38 episódios

This is the podcast of Teachers Going Gradeless. Each episode we speak to educators who are transforming teaching and learning by grading less. Tune in and learn with us!

Grow Beyond Grades Teachers Going Gradeless

    • Educação

This is the podcast of Teachers Going Gradeless. Each episode we speak to educators who are transforming teaching and learning by grading less. Tune in and learn with us!

    Episode 51 - Assessing Holistically w/Carissa McCray

    Episode 51 - Assessing Holistically w/Carissa McCray

    Carissa McCray is a member of Research, Advocacy, Collaboration, and Empowerment Mentoring program, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and the American Educational Research Association. She has presented across the United States on topics ranging from implementing social-emotional strategies in the classroom to culturally responsive teaching techniques through the lens of critical race theory. Her ongoing scholarship and practitioner-based work are driven by creating equitable learning opportunities through the inclusion of multicultural literature, media, and curricula.

    Topics include:


    How an equitable, inclusive, culturally competent classroom is a departure from the status quo


    Why an equitable, inclusive education is important in our global society


    What role assessment plays in fostering an equitable learning environment


    How we can use data to better serve our students


    Why the “story” told by standardized testing data misses the mark


    How deemphasizing grades can align with the goals of equitable instruction


    Why we should assess students holistically, realizing that “everything is assessment”



    Resources


    Everything is Assessment⁠ (TG2 blog post)


    ⁠Equitable Instruction, Empowered Students: A Teacher’s Guide to Inclusive and Culturally Competent Classrooms⁠ (book by Dr. Carissa McCray)


    ⁠Mirrors and windows: Using the five senses and more to plan culturally responsive instruction⁠ (interview for the Yes and Know podcast)


    ⁠Five things we need to stop saying about our students⁠ (interview for the Leading Equity podcast)


    ⁠Multicultural Literature as Critical Literature: Redefine the Trajectory for Students of Color⁠ (chapter in the anthology Research Anthology on Racial Equity, Identity, and Privilege)

    • 43 min
    Episode 50 - Leveling Up w/Fabiola Torres

    Episode 50 - Leveling Up w/Fabiola Torres

    Fabiola "Fabi" Torres is an online Ethnic Studies professor and Certified Faculty Developer at Glendale Community College. During the pandemic, she has led nationwide workshops and courses on applying equity-minded methods such as culturally responsive teaching in the online environment, humanizing online teaching and learning as well as ungrading practices.

    With dual M.A. degrees in Chicana/o Studies and Learning Technology, Fabi was featured at InstructureCon 2019 for her work in humanizing online education. In 2020, she received the Online Learning Consortium Advocate Award for Diversity and Inclusion and the Distinguished Faculty Award at Glendale Community College. In the summer of 2023, Fabi was named one of the top 30 education technology influencers for EdTech Magazine.

    Fabiola is a fur-mommy of Luke, Leia and Wookie.

    Topics include


    What inspired Fabiola to become a community college professor
    How current events influenced Fabi to stop ‘policing’ her students by moving toward ungrading
    How Fabi used the summer of 2020 to develop and design her own approach to ungrading
    How ungrading caused Fabi’s curriculum and assignments to change
    Why Fabi believes grades “detonate” in the souls of our students, and how her form of ungrading eliminates or at least buffers students from this experience
    How Fabi’s students use her REDO process—Reflect, Edit, Discover and Observe—to articulate their own learning patterns and strategies, as well as identify obstacles
    How technology supports—and, in some cases, impedes—teaching and learning
    How AI is currently influencing teaching and learning in Fabi’s classes and where she thinks it’s all headed

    Other resources


    Discovering The Spark Of Teaching & Learning Through Equitable Grading (article for California Virtual Campus Online Network of Educators)


    Grades Suck: Fabi’s video representing her core beliefs about learning and the problems with grades. The implementation of UnGrading will be provided in the Orientation Module is Canvas.


    UnGrading In Ethnic Studies 121: Fabi’s webpage for explaining ungrading to her students.

    • 59 min
    Episode 49 - Undoing the Grade w/Jesse Stommel

    Episode 49 - Undoing the Grade w/Jesse Stommel

    Jesse Stommel is a faculty member in the Writing Program at University of Denver. He is also co-founder of Hybrid Pedagogy: the journal of critical digital pedagogy and Digital Pedagogy Lab. He has a PhD from University of Colorado Boulder. He is co-author of An Urgency of Teachers: the Work of Critical Digital Pedagogy.

    Jesse is a documentary filmmaker and teaches courses about pedagogy, film, digital studies, and composition. Jesse experiments relentlessly with learning interfaces, both digital and analog, and his research focuses on higher education pedagogy, critical digital pedagogy, and assessment. He’s got a rascal pup, Emily, a clever cat, Loki, and a badass daughter, Hazel.

