Waterbury, Conn., superintendent Verna Ruffin noticed early on during the pandemic that students had taken on some demanding and necessary roles outside of their academic responsibilities. They were serving as caregivers and money earners for their families. During the economic and social upheaval brought on by the coronavirus, the 18,000-student Waterbury schools made temporary changes

In Spring 2020, the New York Times and Washington Post, among other newspapers, published stories about schools adapting their grading policies in lieu of a sudden shift to emergency remote learning. More close to home, the Quad City Times ran a similar story describing Bettendorf school board deliberations around third quarter grades. In response to

The purpose of this essay was to describe grading principles that secondary school leaders should consider during future pandemic era learning and to suggest implications based upon previous literature.

“My students spent two weeks on this project, so it should be worth a lot of points.” “If Sammy had to take the test a second time, he must not have studied. He does not deserve full credit on a second attempt.” “In the real world, there are no second chances.” “Students won’t do the

The purpose of this essay is to document what works when K-12 schools implement standards-based grading through a deep dive into related literature and to suggest areas for future consideration. With this improvement to educational systems on the horizon, K-12 teachers and administrators in the early stages of redesigning their grading practices will benefit from understanding the successes and struggles of early adopters in order to successfully reform grading in their own context.