How to Use Ungrading in Your Classroom

My interest in ungrading stemmed from my own personal experience with it as a child and from documented evidence that it may improve student outcomes. There is also evidence that grades do not track or correlate with actual learning or eventual success.

Early in my exploration of ungrading approaches, I employed larger projects instead of exams to not only evaluate student learning, but to encourage more of it. In my evaluations, students identified these projects as highlights of the course and I noticed that student engagement rose when they were allowed to explore topics that interested them. 

Two of these early classroom projects even led to independent student research and peer-reviewed publications, which reinforces that experiential learning enhances student engagement with course material far beyond the course end date. 

The initial success with project-based learning suggested to me that ungrading could work in STEM courses. Since then, I have redesigned my courses to bring student agency to the forefront. 

I challenge my students to use peer-reviewed literature, hands-on projects, and “deep dives” into the material to guide their learning experiences and often jettison full-length lectures and assessments in favor of ungrading assignments. 

My ultimate goal is to engage my students in a learning environment where they are free of the fear of failure and instead can focus on achieving the necessary learning outcomes to meet their personal and career goals.

Dr. Emily Dosmar

Through this guide, I hope to offer you tools that will help you incorporate ungrading principles into your classroom to create an inclusive and student-centered learning environment.

It is my hope that, through ungrading, your classroom will foster a culture of collaboration and curiosity for you and your students alike.

What Is Ungrading?

Ungrading is not necessarily the act of removing grades from a classroom, but rather, it is the catch-all term for any action that de-emphasizes an instructor assigning a summary grade to student work. 

In other words, ungrading emphasizes feedback and aims to give students agency and ownership over their learning.

Research even suggests that the presence of grades undermines student engagement and learning. 

Ungrading approaches including competency-based grading, contract grading, collaborative grading, and “complete grade anarchy” provides the opportunity to create inclusive and judgment-free learning environments while still ensuring that students meet course learning objectives. 

These approaches can be adopted and modified for any type of class and classroom setting.

Reflection Questions for Faculty Before Implementing Ungrading

• What do I believe about grading? How have my beliefs and practices regarding grading influenced my teaching?
• What’s one assignment or project you currently use in class that could be adapted for ungrading? What components of it could be adjusted for deeper learning and self-assessment?

Steps for Implementing Ungrading

1. Identify the key learning objectives for your class.
2. Determine the most appropriate assessment practice to measure those learning outcomes.
3. Begin by clearly explaining to your students what ungrading is, why you are using this approach, and how it differs from traditional grading methods.
4. Select the ungrading approach that best matches your course goals
   • For example: competency-based grading, contract grading, collaborative grading, labor-based grading, “complete grade anarchy”, or some combination
5. Modify those assessment practices to meet ungrading standards. For this, it’s important to focus on maintaining a student-centered and learning-centered approach. When possible, the following should be considered:
   • Giving feedback first and providing opportunities for students to close the loop on the feedback they receive 
   • Flexible timelines
   • Opportunities for revision 
   • Student input and opportunities for agency
   • Decentralized classroom authority 
6. Communicate the approach taken in the course syllabus.
   • This is an excellent opportunity to edit your syllabus to ensure an inclusive tone and language.
7. Make the classroom structure clear and create opportunities for recalibration throughout the term.
8. When assigning final grades, include students in the conversation, provide opportunities for self-reflection, and consider the principles of ungrading.

Tracking Student Progress with Ungrading

In order to keep track of student progress, I maintain various types of ungraded gradebooks, including:

• binary grading system
• feedback-only grading system
• skills matrix

I also ask my students to maintain a tracking sheet and a fillable pie chart to mark and document their progress through my course. 

Examples:

Task/assignment	Completed	Performance/understanding	Notes
Ex: Watch video on excitable tissues	11/29	Strong understanding	Ask about [topic] I don’t fully understand

Where appropriate, I may ask my students to build a portfolio of their work. At the midterm point in my course, I conduct midterm conferences with each student (either in person or on paper) which allow for a holistic review of course performance and an opportunity for recalibration of any misaligned expectations between me and my students. 

I usually create a gradebook entry that summarizes the points from these conversations and clearly states the goals and expectations. Here are some examples:

Assignment

Feedback

Midterm check-in Example 1:

• Prior to this meeting, I predicted your grade to be a B. • During our meeting, we discussed how you have never programmed before and now feel confident about your fundamental skills. • You were sick during the first week of school but since then have caught up and only have a few outstanding assignments. • You shared how you regularly help your classmates and are becoming increasingly independent when solving coding problems. • You felt that your grade should be an A. I don’t feel comfortable with an A while you are still missing work, but feel like it is well within the realm of possibility for you. We agreed on a midterm grade of B+.

Sample Syllabus Language to Introduce Ungrading

I invite you to adapt the language below for your own syllabus:

Prompts for 1:1 Student Conferences

In this section, I provide an outline of talking points and prompts that can guide your discussions with students. By embracing ungrading principles, you will be able to assess students in a way that fosters meaningful conversations, acknowledges their progress, and supports their individual learning journeys.

Note: For younger students just transitioning out of high school, I will sometimes provide “descriptive grading criteria” to help them translate words into a grade. While this is not ideal in an upgrading sense, it does help to calibrate them to college level expectations.

Example Descriptive Grading Criteria

Ensuring Accessibility and Inclusivity

Ungrading is an inherently inclusive classroom approach. By offering students flexibility in terms of course timelines and in how they are evaluated, you are providing students who might have previously slipped through the cracks, a chance to thrive. 

Ungrading allows students the freedom to make mistakes and learn through improvement rather than expecting perfection. Not only does this level the playing field in terms of student background, it also improves student mental health [2] and reduces the incentive for cheating.

Providing Space for Student Feedback

A key aspect of ungrading is allowing for student input and feedback regarding the classroom environment and course structure. 

You can also demonstrate your respect for your students by asking them to evaluate your performance throughout the term. This might come as a one or two-time exercise at the midterm or final points in the quarter, or you might even amend an evaluation to each major activity or unit in the course.

Some simple feedback questions could include: 

1. What have I done that is most effective in helping you learn?
2. What could I start doing to improve your learning experience?

Now that I regularly do this (and make slight course adjustments or acknowledgments in response to the feedback), students comment on my final course evaluations that they feel respected by and cared for by me.

Final Thoughts

There is not a “one size fits all” solution to the problem of grades. Similarly, there is not a need to completely overhaul your entire curriculum in order to adopt an upgrading philosophy. Ungrading strategies can be incorporated into your classroom slowly and progressively and can be adapted for any classroom model. Even the smallest changes to the vocabulary that you use to describe assessment can have a meaningful impact on you and your students. 

It is my hope that the tools included in this guide will help you jumpstart your transition into cultivating a more student-centered learning environment that offers a more equitable and inclusive approach to education.

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Video: Dr. Dosmar’s Ungrading Webinar