The next time you’re sitting with a stack of papers, I want you to imagine that I knock on the door, walk in, and sit down next to you (awkwardly). I put my hand on the stack of things that you’re grading, and I say, “Hey there, colleague. Question: Why are you grading that?”
If we don't want our lives to be ruled by an ever-looming paper stack, then we need to get used to asking ourselves this question. There's no other way to manage our time well.
(A brief digression: To be clear, I’m not anti-grades. My classes use a traditional grading system and so does my school. While I’m sure there are merits to the standards-based and grade-free systems promulgated on the web, I’ve not been sold enough to find experimenting with these things worth the limited time I have. It’s my opinion that every system has its merits and flaws, and every system will still require teachers to focus their efforts on the work that matters the most. So, why invest limited energy and time on a grading system when I can invest in mastering those things that matter most instead?)
So picture an assignment you've graded recently, and answer the question: “Why are you grading that?” Below, I share some common answers and my responses to each.
It’s my job.
If you’re a teacher, that’s not true.
Your primary job responsibility is to promote the long-term flourishing of young people, and you do this by teaching them to master the course material you’ve been assigned. That's the core of teaching. Grades are an offshoot of an offshoot of this core responsibility.
This means that if you are ever grading something simply because it’s your job, you might save some quick time by not grading that thing at all. Instead, look through a random sample of the assignment, find 1-3 common areas of weakness, and tomorrow hand the assignment back and teach students how to remedy those 1-3 things. When you do this, you’re giving fast feedback to students (they want that, it aids in mastery, and it makes you more credible), and you’re spending a fraction of the time you would have been had you assigned a grade to each piece of student work.
It's a department-mandated assignment.
Now, if this is a situation where your department has an agreement that X assignment must be graded using Y rubric, then yes, I would say that’s part of your job. Not the core part, but a part. You want to be a team player. This isn't The You Show, it's The Long-Term Flourishing Show.
But just because you should do the grading doesn't mean you do it with maximum quality and effort. Now you have to run the grading task through the filter of your primary job responsibility: the promotion of long-term flourishing via student mastery of course material.
If the department’s rubric is unintelligible (many rubrics made by committee are), then you ought to complete the grading task as quickly and effortlessly as possible, trading quality for speed. This might seem terrible, but think of it this way: the rubric is overly complicated, so it's unlikely to serve as useful feedback for students or for you. Until the rubric gets simplified, the grading task is not powerfully linked to the long-term flourishing of kids. So do it, but do it at the lowest acceptable level of quality. This is called satisficing, and there’s no way to stay sane without this skill. Satisficing is to the teacher what light sabers are to the Jedi.
Now notice: satisficing does lead to the occasional mistake. When you find one of these, smile and apologize. Own the mistake and move on. But as long as you're taking saved energy from a satisficeable task and putting it into a super important one, you'll gain expertise faster than most and you and your students and your school will come out better in the end.
One more thing on the hopelessly complex departmental rubric: an obvious long-term goal in situations like this is to improve the thing — namely, by hacking down its complexity until all stakeholders (students and teachers) can use it. I write a bit about simple rubrics, and share other, better, saner grading practices in the writing chapter of These 6 Things.
I told the students I would.
Then yes, you should grade it — for the sake of both your integrity and your credibility. But next time, think hard about telling the students whether or not you will grade something.
“But Dave,” you might say, “they always ask me if it’s going to be graded. And if it’s not, then they won’t do it!”
Two things here:
1) You’ve got a five key beliefs problem here, and teachers around the world experience the same thing. The condition isn't terminal or fixed. Learn the beliefs and apprentice yourself to the experts who study them to help fix this.
2) You tell them, “I may grade it, I may not. All you need to worry about is working toward mastery of today’s material. That’s my focus, too — guiding you toward mastery.”
Let’s look more at that second one.
The students are obsessed with grades
If you teach in a grade-obsessed culture, start obsessively saying things like, “The goal in this class is mastery of material — not grades,” and, “If you master the material, the grades will follow.”
And when I say obsessively, I mean it. Sometimes teachers will say this kind of thing once or twice or a dozen times, and then when they find that it doesn’t magically change the culture of their classes, they throw up their hands like, “Ugh, nothing works!”
