Grading for Growth: A Guide to Alternative Grading Practices that Promote Authentic Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education [Hardcover]

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to alternative grading, beginning with a framework and rationale for implementation and evidence of its effectiveness. This book is intended for faculty interested in exploring alternative forms of learning assessment who are looking for ideas and options to refine practice.

Case Study List Foreword Acknowledgments Part 1 What is Alternative Grading? 1. What this book is about 2. Why do we grade? 3. A framework for alternative grading 4. Does alternative grading work? Part 2 What Alternative Grading Can Look Like 5. Standards-Based Grading 6. Specifications Grading 7. Hybrid systems 8. Large classes 9. Lab classes 10. Partial conversions Part 3 Making Alternative Grading Work for You 11. A workbook for alternative grading 12. How to do it 13. Whats next? Appendix. Frequently asked questions References

In this book, Clark and Talbert offer the finest compilation of the weaknesses of traditional grading&that I have ever run across. They then present Four Pillars of Alternative Grading, shared by all the emerging grading systems that their book addresses: Standards-Based Grading, Specifications Grading, and Ungrading. Among these pillars are clearly defined performance expectations and a focus on encouraging student progress.

Clark and Talbert even move beyond these three systems to all kinds of partial conversions and hybrid variations on them. These are not just hypothetical variants. The authors describe these variants, along with the pure forms, as implemented in actual courses that have used them. One variant even integrates student portfolios. These examples come from disparate institutions and encompass a variety of courses: from STEM to humanities, from small to truly large classes, from lecture-based to lab-based to studio labs, from the one-instructor creation to the tightly coordinated mull3‘