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
In general I liked this book and want to try out some of what the authors wrote about. I am still a bit of a skeptic. Most of the authors wrote mostly on the philosophy of upgrading and the detriment of a traditional grading system which I was completely on board for. Few however delved far into the "what ifs?" What do these systems look like in a sequential course where a student tries but fails and needs to repeat so they're prepared for the next level? What is the solution for students who don't want to be in the class or learn the content? I like the philosophy and idea of it but would like some more concrete stories and information about what day to day life in the classroom is like. Many of the authors seemed focused on presenting a rosy picture of their philosophy rather than a nuts and bolts description of their practices which is what would have been more convincing to me.
My senior year of high school, I attended an innovative program: the Center for Self-directed Learning. We had no grades or organized classes, although faculty or students could create learning groups. Our only restriction was that somehow we needed to meet our state's graduation requirements. I remember attending groups on speculative fiction and radical movements in the US, respectively meeting my English and History requirements, as well as a more formal Mathematics course. This was one of the most powerful experiences in my educational career. I went from being a marginal (bright) student, contemplating not going to college, to one who gobbled down books, courses, and ideas.
What made the difference? I think it was moving from extrinsic motivators and goals to more intrinsic ones. When I returned to a graded, typical curriculum in college, I arrived with a different mindset and, quoting Robert Frost, "that has made all the difference."
I don't use ungrading in my own teaching, although I have taken tiny baby steps in that direction across time. I have taught between 60 and 140 students a semester – while doing all sorts of other job-related tasks (e.g., writing, service, advising, admin). I don't really think I can pull off ungrading well under such a system, one where I rarely feel that I can put my feet up and contemplate where I'm going. Still, reading Ungrading gets me thinking about what strategies I can adopt to offer my students greater control, choice, autonomy, and intrinsic motivation. I'm not just teaching content; I want to help my students learn how to learn, to learn how to approach learning and life with passion. Alfie Kohn's foreword and Joy Kirr's and John Warner's chapters and were especially exciting and got me thinking about how I could take bigger steps in this direction.
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I listened to about 40% of Ungrading, complaining most of the time. Kohn narrated his wonderful foreword, but the other narrators sounded arrogant or like AI-generated speech. I'm glad that I had access to a print copy or I would have tossed Ungrading aside. That would have been a pity.
Grading is the worst part of teaching, and for those of you who don't teach, when I say "grading," I don't mean reading and commenting on my students' work. That can be interesting and useful and entertaining. I'm talking about the part where you have to decide whether that interesting writing is, like, a 90% or more of an 88%, and how will that show up in the gradebook and what will that do the student's overall grade and what are their parents expecting from them (you) and how will this impact the way they come into the room tomorrow and how will this impact your overall relationship with them. Now do that again and again 125 times.
AND GRADES AREN'T REAL. We act like they're a natural element of the planet earth. But they're not. A B+ in my room doesn't mean the same thing as it does in other English teachers' classes -- let alone history or, like, science classes. As Susan D. Blum puts it, "Is a student who enters already knowing a lot, continues to demonstrate knowledge at a high level, misses an assignment because of a roommate's attempted suicide, and ends up with a B+ the same as someone who begins knowing nothing, works really hard, follows all the rules, does quite well, and ends up with a B+?" (55). Like, what does the grade MEAN? What information is conveyed?
At the beginning of this last school year, I started reading Pointless by Sarah Zerwin, and I felt ✨ready to go.✨ I set up coaching appointments with two teachers at my school who didn't grade individual assignments. I started drafting a letter to student families. I figured I would start second semester after my juniors already trusted me and would buy-in.
And then life happened and I never finished Pointless and I didn't change a thing and it's July and I still feel guilt over a kid that didn't pass my class two months ago.
But I also have more time to think about all of these things, so my summer wheels are turning.
I've re-discovered my people! Seeing the variety of educational settings where people are teaching without grades reminded me of what I loved about teaching and why I am now so frustrated because I was drawn back into a system of grading. Reading about these experiences and considering the examples has me energized to return to the way I teach most effectively. I have not been so excited to restructure my courses in a very long time! Thank you for sharing your experiences!
