How To Be a More Inclusive Grader

Have you ever felt crushed while grading final exams because so many students failed to master course material despite your best efforts? Have you ever wondered whether making your assessments more equitable might improve final grades and help more students achieve course learning goals? It can! Many instructors value equity and inclusion but aren’t sure how to actualize those values in their teaching pedagogy, especially when it comes to assessing and grading student work. In their book Inclusive Teaching. Strategies for Promoting Equity in the College Classroom, Kelly Hogan and Viji Sathy offer suggestions for creating inclusive assignments and grading practices that you can use to assess students at the end of this term—or as you plan your assessment strategy for the next one.

Align final assessments with frequent (required) practice opportunities 

Make sure to give students frequent opportunities for practicing the skills needed for final assessments. Offering low-stakes practice opportunities like TTS (typical test questions) aligned with final assessments, and making this practice required for all students, helps close educational achievement gaps while boosting overall scores for everyone.

Offer frequent and timely formative feedback

Instructor feedback can be a powerful tool for student learning, but students are less likely to read our comments once an assignment has been graded. Faculty energies are best spent on offering formative feedback (customized or automated) and requiring students to use that feedback to improve their work. Building in multiple feedback loops leads to incremental, distributed learning throughout the term.

Set up students for exam success

Help reduce test-taking anxiety by clearly communicating the format and length of your exams ahead of time, sharing exam instructions, and, if possible, holding a trial exam session. Communicate to students that you are rooting for them and want them to do well. As Viji Sathy tells her students, “These exams tell us as much about how well I have taught as they will tell you about what you have learned” (183). On the day of, you can put students at ease by wishing them success, making sure exam instructions are clear to everyone, providing time markers, and bringing extra supplies for those who might need an extra pencil or tissue.

Design inclusive exams

Exams are stressful for many students. Unless speedy work is one of your learning goals, consider giving all students extra time to complete the exam in an unrushed manner. You can help reduce test takers’ cognitive load by avoiding unnecessary jargon, using diverse names and voices in exam prompts, and giving students the opportunity to report ambiguous or unclear questions. Humor and warmth can go a long way towards dispelling test-taking anxiety as well—take a few seconds (or minutes) to set a welcoming atmosphere before the start of your exam. Finally, post-exam reflections, debriefing sessions, and exam wrappers (short metacognitive surveys where students reflect on the effectiveness of their exam prep strategies) can help students learn from previous experiences and develop exam-taking skills. See our previous Teaching Tip on student-centered exams for more suggestions!

Reduce bias in grading with rubrics and anonymous grading process

Research shows that unconscious bias can influence grading decisions despite best intentions. Whenever possible, redact student names from graded materials and use grading rubrics to avoid assessing extraneous aspects of student work. Grading by question/problem, rather than one test at a time, can help reduce inconsistencies and promote equity. Finally, well-designed rubrics can help clarify grading criteria for students and instructors. Co-designing rubrics together with students can help boost motivation, affirm student agency, and reinforce course learning goals. See our previous Teaching Tip, “Why Grading Makes Us Anxious, Too” for more ideas on ethical grading practices.

Design a flexible grading scheme that rewards progress

While we often wish our students were more willing to take intellectual risks, our grading schemes tend to punish missteps and failures. Consider designing a forgiving grading scheme that allows for do-overs, drops lowest scores, offers choices in how students demonstrate learning, and rewards ambitious attempts even if they end in failure. Grading schemes can also reward progress by allowing cumulative assessments to replace weaker prior grades, placing more weight on end-of-semester assignments, and assigning additional points for improvement. Finally, unlike norm-based grading schemes (i.e. “grading on a curve”) where students compete for a small number of high marks, mastery-based grading schemes encourage collaboration and offer every learner a chance for an A as long as they demonstrate mastery of course learning goals.