Quick Tip: Set Up Your Grading System to Foster Student Learning

Grades should be a useful communication tool aimed at helping students understand their learning progress in a course. Unfortunately, they often fall short, leaving both instructor and students frustrated and disappointed. How can we improve this dynamic and maximize the communication power of grades? What do grades in your courses tell you and your students about their progress? Is it the same message? Is it the message you want to communicate?

Contrary to popular belief, traditional grading systems do not provide useful feedback or serve as accurate measures of learning or mastery. There is wide variation across instructor practice in the type of classroom artifacts and engagement that serve as evidence for a grade. Rather than motivating students to explore, risk making mistakes, and learn, traditional grades create a high stakes school environment.

In their book and blog, Grading for Growth authors David Clark and Robert Talbert urge us to rethink our grading practices with the overarching purpose of creating feedback loops between instructor and students. They provide four factors or ‘pillars’ that we can address to create this loop and improve our grading practices. As found in their book, Grading for Growth (pgs. 28-29), these pillars are:

1. Clearly defined standards: “Student work is evaluated using clearly defined and  context-appropriate  content standards for what constitutes acceptable evidence of learning.”
2. Helpful feedback: “Students are given  helpful,  actionable  feedback  that  the  student  can  and  should use to improve their learning.”
3. Grades indicate progress: “Student work doesn’t have to receive a [grade], but if it does, the [grade] is a progress indicator toward meeting a standard and not an arbitrary number.”
4. Reassessment without penalty: “Students can reassess work without penalty, using the feedback they receive, until the standards are met or exceeded.”

To learn more about the four pillars and how to improve your grading practices, register to participate in one or more of the upcoming SoTL programs on this topic. David Clark will be giving a keynote talk and workshop on campus on November 7, 2025.  Leading up to his visit, the SoTL and Campus Writing programs within CITL will be hosting a faculty reading group of the book, Grading for Growth. All participants will receive a physical copy of the book and meet with author, David Clark, during his visit to campus as a SoTL speaker. Complete the application by September 12, 2025.

Grading for Growth is also available to IUB faculty as an ebook through IU Libraries.