Equitable Assessment and Grading

Read: Design Effective Assessments, Center for Teaching and Learning, UC Berkeley. 
This resource helps distinguish formative assessment (immediate feedback that shapes teaching in real time) from summative assessment (evaluating cumulative learning at a unit or course's end) and then goes further into what actually makes a final exam defensible.

Explore: UC Berkeley Supported Equitable Assessment Tools
This resource offers UC Berkeley supported equitable grading tools, including SpeedGrader for consistent and unbiased feedback, Gradescope for efficient and structured grading, Peerceptiv for collaborative peer assessments, and the Grade Distribution Tool for analyzing trends and addressing inequities in grading practices.

Grading is where a lot of unintentional bias can creep in; through inconsistent standards, unclear rubrics, or grading scales that reward polish over understanding.

Read: Equitable Grading Strategies, Center for Teaching and Learning, UC Berkeley. 
This resource makes the case that transparent rubrics do double duty; they're not just about consistency, they also dismantle the "hidden curriculum" that quietly privileges students who already know academic norms going in.

Read: Alternative Grading Frameworks, Center for Teaching and Learning, UC Berkeley. 
This resource discusses some alternative grading frameworks aimed at enhancing fairness, accuracy, and student motivation.

Read: Assessment Rubrics, Center for Teaching and Learning, UC Berkeley. 
This resource offers a practical how-to for building a rubric: start with an assignment that's time-intensive to grade or where students report unclear expectations, then work backward from there.

Explore: Assessing Equitably with All Learners in Mind, Center for Teaching and Learning, Columbia.
This resource emphasizes the importance of equitable assessment practices that accommodate diverse student needs and promote success for all learners. They recommend that instructors reflect on and address potential biases and assumptions in their assessment methods, implement intentional and context-specific practices, and involve students meaningfully throughout the assessment process.

A traditional exam might not always be the best way to find out what a student knows. These resources are about assignments that ask students to do something closer to what the discipline itself actually looks like.

Explore: Alternatives to Traditional Testing, Center for Teaching and Learning, UC Berkeley. 
Surveys alternative assessment types — structured papers, annotated portfolios, creative projects, reflective essays — each designed to integrate with a course's actual learning objectives rather than sit apart from them.

In practice: Physics in Practice: Solving Real-World Problems (Eugene Chiang, Professor of Astronomy) - a real example from Berkeley's CTL Teaching Innovation Showcase.
In Physics/Astro C101, students work through real-world estimation problems with an emphasis on physical intuition over long derivations. The last question on each set requires students to pose their own question, evaluated for physicality, relevance, and creativity, rather than a single correct numeric answer.

Read: What Is Self-assessment?, Center for Teaching and Learning, Western University.
The Centre for Teaching and Learning at Western University defines self-assessment as the process by which students evaluate the qualities of their own learning processes and products. Incorporating self-assessment into courses can involve various methods, such as self-monitoring, metacognition, reflective journaling, rubric-referenced self-assessment, self-testing, and open-ended critiques. These approaches can be formative, providing feedback during the learning process, or summative, evaluating performance at its conclusion.

Read: 4 Steps of Student Self-Assessment, Edutopia.
This article discusses how the New Mexico School for the Arts (NMSA) cultivates students' self-assessment abilities to foster independent learning. This process involves exposing students to exemplary work, teaching them discipline-specific vocabulary, and engaging them in peer critiques. By adopting these practices, students learn to self-assess effectively, which enhances their autonomy as learners and supports their growth in both artistic and academic pursuits.

Reflect: Think of a course assignment that often causes frustration or challenges for you or your students. This activity invites you to review that assignment and brainstorm possible changes with equitable assessment strategies in mind.

Reflect on the following questions:

• How does this assignment align with your course learning objectives?
• What skills or knowledge do you want students to demonstrate?
• How can this assignment better reflect real-world applications of the course material?
• Can you break this assignment into smaller, more manageable parts?
• What opportunities can you provide for students to receive feedback and revise their work?
• How can students reflect on their learning process through this assignment?
• Could you incorporate elements that allow students to showcase their progress over time?
• What additional support or resources might students need to succeed in this assignment?

Engage with these questions and ideas to explore new ways of making your assignments more equitable and motivating for your students. We also encourage you to meet a CTL colleague for a 1-on-1 consultation to brainstorm and dive deeper into your specific goals!

Explore: Feedback for Learning, Center for Teaching and Learning, Columbia.
This resource emphasizes that feedback is crucial for student growth, guiding future behavior by highlighting areas for improvement and connecting learners with future learning opportunities. Effective feedback is specific, timely, and actionable, enabling students to understand their performance and how to enhance it. It recommends strategies such as providing clear criteria, using rubrics, and incorporating opportunities for revision to make feedback more impactful.

Read: Using Technology to Provide Feedback, Center for Teaching and Learning, The University of Texas at Austin.
This resource outlines best practices for delivering effective feedback, such as ensuring timeliness, balancing positive and constructive comments, connecting feedback to actionable steps, and maintaining consistency through tools like rubrics. The guide also highlights how features in Canvas (bCourses), such as SpeedGrader, can facilitate these practices.

Read: Making Feedback Inclusive, Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Oxford.
This resource emphasizes the importance of using clear, precise language to ensure students understand and can act on feedback, highlighting strengths to boost confidence, and explaining the reasoning behind comments to facilitate application in future work. The guide also advises against limiting language that may hinder student motivation, promoting an approach that fosters a productive and supportive learning environment.

Read: Why Don’t Students Use My Feedback to Improve Their Work, Eberly Center, Carnegie Mellon.
This resource addresses challenges instructors face when students don't utilize feedback to improve their work. It shares a case study where an instructor's detailed written feedback was ineffective until they took class time to explain comments and demonstrate revision strategies. The guide suggests using clear, concise language in feedback, focusing on key issues, engaging students in reflective exercises, discussing common errors in class, and incorporating peer review to enhance understanding and application of feedback.