My Experiences Grading via a Contract
This blog has been neglected for a while. To be fair, I was back to teaching, and that involved commuting to Boston 4 days a week, which doesn’t leave much time for thought. But I wanted to write, because I decided to do something different this year with my grading, and I wanted to share my experiences. This year I am teaching for BU’s Writing Program. The WP is very DEI conscious, and as part of that encourages their instructors to move beyond the standard letter grading system. This system is inconsistent , capitalist, racist, exploitative , and not to mention stressful for both students and instructors . I have personally always stressed over grading, especially student writing because of these very reasons. And so I decided to embrace one form of ungrading , specifically contract grading. Contract grading , or labor based grading, is based on a contract between students and instructors. Under this contract, if they complete the course requirements, as outlined in the syl...
