Emphasizing Learning and Deemphasizing Grades
What It Is
Specifications grading is a better way to grade that exemplifies these features:
- Instruction and assessments are organized around a set of learning outcomes.
- Evaluation of student success is based on the achievement of clearly articulated specifications. Tests and assignments are graded satisfactory/unsatisfactory (S/U).
- Course grades are determined by the completion of bundled tests and assignments.
- Students are provided with opportunities to revise and resubmit unsatisfactory work.
How It Works
Develop clear learning outcomes
- Use backward design (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005) to align learning outcomes, assessments, and instructional activities.
- Use Bloom’s revised outcomes chart to articulate low- and higher-level learning outcomes.
- Use an outcomes map (Nilson and Goodson, 2018) to identify ultimate, mediating, and foundational outcomes.
Set specifications for tests and assignments
- Provide clear directions for assignments. Define acceptable work.
- Grade all assignments (S/U) without any partial credit; set requirements for satisfactory at B-level or higher.
- Use a clear one-level rubric to grade assignments.
Create grade bundles
- Cluster groupings of assignments (bundles) that are associated with final course grades.
- Tailor bundles to assess students’ achievement of specific learning outcomes.
- Ensure that the bundles associated with higher grades assess the mastery of more or advanced, higher-level outcomes.
Add flexibility—integrate “safety-net mechanisms” (Nilson, 2015, p. 64)
- Introduce a system of tokens to reduce the stress of all or nothing S/U grading.
- Allocate between 2 and 5 tokens per student at the beginning of the term. A token can be redeemed to:
- To revise unsatisfactory work, take a makeup exam, retake an exam, or get a 24-hour extension on an assignment.
- When possible, have teaching assistants track token redemptions in a shared online spreadsheet (Blackstone & Oldmixon, 2019).
Benefits
- May help increase students’ self-regulation, mastery learning, and instructor transparency.
- Students’ grades are more valid and reliable indicators of what they have learned.
- May help shift students’ focus from points and grades to outcomes achievement.
Advice
- Start with five W’s questions. Tell your department chair in advance.
- Describe the grading approach in the syllabus, on the first day of class, and provide reminders.
- If specs grading is not feasible, use 4 simple ways to ease the spotlight off points. Also, make your assessments help students learn.
References
Blackstone, B., & Oldmixon, E. (2019). Specifications Grading in Political Science. Journal of Political Science Education, 15(2), 191–205.
Nilson, L. B. (2015). Specifications grading: Restoring rigor, motivating students, and saving faculty time. Stylus Publishing.
Nilson, L. B., & Goodson, L. A. (2018). Online teaching at its best: Merging instructional design with teaching and learning research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Pope, L., Parker, H. B., & Ultsch, S. (2020). Assessment of Specifications Grading in an Undergraduate Dietetics Course. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 52(4), 439–446.
Talbert, R. (2015) Putting Specs Grading to Work. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Wiggins, G. P., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Pearson.