The CTL is happy to assist Grinnell instructors interested in finding the grading methods that best support their learning goals. For many instructors, the range of practices described by the umbrella term “alternative grading” have become useful tools in supporting transparent, learning-focused conversations between educators and students.
Robert Talbert, a co-author of Grading for Growth, articulates four pillars of alternative grading that capture much of what the various approaches seek to build: clearly defined standards, helpful feedback, marks (grades) that indicate progress, and reattempts without penalty--all supporting an overarching emphasis on the benefits of feedback loops.
Methods of alternative grading include the following, which are often combined or adapted in the practices of any given teacher or course:
- Contract grading, which is closely related to labor-based grading
- Specifications grading
- Ungrading
Many instructors are now becoming interested in these methods as a response to the influence of AI in student work. As Chris Wells argues in “The Inversion,” one effect of AI is to break the link between certain kinds of summative assessments (such as academic essays) and the underlying processes that generated them. Alternative grading can help us work with students to emphasize the values of learning in process, with a transparent articulation of what we value in that process.