Grading in an age of assessment reform: the elephant in the room

Higher education sectors worldwide have largely adopted a rhetoric of assessment redesign, calling for fundamental ‘rethinking’, ‘reforming’ and ‘reimagining’ of assessment. This rhetoric is particularly evident in the so-called age of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). But what about grades? In this conceptual study, we address the elephant in the room, grading: a large looming presence that is nonetheless absent from conversation about assessment reform. By using the surge of GenAI technologies as the context for assessment reforms, we analyse recent responses in grading policy and practice to GenAI technologies by asking what has changed, if anything. We discuss how two approaches to grading in an age of GenAI – AI-proof grading and AI-powered grading – both further reinforce the status quo of grading systems. Next, we conduct a policy review and note a critical silence regarding grades. Based on these two analyses, we showcase that entire programs of assessment are being reworked with little to no thought given to grades. Our study aims to generate broader, sector-wide conversations about how higher education institutions should represent student achievement.