
Making the Grade
How can we design a good grading system?
Inviting students into the process of designing policies and practices for their classroom and school can be a powerful way to help students own their learning and build a culture that centers student voice and leadership. In this project, students explore ideas about fairness, growth mindset, and learning and work together to design and test grading policies that best meet their cocreated criteria. Students use sample data to calculate grades under multiple grading policies and create presentations to show how their selected policy is better than others in terms of incentivizing learning. Teams engage in critique and revision processes informed by conversations with teachers, administrators, and peers.