De-weaponizing Grades Through Teacher Tinkering and Student Insight

When high-stakes assessments increase pressure and anxiety for students and teachers, they become weaponized. Jack Schneider and Ethan Hutt (2023) identified the permanence of grades as the root cause of weaponization in the American grading system. In this article, the author documents how they de-weaponized grades in their 9th-grade urban public school Latin classroom by using ungraded portfolios combined with self-grading. Seeking evidence of student experiences with grading throughout the school and looking to identify other practices that de-weaponize grades, the author conducted an exploratory qualitative study, blending a document analysis of 43 teachers’ syllabi with in-depth interviews involving three 18-year-old senior class student participants. Participants shared negative experiences with procedures and policies related to grade permanence, including assessments lacking feedback and grading based on completion, accuracy, and effort. These procedures and policies appeared in 74% of teacher syllabi, showing that it was common practice to weaponize grades. Participants each suggested practices that could address grade permanence, including flexible deadlines, retakes, self-grading, and ungrading. These practices appeared in very few teacher syllabi, underscoring the need for de-weaponizing grades. This paper both presents solutions for de-weaponizing grades and shows how practitioners can engage in small-scale research at their schools to support reform efforts by using local, empirical findings.