I really appreciate getting to think in a more formal way about grades and assessment. The strength of the book is the diversity of perspectives. There’s a little bit of everything. However that is also it’s weakness. It’s a bit all over and I think could have benefited from more cohesion. It became clear to me as I read that the authors had different contexts, valued or devalued different aspects of education, and had varied assumptions about grades themselves These were often not acknowledged as underLying assumptions and the authors occasionally came across as patronizing. I don’t know that I would recommend for readers unfamiliar with the topic.
Every educator, and everyone pursuing a career in education, should read this.
Ungrading is a concept I was already familiar with, as I attended a Montessori school up through eighth grade and so has no grades/tests/homework during that time. In my own personal experience, I learned much better in an environment where intrinsic motivation was what drove learning.
This book begins with a very compelling argument for how our education system’s focus on grading actually hinders learning. I won’t restate every point made (otherwise we’d be here all day, there’s a lot of good ones!), but the detail I found most interesting was that students are more likely to improve on their essays when they are provided with feedback alone compared to when they are provided with feedback and a grade. Grading can put students into a fixed mindset, but taking a course should be about growth.
The format of this book starts with a few chapters about why Ungrading improves learning, then switches to different teacher and professor testimonies about using Ungrading in their classrooms. The catch was, for most of these professors, they were still at institutions that required them to input final grades. So it wasn’t really stories about how ungraded classrooms can work in higher education, and more so stories about how to approximate Ungrading at a graded institution. Still, I appreciated the techniques different instructors used to switch the focus of the class from grades towards learning.
I wish you could just go to and say you don’t want to do grades anymore but that’s just not going to fly in a public high school. They do a good job of breaking down how and why it works, but not ways to convince admin it’s a good idea. 4 stars even
What is the purpose of a grade? Can it show a student how to improve their work? Does it offer objective assessment of learning interpreted universally? Does it build a relationship between instructor and student? Does it have a function beyond punishment and reward? What is the purpose of a grade? And what does a class without grading look like? These are the central questions explored by this excellent collection of essays on the practice of “Ungrading,” a deliberate turn to a more critical pedagogical take on assessment and feedback at both the secondary and post-secondary levels.
I really appreciated this book for reasons related to my personal pedagogical considerations. I have always wanted to be a more critical teaching and have done my best to imbue my teaching pedagogy with principles of accessibility, diversity, and inclusivity. But in many important ways, I clung to control in the classroom in a way that I recognize resulted in a clash between the teacher I wanted to be and the teacher I felt comfortable being. Grades were a particular sticking point for me, the tension between not wanting grades to get in the way of students taking risks and being creative, but also feeling as though all learning in the class would cease if I removed grading from any assignment. Grades felt like the carrot to learning, the only thing that would motivate students to learn. “Ungrading” has made me reconsider this position. Yes, grading may be the carrot. But is the carrot for learning? Is the carrot for critical thinking? Or is the carrot just to follow instructions? To complete a task within defined parameters? The more I reflect, the more I question whether grades have anything to do with learning.
I picked up this book because at the end of my spring semester I was having a lot of doubts about my grading practices and the assignments associated with them. “Ungrading” helped me recognize that I wasn’t necessarily wrong for how I did things, that I was trapped in a grading cycle like so many teachers before me. But it also showed me some principles for how this could look different, how “Ungrading” might just be a possibility.
I haven’t spent much time talking about the writing style of this book for two reasons. 1) It is hard to assess a book of edited essays due to all of the different authors and points of view. 2) These are essays on pedagogy; they aren’t going to read like creative nonfiction for the most part. I will say I found all of these to be very accessible; they are not dense collections of pedagogical theory, which I consider to be a big thumbs up.
All in all, I think this is a five star read. It’s thought-provoking, well-argued, and well worth a read for teachers. It’s not going to change everyone’s pedagogy. That’s ok. I think though that it offers an important test, a challenge of our pedagogical practices, so that we walk away with stronger arguments about how our practice centers student learning as opposed to the simple act of task completion.
This collection of essays about the ways in which K12 and higher ed instructors have incorporated principles of ungrading into their courses is nothing short of revolutionary. It centers our focus -- as it should be -- on student learning. Traditional systems of assessment/grading often work really well ... at DEmotivating students and stifling learning; these ungrading methods reverse those trends and help faculty create engaged, enthusiastic, learning-centered classrooms.