But that’s not what obsessive means. You need to convince yourself at the soul level that your course is truly about mastery of the material, and then you need to orient all your efforts toward that end. And you need to burn with the knowledge of the truth that it is mastery that yields the best long-term flourishing outcomes for students — not grades!
When these things become obsessively true to you, you’ll say them 1,000 times over the course of a semester, and you’ll start to plan your lessons as if mastery is the goal, and you’ll start to approach grading as if mastery is the goal, too.
And when it still doesn’t magically work the 1,000th time you say it, you’ll just say it again. Because you're obsessed with the core task of your job.
The students’ parents and guardians expect grades
Yes, and some people expect that when they write me an email they’ll get a response within an hour. It would be interesting if we could possibly live up to the expectations of the hundreds and thousands of people who have a say in our work as educators. But we can't. So don't try.
We can’t make professional decisions based on the expectations of others. This is why it is so critical for us to be clear on our Everests. When we aim all our work at the long-term flourishing of young people, then we’re aligned with the deepest desires that our students’ parents and guardians have for their kids.
What I’ve found with parents is that as I strive for excellence in teaching — part of which is clearly and respectfully and lovingly communicating with them, because yes, they are a part of the work — then they tend to give me a break. Also, even though I lose zero sleep over perfecting my grading system (I couldn't even tell you offhand what the percentage weighting of the different categories in my grade book is — it's a departmental decision and I'm happy to leave it that way), I do try to make the system as intelligible as possible for parents and students, and I do speak to my at-risk students about the importance of attending to their grades.
The Gist
Grading is a weak form of feedback in all cases except the ones where students clearly understand where the grade is coming from. If the kind of grading you’re doing isn’t feedback, then it should always be satisficed or skipped. In general, the fewer the grades you put in, the fewer people will expect. I aim for 1-2 per week.
Satisficing is the most underrated tool for grading situations. I devote an entire lesson to satisficing in the Time Management Course — you should come check it out. I am blissfully happy being only adequate at low-impact grading tasks because these kinds of grading tasks are so minimally associated with the long-term flourishing of young people.
I'd love to hear your take on these things or your specific scenario that you're still wondering about after reading this post. Share in the comments.
TOM JAGGARD says
The concept of “satisficing” is one of the most valuable gems I have picked up from reading Dave’s blogs. It has saved me lots of time and reduced my stress level considerably. Simply amazing!!! Thanks, Dave!
Dave Stuart Jr. says
I’m so glad, Tom — thank you!
Laura Hopkins says
You are absolutely right about not grading everything! As a middle grades math teacher, I sometimes have students self-check formative assessments. I then work with the students who didn’t do well, so that they can work towards mastery. St some point, though, I take a grade on their work. There are still students who don’t do well and want to keep re-doing the work for a better grade. I want them to keep working for mastery but it can become unmanageable to keep re-doing the same work. Any suggestions?
Dave Stuart Jr. says
In an ideal world where we had unlimited time, it may make sense to give unlimited re-dos on work. We do not live in that world, so there must be a limit on re-do attempts. I would recommend starting at 2x re-do limit for a given assignment, and then experimenting with an even more severe 1x re-do limit. Trust subsequent lessons to make up for mastery gaps that the 1-2 re-dos don’t fill in.
Hector says
As a high school ELA teacher, this couldn’t be more true. I’ve learned to sell students on the idea of working for the sake of learning or practice. They write a lot, yet I don’t grade anywhere near all of it. I’ve also started “satisficing” a lot of my grading. When we go overboard in grading and feedback, expecting that all our comments and corrections will somehow enlighten the student toward mastery, we are naive at best. Like you say, 1-3 concrete areas of improvement will go a long way versus copious amounts of corrections and comments that, because of their overwhelming nature, most students will overlook anyways. Teachers are generally some of the most ingenious and resourceful people I know. They can make a lot happen with the very little that is given them. So why not be ingenious with grading. Figure out a system that fulfills whatever department/building/district obligation you have, that is also effective feedback for students, and (perhaps most importantly) that will keep you sane!
Dave Stuart Jr. (@davestuartjr) says
Hector, what a great question at the end — when we’re so ingenious in other ways, why do we tend toward such dogmatism when it comes to grading the same labor intensive way each time?
