Equitable Assessment and Grading

• Attend: Spark Talk: Crafting Equitable Assessments with Student Diversity in Mind | Feb 6

This session uses a case study to illustrate crafting assignments that accommodate diverse student skills and needs, emphasizing scaffolding with practice, feedback, and revision to provide opportunities for students to demonstrate their knowledge.

View details and register for this workshop. 

• Explore:UC Berkeley Supported Equitable Assessment Tools

This resource offers UC Berkeley supported equitable grading tools provided, 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.

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!

• 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.

• Explore: Student Self-Assessment, Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Colorado Boulder

This resource mphasizes that student self-assessment involves learners reflecting on their skills, knowledge, and progress, which fosters metacognition, critical thinking, reflective thinking, and self-regulated learning.

• Read: 4 Steps of Student Self-Assessment, Edutopia

This artcile 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.

• Explore: 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.

• 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.

• 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: Incorporating Rubrics Into Your Feedback and Grading Practices, Center for Teaching and Learning, Columbia

This resource explains the value of using rubrics for assessment. It covers how rubrics clarify expectations, ensure grading consistency, and enhance feedback. The guide also offers tips for designing and implementing rubrics and highlights tools like CourseWorks and Gradescope for seamless integration.

• 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.