Frankly, I had always felt more than a little bit uncomfortable when I heard colleagues talking about "ungrading," because I couldn't fathom how students could possibly be trusted to account for their own learning. At the same time, I walked around convinced that I was the rare instructor who empowered students and trusted them to do the right thing. This book shed light on my own cognitive dissonance for what it is -- fear.
It was Jesse Stommel's chapter, and in particular this sentence, that really forced me to change my perspective and dive into this book with an open mind: "I've long argued that education should be about encouraging and rewarding not knowing more than knowing." (p. 32) My copy of the book has this sentence highlighted, with the margin note: "O. M. G." Thank you, Jesse.
I'm just dipping my feet into the idea of changing the way I grade and assess my students, and this was a great starting point. At this juncture, it is the only point I have, though, so my opinion is apt to change.
This book is a collection of essays by various educators from seventh grade (I think that was the lowest in the age range of students) through university graduate students. There were lots of things that I can see myself using in class immediately, but mostly I see the value of this book as a slew of ideas worth pondering.
I am definitely going to have to think carefully about how I would implement this in my classes. At this point in their education (mostly juniors in high school for me) the grading system is so ingrained that taking that out completely without a lot of pondering on my part would be disastrous. I was met with incredulity and nervous laughter for just floating the idea to students of doing away with grades and what that would look like. 'There's no way I would do something I wasn't being graded on' was a fairly typical response.
An excellent read about the research behind and problems with grading learning. I was sold on the idea before I read this book, to be fully transparent, but did walk away feeling as a secondary teacher that there could have been more secondary voices in how to ungrade. It seemed like most of the anecdotes were from college professors where I feel it's easier to do your own thing in your classroom. Secondary teachers, however, are more restricted when secondary students need the right grades to get into college, because that's what colleges and universities still use to select students. Until that changes (and I hope it does in the post-COVID education landscape), then I don't see myself being able to do more beyond opening up the conversation about the meaning of grades and giving students more agency over them.
To that end, I did find this takeaway helpful: "Alfie Kohn states that when we work in an unjust system, we have to proceed at two levels at once: 'You do what you can within the confines of the current structure, trying to minimize its harm. You also work with others to try to change that structure, conscious that nothing dramatic may happen for a very long time' (Kohn, 206). The essence in the meantime, waiting for grades to disappear, is that 'teachers and parents who care about learning need to do everything in their power to help students forget that grades exist.' This does require a revolution, but it also requires daily action." (p. 227)
This is a life-altering book, or a career-changing book, or a paradigm-shifting book. I attended a professional conference for educators where it was mentioned in a session on equitable grading practices, and one of the other conference participants talked a bit about her experience after a year of using practices she developed for her own courses from the resources in this.
It blew me away, totally recommended reading for literally every teacher.
A must read for educators, parents/guardians, students, policymakers, and truthfully anyone who is actually invested in learning and education in any capacity.
I'm super glad I've read this book. It's been on my bookshelf for several years and I've never read it even though I write about this topic. I would give this book five stars but it doesn't seem to account for students with disabilities until like the last page and even there they're lumped in.
I'm having my students read the third chapter in the foundation section and we're going to have a discussion on grades and learning very soon.
Here are some chapters that stand out to me chapter 3 by Susan Blum chapter 4 by Starr Sackstein, I think chapter 9 by Clarissa Sorensen Unruh, all the chapters in the reflections section including the most excellent chapter in that section, chapter 13 by John Warner, and Blum's conclusion.
I've opened the door to my students to talk about potentially changing the syllabus and the grading policy in this class. I don't know if any of them will want to do this but, I do. I am convinced that grades do not measure learning and I really am interested in student learning. I have one student that emails me nearly every class day to tell me he wants to do well in the class and what he means is that he wants a good grade. It doesn't seem like he cares about learning at all. I'm over the grading part, I want to facilitate learning and if I don't get to do that, I don't think I want to do this at all.
Finally the irony of reading this book on a scale of five, essentially giving it a grade, is not lost on me.