Rick Brown says
Awesome article. Those who shun the ideals expressed herein, do so to their own peril and the detriment of their students. Those who practice them become exceedingly efficient teachers who waste very little time and find more time available to accomplishing truly meaningful goals.
Thank you for sharing these burden lifting ideas!
Dave Stuart Jr. (@davestuartjr) says
This is a wonderful proclamation, Rick 🙂
Lynn says
What an amazing article! I agree wholeheartedly with your grading philosophy, but I have never been able to explain it like that. Thank you! I have only taught for nine years, but after three years of a traditional grading system, my district forced my grade level into standards-based report cards. After three years of misery, I moved grade levels to escape it! I currently teach fourth grade with a traditional grading system, and my district requires two grades per week per subject. I teach five subjects, but I only have one class. I do what is required of me, but I know it is my small group instruction, quality feedback, and knowing what my students need today based on how they performed yesterday that makes the difference… not just grades. Since my students inform my lessons, turning in weekly lesson plans by 8am on Monday mornings are also a form of “satisficing.” Do you have an article about lesson plans?
Dave Stuart Jr. (@davestuartjr) says
Lynn, I don’t have an article on lesson plans yet but I’m starting to read / think in that direction. Turning in weekly lesson plans *definitely* is something to satisfice. That’s the kind of thing that would make me want to change buildings or grade levels — just like an obsession with grading would.
See Mike Schmoker’s treatment of lessons in Ch 3 of Focus. His approach is very simple and redundant, and it’s the one I’ve adopted to great effect.
Lynn says
I’ll check it out! Thanks again.
Savanna says
What a refreshing article to read. As easy as it is for students to get caught up coming to class solely for a grade in their performance, teachers (myself included) can get just as caught up in getting every single grade in and down for students- especially us type A personalities when it comes to organization and keeping that stack of papers to a minimal (or zero). This is very important and a philosophy I plan to incorporate with my students this upcoming year. Thanks !
Ashlyn says
As someone who recently experienced the culture of obsession with grades, this is a great article! I found so many takeaways that might just save me hours in the upcoming year. The biggest thing I’m taking away from this is the idea that grading isn’t my job. I’m there to teach, to inspire, to lead students towards success; I’m not there to grade papers and assignments for hours. I hope to incorporate this philosophy towards grading as I begin my first year teaching!
Dave Stuart Jr. (@davestuartjr) says
Ashlyn, I’m so excited for your first. Be in touch if I can help at all — this is an important time in your life and career; enjoy both the triumphs and trials, as they (and the way you respond to them) are day by day making you into the teacher you’ll be.
Trisha Stevens says
Grading is often my enemy, so it is time for reform. One of the issues my team is facing is developing rubrics. I have read your book, but I am still unsure how to develop a simple rubric for something like a narrative essay that then could translate into a percentage to report in the gradebook. Any suggestions or sample rubrics you might be able to share my way?
Dave Stuart Jr. says
Hi Trisha! I would identify up to seven elements you’d like to see in the narrative essays, and then make a plan for teaching each of these elements to students. Make sure there is a shorthand for them — e.g., for my Thesis point, we can just say “Thesis,” but we mean specifically a thesis that lays out “a historically defensible line of reasoning that answers the prompt.” So I teach that longer bit, we look at examples and non-examples, we practice with occasional warm-ups where the task is just to write a thesis, and then we get to the point where I can mark a 1 or a 0 for thesis, and the students understand what they did or did not do.
So maybe one of your points is resolution, or maybe it’s gripping climax, or arresting lead… I’m not sure. But keep it to seven or less, and make it clear to students what each component on the rubric means.
Vivian says
I really appreciate your posts, including this one! But given your views and the reasons you list here, I’m curious why this hasn’t made you anti-grading. You make such good points about not grading.
Dave Stuart Jr. says
It’s a really good question, Vivian. It really comes down to focus — I can only do so many things, only study and push forward my practice in so many areas. In order to optimize for my work in the six things that I write about in my book, I’ve got to let other things (e.g., grading) be satisficed. I’m not saying this is the best strategy, but it’s what I’ve done so far.
At a systems level, there are other changes (e.g., knowledge-rich, coherent curricula) that I think will produce more benefits for more people. I do see the need to reform grades, but the need isn’t as great (in my view) as the need to improve/cohere curricula. Chapter 3 in These 6 Things goes more into this.