The Gradeless Classroom: Pitfalls and Pushback
This is the third post in a series about The Gradeless Classroom. You can read the first post here and the second post here.
It seems like most of the teachers in the gradeless community (myself included) are filled with an almost evangelical zeal when we start talking about these changes in our classrooms. Going gradeless energized my career at its midpoint in a way few other changes have. And sometimes, evangelists forget to tell all sides of the story. So this post is meant to address that other side; the side we don't talk about as much. The parts that are hard, and the problems that might beset you if you decide this path is for you.
Pitfalls
My decision to go gradeless was rooted in procrastination. Yes, that's right, procrastination. I hated grading papers with such a passion. I would do absolutely anything to avoid it. And it was in the wake of grading 110+ essays about theme in To Kill a Mockingbird that my gradeless classroom began to materialize. I knew there had to be a better way. And there is, but the pitfall of procrastination is still there. I know that there are others who have decided to go gradeless because of the demon of procrastination. There was a whole slew of us commenting on a post about it on Facebook! Procrastination in the gradeless classroom creates the same problems, only multiplied. When students are relying on your feedback to move forward in their learning process, you have to provide it in a timely fashion, and if you get behind, it can be quite a challenge to catch up and to keep everyone moving along.
It is so easy to get caught up in the atmosphere of joy in learning that can be created in your classroom, to the point where you forget that the students have to keep moving forward too. This happened to me in the third quarter last year. We were working in inquiry circles, and my students were working on different topics. All of the topics were super interesting, and I would get so caught up in conversations and discussions about the topics that I would forget to steer the learning process. When it was time to evaluate the work the students had done against the standards, it became clear that I should have paid more attention to the skills and less attention to the topics.
When you do manage to keep the learning on track, sometimes it refuses to cooperate with the calendar. This has always been an issue for teachers, but it seems to be more of an issue when you are holding end-of-quarter conferences and much of the evidence you are supposed to be evaluating is incomplete. I experienced this with the same unit I referenced above. The inquiry circles unit was meant to provide evidence for standards about expository and argumentative writing, but we were having a difficult time moving past the research stage. I had to revamp my grade conferences at the last minute, and students were finding that their portfolios were pretty slim on evidence during the third quarter. In the end, the unit ended up being much less effective, and my grade conferences did not reflect as accurately what students had been doing.
While we're on the topic of grade conferences, they take a long time. Like, a really long time. In the first grading quarter last year, I did final grade conferences for three weeks straight, and I was still rushing to get through with them before grades were due. It's definitely a learning process. Having a game plan helps, having students to prepare ahead of time helps, looking over the information first helps, but even when you do those things, you still have to plan for 3-5 minutes per student. If you're not going to do conferences for the entire class period, it will still take up a sizable chunk of time.
Pushback
For me, parents have given the least amount of pushback, I teach in a small rural community. My school has a sizable free and reduced lunch population. In many cases, I see the parents of students at open house, and that's it. Many work two jobs, or are single parents. It's not that the parents don't care, but they have things going on outside of school that are more pressing than their child being in the classroom of a weird teacher who doesn't give grades. I send a letter home at the beginning of the school year explaining my grading policy, and the first year I tried it I held a parent information night to answer questions and give an overview. Ten parents came. I usually get a few inquiries around the end of the quarter. I usually reply with my records from grade conferences, and with a brief explanation of any standards that are problematic for their child. Generally, parents have been pleased with the amount of specific information I'm able to give based on the standards and their child's learning, not just missing assignments or a bad test grade.
Most students really like the gradeless approach once they get used to it. It reduces their stress, and one girl told me last year that it was such a relief to not have to stress about messing up on an assignment or a test, because if something was wrong, you just corrected it. Several students also told me that they really enjoyed having a say in their grade. Most student pushback comes from the high flyers. Those students who need the "A" to maintain their self-image really struggle with not seeing a number on anything. These tend to be the same students who need a lot of validation from the teacher about the quality of their work, and the focus on self-assessment may be difficult for them. I had several of these students in my advanced ELA last year. Some did not want to grade themselves; they insisted that I should name the grade they deserved. I had one student who never did come around, and in his end-of-year evaluation of my class he said it would be better if I just did grades like everybody else.
