On the Road Toward Gradeless Teaching/Assessment

On the Road Toward Gradeless Teaching/Assessment

I just read a great piece by Jo Boaler entitled "Math Class Doesn't Work. Here's the Solution" published in Time. Boaler points to the primary culprit in classrooms across the US (and I would contend also in Canada) - an emphasis on a performance culture in school. The article resonated with me because it called to mind conversations I have had with students, parents, administrators and other educators about what we have been trying to do in the math department at Fletcher's Meadow.

During the 2016-17 school year, we piloted a program in Grade 9 called Fusion. We ran Fusion in first semester with three sections of Grade 9. Those three sections took place in the same period and allowed us to expand our collaborative tasks on a larger scale. In addition to this unique feature of the Fusion program, the team decided to also try to spiral through the content in the Grade 9 program and embed gradeless teaching/assessment.

By the end of the semester, we had gathered data from a variety of sources including:

• an online portfolio for each student
• formative in-class assessments
• observations gathered during collaborative tasks
• traditional summative assessments

Reflecting on the process of assessing and evaluating student achievement, we thought we had gathered more data than we had ever used to consider how well a student had done in achieving the learning goals for the course. And I think that was the revelation for me. The focus had shifted from a pressure to achieve an artificial benchmark to an emphasis on learning the content. Students were continually reminded that the absence of grades was not meant to hide a truth that only their teachers were privy but rather to shift their focus to reflecting on what they knew and how well they knew it. The feedback provided on all of the sources mentioned above was like the diagnostic test that my mechanic performs on my overworked VW Wagon that is pushing 240, 000 km - it gave them an idea of things that needed their attention and things that they had mastered. The only difference is that my VW will eventually succumb to the laws of nature whereas our hope is that the students focus on learning will lead to deep recall and retention of that learning. 

Note that the relationship as well between teacher and student also changed from a hierarchical relationship inherent in a process of awarding grades to a partnership of learning. The teacher is tasked with providing the feedback that will assist the student in their mastery of each learning goal. But critical to this relationship is the acceptance of the responsibility on the part of the student for their learning which is something that needed to be EXPLICITLY told to them since this is so different from their experience in the past.

And this is the point that Boaler makes so well in the Time piece. In particular she points out that "Our grading and testing practices are largely responsible." for the pressure that many students feel to perform rather than to LEARN! We expanded our Fusion pilot to 9 of our 11 sections of Grade 9 math this year and I have been blessed with a risk-taking department that has adopted gradeless teaching/assessment in other courses. And this idea that the focus should be on learning is the point that I stress each and every time I talk about the rationale for our move to gradeless teaching/assessment. We had a packed parent information night this year and the response although initially unsure was overwhelmingly positive once they were given the explanation for the move in our assessment and teaching practices. 

This is a journey and we have a long way to go in our own learning. We are still wrestling with providing feedback in a timely manner and making it manageable as we expand to multiple courses. But as I reflect on where we are and where we have been, the tough part to imagine is retracing our path in the journey and returning to grade based performance feedback. We have seen the benefit to student learning and a reduction in anxiety around performance. I know that there will be bumps and perhaps we will venture down some dead ends in our journey but I'm glad we have ventured down this road. It has made all the difference - so far.