In this episode, I’m joined by Arthur Chiaravalli, an educator at the heart of an organization called Grow Beyond Grades. Arthur shares his deeply personal journey away from traditional grading, revealing how it can undermine learning, sideline classroom relationships, and lead to passivity and apathy. He also talks about how freeing it is to deep-six grades while focusing attention on meaningful, collaborative assessment — that is, on truly human-centered teaching.
Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
We discuss:
Grades as “Product Handcuffs”: How focusing on the end result takes away the beauty of the learning process for both teachers and students.
Grade-Chasing: Why even high-achieving students suffer from a lack of genuine engagement because of their focus on the GPA.
Students’ Passivity: How to re-spark a sense of agency in a classroom where “Will this be on the test?” has become the go-to question.
Reclaiming the Narrative: Who gets to tell the story of a student’s growth?
Practical Steps to “Ungrading”: How to start small and grow beyond grades in your own classroom.
For my non-teachers out there: listen to a compelling vision of what your schooldays could have been like!
External Links
Explore resources and stories at growbeyondgrades.org.
Connect & Share
Got a story to share? Would you ever go grade-less? I’d love to hear your grading horror stories or successes. Leave me a voicemail at (413) 239-4158 and let’s keep this conversation going!
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Credits
Founder and Host: Betsy Burris
Co-Host: Joe Johnson
Producer: Jullian Androkae of PodVision
Audience Development: Andreea Coscai of PodVision
Music: Tom Burris/Jabbering Trout
