I have a different outlook now on how I want to grade and how I want to use it. Last year it was almost punishment: “Oh, you didn’t do the work, now you have a bad grade.” Working with Joe has really changed my perspective. The professional development helped me realize that the main purpose of grading is to see how much the students know, to assess their learning instead of assessing their efforts; do they really understand the work, as opposed to did they do all of the assignments.

About the Author

Joe Feldman has worked in education for over 20 years at the school, district, and federal levels of government, in district and charter school systems, and in the non-profit sector. He began his career as an English and U.S. History teacher in Atlanta Public Schools and was the founding principal of Thurgood Marshall Academy in Washington, D.C. which has the highest performing students of any open-enrollment public school in the city. He was the Director of K-12 Instruction in Union City, CA. There, he led the district's initiative to make its high school placement process more equitable, resulting in doubling the number of African-American and Latino students enrolled in and passing honors courses. He is now the CEO of Crescendo Education Group, which partners with schools and districts to improve the accuracy and fairness of their grading practices.