The Grading Podcast

Sharona Krinsky and Robert Bosley
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Grading is an extremely important and largely unexamined piece of the classroom puzzle. In this weekly podcast, Sharona Krinsky and Robert Bosley, two long time classroom instructors from the K-12 and Higher Ed worlds, explore the nuts and bolts of grading student work. From looking at traditional grading practices to other types of grading such as alternative grading, equitable grading, ungrading, and more, join us as we and our guests provide the research, practices, and details needed to create a more effective grading practice that supports student learning and success. For more information, check out our website, https://www.thegradingpod.com

  1. 5D AGO

    129 - (Replay) The Results are IN! Traditional Grading and Alternative Grading Went HEAD TO HEAD!!! What happened?

    Happy New Year! We are taking a small break this week from releasing new episodes, so please enjoy our most popular episode from 2025. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode! In this episode, Sharona and Bosley share some of the top line results of a direct comparison between traditional grading and alternative grading. In a tightly coordinated course with many instructors, sections and students, half of the sections used traditional grading and half used alternative grading. This is a fascinating dive into what does "traditional" grading mean, and how do those impacts show up in the classroom. Resources The Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building. The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12. Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading: The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia Blog Recommended Books on Alternative Grading: Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda NilsenUndoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel Follow us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page. If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com. All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State...

    1h 2m

  2. 12/23/2025

    128 - (Replay)Visionary Leadership: Culture Change through Asking Questions - A 10-Year Journey to Building-Wide Grading Reform

    Happy Holidays! We're taking the week off from recording, so enjoy this replay about visionary leadership!! In this episode, Sharona and Boz interview Doug Wilson, principal of Avondale High School in Michigan, about his advice on implementing building-wide grading reform. This discussion touches on ways of being a visionary leader, how to move towards culture change around grades, and advice to administrators (and teachers!) on how to question our practices with an eye towards improving kids' learning. Join us for this fascinating conversation to move forward with grading reform. Links Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support! Materials from Doug Wilson supporting Grading Reform (Google Folder Link)Building Thinking Classrooms, by Peter Liljedahl Resources The Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building. The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12. Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading: The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia Blog Recommended Books on Alternative Grading: Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda Nilsena...

    51 min

  3. 12/16/2025

    127 - An LMS Designed from the Ground Up for Alt Grading? Tell Me More! With Stephanie Valentine

    Dr. Stephanie Valentine (University of Nebraska–Lincoln) joins Sharona and Boz to tell the origin story behind TeachFront—a grading-and-feedback platform she and her students built after getting buried in spreadsheets trying to make standards-based / ungrading-style systems work at scale. They dig into what shifted when grades stopped being “points to litigate” and became feedback for growth, what went wrong (and what finally worked) in those early semesters, and why most LMS gradebooks still force instructors to “hack” systems designed for averages. Stephanie explains how TeachFront supports iterative feedback, reassessments, flexible mastery scales (including specs-style checkboxes), and clearer student-facing progress visuals—without putting points front-and-center. Links Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support! TeachFront.comYoutube Webinar on Using TeachFrontEpisode 120 - Learning Takes Time with Wendy Smith Resources The Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building. The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12. Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading: The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia Blog Recommended Books on Alternative Grading: Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda NilsenUndoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel Follow us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a...

    56 min

  4. 12/09/2025

    126 - AI-Aware Teaching, Mastery Quizzes, and the Future of Grading with Derek Bruff

    What happens to grading when AI can do so much of what we’ve traditionally asked students to do by hand? In this episode, Boz and Sharona talk with educator, author, and podcaster Derek Bruff about his three-stage journey into mastery-based assessment, from early test corrections to coordinated mastery quizzes to rebuilding exams in a cryptography seminar—then zoom out to the upcoming Alternative Grading Institute at UVA, where faculty will redesign courses around specs, standards-based, and collaborative grading in response to pandemic-era lessons, public skepticism about higher ed, and the rise of generative AI. Links Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support! Agile Learning - Derek Bruff's Blog on Teaching and LearningIntentional Teaching Podcast Interview with Robert Talbert and David ClarkIntentional Teaching Podcast Interview with Eden TannerThe Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching (forthcoming)The UVA Teaching HubCheating Lessons, by James Lang Resources The Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building. The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12. Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading: The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia Blog Recommended Books on Alternative Grading: Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clarka...

    57 min

  5. 12/02/2025

    125 - Five Steps to Redesign Your Course in the Age of AI

    In this episode, Boz and Sharona take on a big question: What should we be doing to our courses, right now, in an AI-saturated world—without losing the human relationships that actually keep students in school? Sharona shares her own urgency as she prepares to return to teaching precalculus for the first time in a decade, while hearing college students (including her own kids) question whether higher ed is “worth it” when AI can do so much of the procedural work. Together, she and Boz lay out five concrete steps instructors can use to rethink their courses immediately. Along the way, they connect AI, course purpose, practice standards, assessment design, and in-class activities back to what the research keeps telling us: students stay when at least one adult clearly cares that they’re there. Links Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support! The Future of Math Class: How AI Could Transform InstructionNCTM position statement on AI and Math TeachingHow AI is Reshaping Higher EducationHow artificial intelligence in education is transforming classroomsEpisode 66 of The Grading Podcast - Perseverance as a Critical Skill for Student Success in Alt GradingWhy AI may kill career advancement for many young workersThe Course Redesign Cycle Resources The Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building. The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12. Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading: The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia Blog Recommended Books on Alternative Grading: a...

