The grading gradient: Teacher motivations for varied redo and retake policies

Standards-based grading has emerged as a leading progressive mode of classroom assessment. Although standards-based grading has several core components, there is appreciable anecdotal evidence that one component is being frequently implemented in the absence of the others. Namely, by allowing students to redo and revise work without regard to deadlines, some teachers are assessing what students know at the end of the course rather than at pre-specified intervals. Here, we surveyed 429 secondary teachers to quantitatively assess their grading practices and evaluate their connection to standards-based grading. Whether teachers allow redo's/retakes was affected by school policies, teacher content area, and what the teacher's personal beliefs were about the importance of deadlines and student ownership of learning and accountability. Additionally, our findings suggest that there is a disconnect between best practices in grading and teacher beliefs. Teachers displayed confusion regarding whether or not their schools had implemented standards-based grading policies.