Great read! Reviews the history of grading and why grades are so problematic, as well as numerous examples of how to use ungrading in a variety of disciplines and K-12, plus college. I’m going to give it a whirl this summer and see what I and the students think.
Most of the book was about the “why” even though it was divided into 3 parts: Foundations, Practices, Reflections. Every “chapter” is actually a separate teacher’s account of their personal experience with ungrading, and it felt extremely repetitive as each chapter started with each teacher’s personal “why.” I get it, I’ve read the research, let’s please move on to the implementation part of it, which is only touched on partially in the “practices” section. I did get a lot of good tips for creating my own personal implementation in the future, though. I would have preferred way more concrete examples, however.
I received a free copy of this book while attending a pedagogical workshop at the American Chemical Society. The book's basic premise—that students learn less when they, and their teachers, are distracted by receiving and assigning grades—is, on reflection, reasonable. Think of how Ph.D. students are educated. They are, arguably, the people in whom the University has the most concentrated interest in educating and, after their first year or so, they learn entirely through one-on-one interactions with faculty and detailed feedback on their research progress, writing, and presentations. This volume argues through thirteen essays by different college and K-12 teachers: if it is good enough for Ph.D. students, why isn't it good enough for all students?
Nearly all of the contributors say their experiences with removing grades (with "ungrading") have occurred in classes with enrollments in the dozens, at most. In principle, I like the ideas of setting grades through conferences with students, of giving detailed feedback divorced from the assignment of points, and of meeting students where they are in terms of interest. I do this with my graduate students. But, I also teach a junior-level undergraduate physical-chemistry course with 100 students, primarily with pre-medical interests. What this book does not answer is how I can scale these methods up to that many students and how I can rely on their intrinsic motivation when some of them misguidedly view the course (and all of their quantitative courses) as an obstacle to be overcome on the way to their idealized vision of medicine as a qualitative art.
I recommend the book as a means to provoke thought in all educators about the role grades play in their teaching, but not necessarily as a manual for how to make changes.
I love the idea of "ungrading." I have implemented in one class and plan to implement it from now on.
Ungrading is a collection of essays by teachers who have tried some form of ungrading. I appreciated the varied perspectives, but I found most fell short of what I was looking for in the book. Each gave a taste of what the teacher did to ungrade, but many lacked specific details that would help someone actually implement it. Other essays felt written too early in a teacher's ungrading journey...several contributors had only tried ungrading once and needed another year of ungrading experience to hear more about their adaptations to the process. One contribution was an incomplete series of blog posts that just ended without much resolution.
That all being said, I think this book works well as an introduction to understanding where all of the unrest surrounding grades comes from and what some teachers are doing to push against the system and promote learning over grades. I recommend it for anyone who wants to figure out what this movement is all about or to brainstorm ideas of how to implement it.
However, if I were to recommend one book on progressive grading, it would be Point-less by Sarah Zerwin. She goes pretty in-depth into a system of ungrading (or "point-less" grading) that worked really well for me in one of my classes. She's an ELA teacher, so her book is focused on that subject area, but her husband Paul Strode has a lengthy blog post about how to go gradeless in a science class.
Whatever book you read on this topic, good luck in your journey to de-emphasize grades and promote learning!
I would give this book a 4.5 ⭐️ if I could, because I loved this book and it gave me much to think about as a teacher; however, I wish there would have been more examples from performing arts teachers (art, music, and p.e). I feel like they were overlooked for the more traditional gen Ed classes.
I do see myself implementing many of the strategies discussed in the book - it makes so much sense as an art teacher to do away with traditional grades. I already utilize feedback in most (if not all) of my assignments. I check in with my kids frequently and the have sketchbooks as a way of documenting progress and acts kind of like a portfolio of sorts, but I want to lean into it even more next year.
This book made me question so many aspects of our education system and challenged me to look into other forms of assessment. I also purchased more books that were recommended readings in the book to further bolster this idea further in my career.
Every teacher should read this and reflect on what role grades have in their classrooms and evaluate their effectiveness in gauging the true level of learning that is occurring/not occurring.
