Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher

Why do we grade students? Is it to collect evidence that learning has occurred? Is it to convey information about student achievement? And the real question is: are grades the best way to convey this information? Certainly, grades are convenient—they quickly signal something to students, but mounting evidence shows that they actually reduce rather than contribute to learning. 

The idea that grades do not necessarily reflect learning unsettles most of the colleagues with whom I’ve shared my thoughts on the futility of grades—in fact, it unsettles my students as well. So what do I use instead of numerical feedback or letter grades? The answer is simple: written (and sometimes verbal) feedback. How is this any different from grading? When feedback comes with a grade attached, students tend to ignore the feedback and go straight to the grade. Even if they do read the feedback, they’re focused on the grade. If it’s an A, they feel like there’s nothing more they need to do to improve; if it’s anything less than that, then they sometimes feel defeated. When there is no grading scale, just like in life, they have to interpret the feedback to make sense of it. 

My shift away from grades is an outcome of my teaching at the graduate level over the last 15 years. I have found that no matter how much I scaffold instruction or explicitly state my expectations, students often seem very stressed and more worried about getting an A than actually learning from the assignment. For example, in one of my courses in the International Educational Development Program, one of the first assignments students must complete is writing a concept note that outlines a project in response to a request for proposals. Most of my incoming students have never heard of the term concept note, let alone written one. Despite providing step by step guidance, students often do poorly the first time around. When I used to attach grades, many were quite disheartened with the “low grade” they received (they mostly received Bs but in an era of grade inflation, a B often feels like a D). Most were writing a concept note for the very first time and found writing complex ideas concisely to be a daunting challenge. It felt unfair to grade students on something they were still in the throes of learning. So I removed grades from the equation. I now tell students that for this assignment, all they need to do is try their best and to submit a complete assignment as per the given parameters. If they do that, they will get full credit (assignments are still assigned traditional values that add up to the final typical grading scales for the course where 90s = A range; 80s = B range; etc). 

In removing actual grades from the assignment, the change in attitudes and quality is astounding. Instead of a fear of not getting it and doing poorly, students are able to focus more on actually completing the assignment successfully. In other words, the shift in my own grading behavior shifted something in my students. While I thought I was just being a caring teacher, I soon learned that in fact, there is an entire movement in education that removes grades as the main form of assessment. It’s called ungrading. 

In a nutshell, ungrading decenters grades. Students will still get a grade at the end of the course and that grade appears on their transcript, but instead of focusing on grades throughout the semester on individual assignments, the focus is on learning, reflection, and growth.

There are many ways to decenter grades and to be quite frank, I’m still figuring it out. I start the first day of class with a conversation about how the students will be assessed. I explain that they will not receive letter or numerical grades on their assignments; instead, their work will be assessed on a complete/incomplete basis (an option within Canvas, the course management system most of us use at Penn). If work is complete, they receive full credit. For example, a mid-term might account for 25% of the final course grade. In addition to getting a complete checkmark, students are given written feedback that explains the strengths and weaknesses of their assignment.  

Providing feedback—written or verbal—is essential. This allows students to self-assess as to “how they did,” and it allows them to learn more from the process. Not surprisingly, every year, students tell me that once they have gotten over the initial shock of not receiving a grade, they felt liberated; they’ve taken more risks in my class and worked harder because they feel supported to learn rather than to earn a particular grade. I once had a student take the harder option between two essay choices. She didn’t do a very good job on her essay but she learned from my feedback where she went wrong and understood how to get better at writing such an essay in the future. Because she knew she would get full credit as long as the work was complete, she was willing to take the risk—even though she in some sense “failed” the assignment. Again, my point is, she learned more because she felt that taking a risk would not have a penalty. If anything, it was a rewarding experience. This can best be expressed by her own words:

Being in an ungraded class was unsettling in the beginning but I am glad it is! I took so many risks and failed! This is the first time in my life I am learning what I want to rather than what is expected of me or what my parents want. Thank you for making the class a safe space to learn.

This perhaps is my reason for being a passionate advocate of ungrading: Through risk taking (and sometimes failing) students actually learn more. Part of it is because they are less stressed about grades and can focus more on what they should take away from the assignment rather than how they will be valued or compared to peers. But part of it is also that we are primed to learn through failure. Allowing students to fail without penalizing them results in better learning. 

Not only does this change the focus from grades to learning, it also levels the playing field for students with different educational histories and backgrounds. Since the focus is on “completion” rather than an individual’s views on what constitutes an A assignment, it removes a great deal of stress for all students and quite frankly, from faculty too. Stress is further reduced with optional deadlines—with a caveat. Students can submit work past the suggested deadline with no grade penalty but they do not receive written feedback. Students quickly learn the importance of feedback and so the vast majority do submit on time. 

I do acknowledge that ungrading may look different in different subjects; at the same time, I believe that within every subject, there are elements where ungrading can be used, especially for assignments where learning is at the nascent stages and we cannot expect mastery on the first go.

Higher education is the most diverse and interesting it’s ever been—but with such a diverse set of students, we need to rethink how we assess our students’ learning to ensure that everyone is getting what they need from their education. Ungrading helps my students focus on feedback and learning—which is the heart of what assessment is about. 

Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher is a senior lecturer in the literacy, culture, and international education division and the Director of the International Educational Development Program in the Graduate School of Education.

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This essay continues the series that began in the fall of 1994 as the joint creation of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Lindback Society for Distinguished Teaching. 

See https://almanac.upenn.edu/talk-about-teaching-and-learning-archive for previous essays.