Exploring the Potential for Grade Equality: Competency-Based Grading

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Evaluating Middle School Programs

Abstract

A Wake County middle school implemented a competency-based grading initiative in response to a lack of correlation between the teacher assigned grades and standardized test scores and low student satisfaction with the existing grading system. Competency-based grading is a more equitable practice than traditional grading because it measures mastery of the standards or competencies, thus reducing teacher subjectivity within students’ grades. The competency-based grading system at the school was supported by digital portfolios to encourage students’ ownership over their learning. In 2018-19, when the new grading practice was introduced, teacher and student perceptions of the grading system were low but improved dramatically by 2019-20. Student reports of a feeling of ownership of learning and satisfaction with grades also improved.

Authors

• Colleen Graham Paeplow, Wake County Public School System

• Dina Bulgakov Cooke, Wake County Public Schools