Administrators tend to fall into one of three camps on gradeless classrooms. Some are openly hostile. I haven't experienced this myself, but I have spoken with teachers in other schools who are absolutely not given the option to go gradeless. Others are cautiously supportive. This is where my administrator falls. I am lucky to work in an environment where we are encouraged to research, experiment, and try new things. I am expected to prove that what I'm trying to do is working for the students in my classroom, and to share information with other teachers in my building who may be interested. Which brings me to the third group; administrators who enforce consistency. I don't believe that the gradeless classroom is a change that should be implemented from the top down, because you can't do it halfway. If you're not invested, it won't work. While I appreciate reading about whole schools or systems that have gone gradeless, I can't help but think that there must be at least one or two teachers who have been forced to implement this change against their will.
Because teachers are the number one source of pushback. Change is hard, and education has been inundated in the years since NCLB with many disruptive changes. So many, in fact, that teachers have no time to learn anything well because they are constantly bombarded with something new. This has resulted in a lot of bitterness about any kind of change. I shared with the #TG2 Sunday Twitter chat that the first time my colleague and I presented about changing the grading system, we got cussed at by a complete stranger! One of my very best teacher friends, a woman who has been endlessly supportive of any and all changes I have tried out in my classroom, told me she was feeling "very hostile" toward me when I tried to talk with her about changing her grading system. Hostility is a common response, but so is bemused resignation. We've all been in staff meetings about the newest "programs" our schools will be implementing. And we're all familiar with the "smile, nod, close the door and do what you've always done" reaction. By and large, this is the attitude most teachers have taken when I talk with them about changing their grading system. They will listen politely to what you have to say, but there is no chance they will be changing anytime soon.
So...why do it then?
Given all the pitfalls and pushback, why would anyone choose to go gradeless? And that answer is easy. Because it's the right thing to do. It's really hard to work in education and be constantly bombarded with criticism, especially by so many people who have no background in education at all. But while I disagree with the methods of education reformers, their message does have some merit. Our public school system is failing many students. It remains largely unchanged over the course of a hundred years. Many of the things we hold on to so desperately are not grounded in research or best practices, but are simply leftovers of the way we've always done things. We must be willing to change ourselves, or we will be in danger of change being forced upon us with little regard to what is best for students.
It seems like most of the teachers in the gradeless community (myself included) are filled with an almost evangelical zeal when we start talking about these changes in our classrooms. Going gradeless energized my career at its midpoint in a way few other changes have. And sometimes, evangelists forget to tell all sides of the story. So this post is meant to address that other side; the side we don't talk about as much. The parts that are hard, and the problems that might beset you if you decide this path is for you.
Pitfalls
My decision to go gradeless was rooted in procrastination. Yes, that's right, procrastination. I hated grading papers with such a passion. I would do absolutely anything to avoid it. And it was in the wake of grading 110+ essays about theme in To Kill a Mockingbird that my gradeless classroom began to materialize. I knew there had to be a better way. And there is, but the pitfall of procrastination is still there. I know that there are others who have decided to go gradeless because of the demon of procrastination. There was a whole slew of us commenting on a post about it on Facebook! Procrastination in the gradeless classroom creates the same problems, only multiplied. When students are relying on your feedback to move forward in their learning process, you have to provide it in a timely fashion, and if you get behind, it can be quite a challenge to catch up and to keep everyone moving along.
It is so easy to get caught up in the atmosphere of joy in learning that can be created in your classroom, to the point where you forget that the students have to keep moving forward too. This happened to me in the third quarter last year. We were working in inquiry circles, and my students were working on different topics. All of the topics were super interesting, and I would get so caught up in conversations and discussions about the topics that I would forget to steer the learning process. When it was time to evaluate the work the students had done against the standards, it became clear that I should have paid more attention to the skills and less attention to the topics.