    Originally aired as a live Community Gathering, where Vanessa Ellis interviewed Jesse on his book, Undoing the Grade: Why We Grade, and How to Stop, and then opened the floor to questions for participants.

    Topics include


    Do we need the word 'ungrading'? Why can this term be problematic?


    What ungrading has looked like throughout Jesse’s career


    How the work of scholars like bell hooks, Kevin Gannon, and Paulo Freire have influenced Jesse’s ungrading philosophy


    Why ungrading is not ideologically neutral work


    How ungrading can empower students and support their agency


    Why ungrading is less about shifting policies and more about building community


    The "necessary practices" educators must implement to make teaching and learning more equitable

    Other resources

    Blog posts included in Jesse’s book:


    An Introduction to Ungrading


    Toward a Cointentional Approach to Assessment


    Ungrading for Equity

    • 50 min
    Episode 48 - The Mastery Transcript w/Mike Flanagan

    Episode 48 - The Mastery Transcript w/Mike Flanagan

    Mike Flanagan is the CEO of the Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC), a growing group of high schools creating a digital high school transcript that opens up opportunity for each and every student—from all backgrounds, locations, and types of schools—to have their unique strengths, abilities, interests, and histories fostered, understood, and celebrated.

    Mike oversaw the design and development of Mastery Transcript software products, connecting with members and advisors to manage the MTC product roadmap until May 2021. He is an experienced education technology executive, most recently having served as CEO of the Services Division at the National Association of Independent Schools, where he led a complete redesign and relaunch of their School and Student Services financial aid platforms.

    Topics include


    How Mike’s background in education and technology influenced his interest and involvement in the Mastery Transcript Consortium
    The genesis and history of the Mastery Transcript, as well as some of the troubling statistics behind the traditional measures of grades, GPA, and test scores
    What the Mastery Transcript is and what schools in the Mastery Transcript Consortium have in common
    What mastery learning is and how it accelerates and enhances equity
    How schools or districts might know if they are ready to work with MTC
    What colleges, admissions offices, and admissions officers have to say about the Mastery Transcript

    Other resources


    What We Do: Key principles, features, and benefits of the Mastery Transcript
    MTC Community Talkback: Competency-based Credentials: This topical, cross-sector discussion features insights from representatives of America Succeeds, CAPS Network, Education Reimagined, Envision Learning Partners and Jobs for the Future.
    Mastery Transcript Tour: Susie Bell, Senior Director of Member School Engagement, explains Mastery Learning and how the Mastery Transcript facilitates and propels it.

    • 43 min
    Episode 47 - Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education w/Alex Shevrin Venet

    Episode 47 - Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education w/Alex Shevrin Venet

    Alex Shevrin Venet is an educator, author, and professional development facilitator based in Vermont. She teaches community college and graduate teacher education. Previously, she was a teacher and leader at an alternative therapeutic school. She is the co-founder of the Nurturing the Nurturers collective, a healing community for educators. Her first book, Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education, is a bestseller at W.W. Norton. She is also a long-time ungrader!

    Topics include:


    How Alex’s personal background and professional experiences led to her interest in trauma-informed education
    How Alex defines trauma in the context of her work in schools
    How centering four “proactive priorities” can help schools move toward more equitable and trauma-informed systems and decisions
    How the proactive priorities can be used to make ungrading more equitable, inclusive, and trauma informed
    How teachers can collectively work to make change at all levels of the system at the same time
    Why grades can be a barrier to unconditional acceptance

    Other resources:


    Alex’s book: Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education
    Alex’s website: unconditionallearning.org

    • 50 min
    Episode 46 - Telling the Whole Story w/Nate Bowling

    Episode 46 - Telling the Whole Story w/Nate Bowling

    Nate Bowling teaches Social Studies at a US Embassy School in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. He is a past Washington State Teacher of the Year and National Teacher of the Year Finalist. He and his wife blog about living and teaching overseas at BowlingsAbroad.com and he is the host of the Nerd Farmer Podcast on the Channel 253 Podcast Network. He writes a weekly newsletter called Takes & Typos on Substack and you can find him on Mastodon’s Scholar.Social as @natebowling.

    Topics include:


    Nate’s changing perspective, from urging equitable access to AP classes to calling for an end to schools’ partnership with the College Board


    Why Nate thinks states and state universities can serve the same purposes of—and do a better job than—the College Board


    How the pandemic changed some of Nate’s thoughts and practices around grading


    How Nate’s narrative transcript from Evergreen State College in Washington informed his thinking about assessment and evaluation


    The best and worst things that Disney has done with the Star Wars franchise



    Other resources:


    On Teachers Going Gradeless:


    We Don’t Need the College Board


    Taking Unneeded Anxiety Out of Assessment


    Testing, COVID-19, and the College Board (TG2Chat LIVE! Episode 17, April 20, 2020)




    An open letter to the College Board about online, at-home AP tests (April 22, 2020)

    • 38 min

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