Ungrading

Ungrading inspects the inequities of schooling, asks hard questions of the structures of our schools, and offers a critique of the labor conditions for teachers at all levels of education.

Meaningful reform of grading is within everyone's grasp.

Lots of constraints and lots of questions

Turning Subjective into Objective

One week of David's uncensored thoughts about grading

Are you interested in alternative grading but don't know where to begin? Our collection takes you through the key ideas, with links to concrete ways to get started.

These resources explore the practice of collaborative grading, an alternative grading approach in which students and instructors determine grades for a given course in consultation with one another.

Where I begin when I'm designing a new class

It's not ideal and I have a lot of questions.

Getting our terms straight in 2025

In which my colleagues and I observe a Festivus tradition

Next steps after your first (or any!) time using alternative grading

SUNY Oswego-Plattsburgh Zoom Book Club Conversations about Nontraditional Grading

A FAQ and advice about SBG

Josh Eyler helps us cultivate hope and action beyond grades on episode 534 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast

Strategies for the first weeks of class

Josh Eyler shares even more problems with grades on episode 533 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast

Instead of worrying about that A, colleges with non-traditional grading policies want you to enjoy learning and give your best — without the academic anxiety.

History and reflections on attending Hampshire College

This week we feature another guest post, this time from Robert Mundy and Alysa Robin Hantgan, both in the Department of English, Writing, and Cultural Studies at Pace University. Robert is Chair of the department. His teaching and research focus on writing studies, writing program administration, and men’s studies. Alysa is a lecturer in that department. Her teaching and research interests encompass affordable learning, pedagogical innovation, labor, and rhetorics of motherhood.

Ungrading means raising an eyebrow at grades as a systemic practice, distinct from simply not grading. The word, "ungrading," is a present participle, an ongoing process, not a static set of practices.

You can't make the alt-grading work disappear, but you can make it more manageable

Clarissa Sorensen Unruh shares about intersectionality, power, and pedagogy on episode 522 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast

A fundamental choice in alternative grading maybe isn't quite so fundamental

Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend with some of our most engaging posts from the past

David Clark discusses using alternative grading practices to foster student learning on episode 511 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast

As Joshua Eyler was researching a book on what brain science tells us about how to improve teaching, one issue kept coming up as an underlying problem: ...

Clarity, organization, and support

Three reasons why traditional grades and math don't mix