what makes it transformative. CONTRIBUTORS: Aaron Blackwelder Susan D. Blum Arthur Chiaravalli Gary Chu Cathy N. Davidson Laura Gibbs Christina Katopodis Joy Kirr Alfie Kohn Christopher Riesbeck Starr Sackstein Marcus Schultz-Bergin Clarissa Sorensen-Unruh Jesse Stommel John Warner

"An exploration of moving away from traditional letter or number grades as an assessment and as a result producing more thoughtful students whose learning is more authentic"--

‘Tom Bennett is the voice of the modern teacher.’ - Stephen Drew, Senior Vice-Principal, Passmores Academy, UK, featured on Channel 4’s Educating Essex Do the findings from educational science ever really improve the day-to-day practice of classroom teachers? Education is awash with theories about how pupils best learn and teachers best teach, most often propped up with the inevitable research that ‘proves’ the case in point. But what can teachers do to find the proof within the pudding, and how can this actually help them on wet Wednesday afternoon?. Drawing from a wide range of recent and popular education theories and strategies, Tom Bennett highlights how much of what we think we know in schools hasn’t been ‘proven’ in any meaningful sense at all. He inspires teachers to decide for themselves what good and bad education really is, empowering them as professionals and raising their confidence in the classroom and the staffroom alike. Readers are encouraged to question and reflect on issues such as: the most common ideas in modern education and where these ideas were born the crisis in research right now how research is commissioned and used by the people who make policy in the UK and beyond the provenance of education research: who instigates it, who writes it, and how to spot when a claim is based on evidence and when it isn’t the different way that data can be analysed what happens to the research conclusions once they escape the laboratory. Controversial, erudite and yet unremittingly entertaining, Tom includes practical suggestions for the classroom throughout. This book will be an ally to every teacher who’s been handed an instruction on a platter and been told, ‘the research proves it.’

Grading is one of the most hotly debated topics in education, and grading practices themselves are largely based on tradition, instinct, or personal history or philosophy. But to be effective, grading policies and practices must be based on trustworthy research evidence. Enter this book: a review of 100-plus years of grading research that presents the broadest and most comprehensive summary of research on grading and reporting available to date, with clear takeaways for learning and teaching. Edited by Thomas R. Guskey and Susan M. Brookhart, this indispensable guide features thoughtful, thorough dives into the research from a distinguished team of scholars, geared to a broad range of stakeholders, including teachers, school leaders, policymakers, and researchers. Each chapter addresses a different area of grading research and describes how the major findings in that area might be leveraged to improve grading policy and practice. Ultimately, Guskey and Brookhart identify four themes emerging from the research that can guide these efforts: - Start with clear learning goals, - Focus on the feedback function of grades, - Limit the number of grade categories, and - Provide multiple grades that reflect product, process, and progress criteria. By distilling the vast body of research evidence into meaningful, actionable findings and strategies, this book is the jump-start all stakeholders need to build a better understanding of what works—and where to go from here.

Asao B. Inoue argues for the use of labor-based grading contracts along with compassionate practices to determine course grades as a way to do social justice work with students.

Grade level: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, k, p, e, i, s, t.