When you do manage to keep the learning on track, sometimes it refuses to cooperate with the calendar. This has always been an issue for teachers, but it seems to be more of an issue when you are holding end-of-quarter conferences and much of the evidence you are supposed to be evaluating is incomplete. I experienced this with the same unit I referenced above. The inquiry circles unit was meant to provide evidence for standards about expository and argumentative writing, but we were having a difficult time moving past the research stage. I had to revamp my grade conferences at the last minute, and students were finding that their portfolios were pretty slim on evidence during the third quarter. In the end, the unit ended up being much less effective, and my grade conferences did not reflect as accurately what students had been doing.
While we're on the topic of grade conferences, they take a long time. Like, a really long time. In the first grading quarter last year, I did final grade conferences for three weeks straight, and I was still rushing to get through with them before grades were due. It's definitely a learning process. Having a game plan helps, having students to prepare ahead of time helps, looking over the information first helps, but even when you do those things, you still have to plan for 3-5 minutes per student. If you're not going to do conferences for the entire class period, it will still take up a sizable chunk of time.
Pushback
For me, parents have given the least amount of pushback, I teach in a small rural community. My school has a sizable free and reduced lunch population. In many cases, I see the parents of students at open house, and that's it. Many work two jobs, or are single parents. It's not that the parents don't care, but they have things going on outside of school that are more pressing than their child being in the classroom of a weird teacher who doesn't give grades. I send a letter home at the beginning of the school year explaining my grading policy, and the first year I tried it I held a parent information night to answer questions and give an overview. Ten parents came. I usually get a few inquiries around the end of the quarter. I usually reply with my records from grade conferences, and with a brief explanation of any standards that are problematic for their child. Generally, parents have been pleased with the amount of specific information I'm able to give based on the standards and their child's learning, not just missing assignments or a bad test grade.
Most students really like the gradeless approach once they get used to it. It reduces their stress, and one girl told me last year that it was such a relief to not have to stress about messing up on an assignment or a test, because if something was wrong, you just corrected it. Several students also told me that they really enjoyed having a say in their grade. Most student pushback comes from the high flyers. Those students who need the "A" to maintain their self-image really struggle with not seeing a number on anything. These tend to be the same students who need a lot of validation from the teacher about the quality of their work, and the focus on self-assessment may be difficult for them. I had several of these students in my advanced ELA last year. Some did not want to grade themselves; they insisted that I should name the grade they deserved. I had one student who never did come around, and in his end-of-year evaluation of my class he said it would be better if I just did grades like everybody else.
Administrators tend to fall into one of three camps on gradeless classrooms. Some are openly hostile. I haven't experienced this myself, but I have spoken with teachers in other schools who are absolutely not given the option to go gradeless. Others are cautiously supportive. This is where my administrator falls. I am lucky to work in an environment where we are encouraged to research, experiment, and try new things. I am expected to prove that what I'm trying to do is working for the students in my classroom, and to share information with other teachers in my building who may be interested. Which brings me to the third group; administrators who enforce consistency. I don't believe that the gradeless classroom is a change that should be implemented from the top down, because you can't do it halfway. If you're not invested, it won't work. While I appreciate reading about whole schools or systems that have gone gradeless, I can't help but think that there must be at least one or two teachers who have been forced to implement this change against their will.
Because teachers are the number one source of pushback. Change is hard, and education has been inundated in the years since NCLB with many disruptive changes. So many, in fact, that teachers have no time to learn anything well because they are constantly bombarded with something new. This has resulted in a lot of bitterness about any kind of change. I shared with the #TG2 Sunday Twitter chat that the first time my colleague and I presented about changing the grading system, we got cussed at by a complete stranger! One of my very best teacher friends, a woman who has been endlessly supportive of any and all changes I have tried out in my classroom, told me she was feeling "very hostile" toward me when I tried to talk with her about changing her grading system. Hostility is a common response, but so is bemused resignation. We've all been in staff meetings about the newest "programs" our schools will be implementing. And we're all familiar with the "smile, nod, close the door and do what you've always done" reaction. By and large, this is the attitude most teachers have taken when I talk with them about changing their grading system. They will listen politely to what you have to say, but there is no chance they will be changing anytime soon.