The reasoning behind ungrading is something I can absolutely get behind, as is the philosophy that guides the changes that must necessarily be made by eliminating or drastically cutting back grades and the (mostly bad) habits that grades produce. That was a really interesting thing to read about, and the teachers collected in this volume make a convincing case early on. As far as the rest of the book goes as a book, it was kind of uneven. Maybe it's because I bought into the idea early on, but some of the case studies and arguments later seemed sort of weak or repetitive or unnecessary as illustrations of how the process could go. Some examples were useful, but others felt weirdly complicated in their own way. Again, the background and philosophy presented here are, I think, compelling, but the early arguments of the book were really all I needed to be convinced of that. The rest of the book read alright, but also like unnecessary additions to an argument that had already been well made.
this book was kind of disappointing? i read this for my pedagogy bookclub and ended up being bored way before the halfway point. i think this book brought up really good points about why ungrading is necessary and about how it can look like in practice. however, it was all very american, and little of it was of relevance for me, and, in turn, difficult to apply. then it got insanely repetitive. every chapter is written by someone else, so it makes sense to have some overlap, but it really felt like we had already consumed the subject of the book in the first 30 pages. i expected way more emphasis on the history of grading and how we can rather decolonize the curriculum, but it was kept very surface level. i also would have appreciated more focus on discussions about the current system and how to improve it in a more general way, but maybe it’s because im not the target audience?
4.25⭐️ Despite not being the implied reader, I found this incredibly eye-opening as it mentioned marking strategies that I've experienced with my work as a student in school and now in university. I also found the strategies that the writers explain very clear for the implied reader to implement. As well I liked the fact that the book mentioned strategies that hadn't worked and the changes that were made. Furthermore, I found the inclusion of students being involved in the development and implementation of ungrading strategies incredibly beneficial as they would clearly understand the strategies and how it will benefit them in a way that would work for them and to make them a invested student in the subject rather than just focused on a grade.
I am convinced by the evidence that grading causes problems (it's not objective, it demotivates students, it doesn't truly measure learning--it doesn't account for the student who comes into the course writing A material and learns nothing or for the student who comes into the course writing F material and improves to a D, and a whole host of other issues).
I am not necessarily convinced that dispensing with grades solves those problems.
This book certainly gives me a great deal to think about and some good idea for how to adjust self- and peer-assessment exercises; I am all about the metacognition in my classes.
As a PhD student trying to rethink how I grade the course I teach, I really loved this book. It provided practical advice/suggestions/ideas without being prescriptive, and it is so reassuring to know that I’m not going through these struggles alone. I appreciated that all of the contributors shared both the positives and negatives in such a sincere way. It made me feel inspired by their successes without making me feel inadequate about my own struggles while implementing some of these strategies.
The philosophy behind and explanation for refocusing our efforts away from marks/grades and on more feedback and revision provides a logically sound platform on which to build an "upgraded" classroom. The authors provide examples for parent letters and clear language for addressing admin as needed. I was hoping for more explicit examples of procedures in practice in a classroom, but there are enough to begin reforming my own practice.
Excellent text on why grades and grading (letter grades, numerical grades, rubrics) are not effective for actual learning. It is easy to read, persuasive, and it offers great ideas on how to start shifting away from grading and how to envision alternative ways to assess - because grades and assessment are not and should never coincide.
Absolutely recommended if you are a teacher, professor, educator, educational administrator or policy maker...
Something that has always bothered me about assessment weighting is that a student is penalized for doing poorly on their first assignment despite how drastically they might improve over the term. Ungrading looks at the overall holistic learning experience rather than a gauntlet of challenges. I loved this book.
While I agree that grading is the worst part of teaching, this book didn’t manage to convince me quite as much as I’d hoped. This is partly because of the practical challenges of implementing ungrading (especially when all of my courses are new preps) and partly because I remain uncertain about the philosophy.
A very useful and thought provoking guide for educators thinking of removing grades from their courses. Plenty of examples of how this can be done across diverse disciplines. I found the arguments very convincing. I hope the upgrading movement continues to gain momentum so that we can focus on student learning rather than grade justification.
An important idea and if someone were on the fence, I think this might be a good place to start. As someone who went gradeless a few years ago already, there's not much more to be gained here and its repetition of the different contributors' stories–which, spoiler alert, are very similar–makes it a bit of a slog.