    57 min

  6. 11/25/2025

    124 - Extinguishing the Fires in Grading Reform (Replay)

    Happy Thanksgiving! We're on a break this week so enjoy this replay of episode 46! On this episode we welcome back the "sportscaster" of Alternative Grading, Dr. Matt Townsley, to talk about his new book Extinguishing the Fires within Assessment and Grading Reform. As Alternative Grading practices grow and take shape throughout the United States, efforts to resist these reforms are also growing. This incredible new book offers practical guidance to navigating the complexities of transitioning to alternative grading architectures and how to address the seemingly inevitable pushback that many of us are now experiencing. Based on the lived experiences of the authors, this book is a MUST READ for anyone concerned about advocating for grading reform. Links Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support! Extinguishing the Fires Within Assessment and Grading Reform, Garth Larson, Becky Peppler, Don Smith, Matt Townsley. Resources The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12. Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading: The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia Blog Recommended Books on Alternative Grading (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!): Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda NilsenUndoing the Grade, by Jesse StommelGrading for Equity, by Joe Feldman The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this...

    58 min

  7. 11/18/2025

    123 - Discovering Your Teacher Assessment Identity

    In this episode, Sharona and Boz dive into a concept new to many educators — Teacher Assessment Identity — and explore how teachers’ beliefs, experiences, and professional contexts shape the way they design, interpret, and use assessments. Sharona introduces the idea after hearing about new research connecting assessment practices to teacher identity, and then leads Boz through a live, on-air reflective interview designed to help him uncover his own “assessment identity.” Together, they model how teachers can ask deep reflective questions about the why behind their assessment choices — revealing that grading and assessment reform are inseparable parts of the same professional journey. What follows is part self-assessment, part coaching session, and part exploration of how personal, disciplinary, and institutional identities influence assessment ethics, feedback, and student learning. Links Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support! How does assessment shape student identities? An integrative reviewAssess That Podcast - Episode 20Evidence of teacher assessment work and its relationship to their assessment identityChallenging Assumptions: AI and Teacher Assessment Identity FormationBeyond the gradebook: embracing the potentials of teacher assessment identity (TAI) in (re)shaping English language professors’ professional development and success in higher educationTeacher assessment literacy in practice: A reconceptualizationReconceptualising the role of teachers as assessors: teacher assessment identity Resources The Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building. The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12. Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading: The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia Blog Recommended Books on Alternative Grading: a...

    56 min

  8. 11/11/2025

    122 - From Just-In-Time Teaching to Ungrading: A Conversation with Dr. Sharon Stranford

    In this episode, Sharona and Boz follow up on episode 121 and sit down with Dr. Sharon Stranford, Professor of Biology at Pomona College, to explore her journey from traditional grading toward ungrading and collaborative grading in STEM. Sharon shares how her experiences as a first-generation college student, a long-time practitioner of just-in-time teaching, and a pandemic-era educator led her to reimagine how feedback, mastery, and motivation intersect in the science classroom. She explains how she replaced numbers and letters with meaningful dialogue, feedback, and self-assessment, helping students shift from “What’s my grade?” to “What have I learned?” Along the way, she describes how personal goals, SMART reflections, and one-on-one mastery conversations help students develop agency and persistence—while also transforming the teacher–student relationship. Links Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support! Just-In-Time Teaching: Blending Active Learning with Web Technology, Novak, G. Et AlEnhancing and Undermining Intrinsic Motivation: The Effects of Task-Involving and Ego-Involving Evaluation on Interest and Performance.British Journal of Educational Psychology. Butler, R, Et Al Resources The Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building. The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12. Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading: The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia Blog Recommended Books on Alternative Grading: Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David ClarkSpecifications Grading, by Linda Nilsena...

    1h 1m
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About

Grading is an extremely important and largely unexamined piece of the classroom puzzle. In this weekly podcast, Sharona Krinsky and Robert Bosley, two long time classroom instructors from the K-12 and Higher Ed worlds, explore the nuts and bolts of grading student work. From looking at traditional grading practices to other types of grading such as alternative grading, equitable grading, ungrading, and more, join us as we and our guests provide the research, practices, and details needed to create a more effective grading practice that supports student learning and success. For more information, check out our website, https://www.thegradingpod.com

Information

  • Creator
    Sharona Krinsky and Robert Bosley
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2025
  • Episodes
    130
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Sharona Krinsky and Robert Bosley
  • Show Website
    The Grading Podcast

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