So...why do it then?
Given all the pitfalls and pushback, why would anyone choose to go gradeless? And that answer is easy. Because it's the right thing to do. It's really hard to work in education and be constantly bombarded with criticism, especially by so many people who have no background in education at all. But while I disagree with the methods of education reformers, their message does have some merit. Our public school system is failing many students. It remains largely unchanged over the course of a hundred years. Many of the things we hold on to so desperately are not grounded in research or best practices, but are simply leftovers of the way we've always done things. We must be willing to change ourselves, or we will be in danger of change being forced upon us with little regard to what is best for students.
Hey there. I went gradeless two weeks into 4th quarter last year with my 7th graders, who I have again as 8th graders this year, and I'm encountering a lot of what you are. I went gradeless because I was burning out, and the thought of reading and providing feedback on all that student work was contributing. (In my school we have 7 periods, so I teach 6, and the fewest students I've had is 129. Max 205.) I have to retrain myself to not procrastinate or view with nausea the stacks of student work requiring feedback.
ReplyDeleteI decided, over the summer, to offer far fewer assignments this upcoming year, and to make them all relevant to one another. I thought that might help me with the burnout.
Going gradeless is the logical outcome of introducing mindfulness in the schools. It's also much more fair to everyone. I was reading the Repair Kit for Grading book today and it said that when we don't grade based on standards, we're not actually standards-based, just standards-informed. That book is about grading, but it counsels holding back on grading anything formative at all, and basing grading only on standards mastery. Since I have to give a report card grade, I've found it's been useful.
And you're right about teachers. I don't even *want* to have the conversation with my colleagues, as wonderful as they are. They all think I'm nuts for doing this. But teacher-implemented change from the ground up should be considered at the very minimum. And it was hard to change my own underlying beliefs, especially around "will they do the work if there's no carrot or stick?" thinking.
But what got me into this in the first place was an event that happened last year in my classroom. I was upset at my students in one period for doing nothing, so I cancelled the movie we were going to watch and assigned them workbook pages. They brought the pages to me when they were done, and instead of putting a grade on them, I scanned the pages, marked the ones that were wrong, and handed them back. I expected the kids to shrug and just sit there, but every single blessed one of them corrected the work and brought it back to me. I hadn't even asked them to! And that's when I realized that by failing to put a grade on their work, I'd given them the chance to fix it before submitting it. That weekend I started reading on going gradeless and now I'm totally committed.
I think the decision to do this has to come from within.
I agree 100%. As much as I believe that this is the right thing to do, I also realize that it's not for everyone. The trend in education toward replication is very disturbing. As much as we are pushed toward differentiation and individualization for students, it is disturbing to constantly be expected to create systems of learning as teachers that can be implemented on a large scale. If students are individuals, and learn best when treated as such, doesn't it stand to reason that teachers and their classrooms should be treated the same way? Individualization achieved by standardization. It makes no sense. What's right in my classroom is not right for everyone else.
DeleteCristi,
ReplyDeleteI want to focus on one of your points--Procrastination. I agree that as teachers we cannot be procrastinators:
1. It sets a bad example as we certainly want to promote promptness.
and
2. We do want to move our students forward.
One way I've helped myself get past this is to not take anything home to assess/provide feedback. I schedule conferences with students over a 3-5 day period (I call them "Due Windows") where I sit down with the student and we walk through the essay together. I love this as it alleviates my own workload, it also allows me to get to know my students better, and more importantly, I give them personalized,one-to-one instruction. It does take a lot of time in class, but I get my students on something while I am doing this.
Anyway, good post. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for reading, Aaron! You'll notice that procrastination is at the top of the list of pitfalls-- there's a reason for it! It is my own personal little demon. I agree with you that conferencing is the key to immediate, timely feedback. I also don't take work home, and I have been better about getting things done quickly since I have taken the grade out of grading. But any little slip-up seems to spiral out of control when procrastination rears its ugly head. We keep plowing on and setting goals, right? Always something to work toward.
Delete