Grow Beyond Grades
@growbeyondgrades.org
What matters can’t be measured. Join the movement!
Website: growbeyondgrades.org
Support: growbeyondgrades.org/donate
Website: growbeyondgrades.org
Support: growbeyondgrades.org/donate
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Contest — Grow Beyond Grades
growbeyondgrades.org
✍️ PLEASE SHARE WITH HS & COLLEGE-AGE STUDENTS!
How have grades—or the experience of learning without them—influenced your learning, growth, or personal journey? All genres and formats welcome! @humrespro.bsky.social @gotlearning.bsky.social
#gradeless #growbeyondgrades
growbeyondgrades.org/contest
How have grades—or the experience of learning without them—influenced your learning, growth, or personal journey? All genres and formats welcome! @humrespro.bsky.social @gotlearning.bsky.social
#gradeless #growbeyondgrades
growbeyondgrades.org/contest
Grow Beyond Grades turns 10. 🥳
A decade ago, this work began with a pretty simple question: what happens when we stop treating grades as the center of learning?
👉 Read the latest Grow Beyond Grades newsletter: growbeyondgrades.org/campaigns/vi...
A decade ago, this work began with a pretty simple question: what happens when we stop treating grades as the center of learning?
👉 Read the latest Grow Beyond Grades newsletter: growbeyondgrades.org/campaigns/vi...
August 29, 2026 at 4:18 PM
Grow Beyond Grades turns 10. 🥳
A decade ago, this work began with a pretty simple question: what happens when we stop treating grades as the center of learning?
👉 Read the latest Grow Beyond Grades newsletter: growbeyondgrades.org/campaigns/vi...
A decade ago, this work began with a pretty simple question: what happens when we stop treating grades as the center of learning?
👉 Read the latest Grow Beyond Grades newsletter: growbeyondgrades.org/campaigns/vi...
What becomes possible when learning is not organized primarily around performance? What kinds of educational futures are we cultivating? @ameenapayne.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/meet-ou...
Meet Our Board! — Grow Beyond Grades
Meet the educators helping guide Grow Beyond Grades into its next chapter. In this roundtable, our Board of Directors reflects on their paths to gradeless learning, the experiences that reshaped how t...
growbeyondgrades.org
August 29, 2026 at 4:12 PM
What becomes possible when learning is not organized primarily around performance? What kinds of educational futures are we cultivating? @ameenapayne.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/meet-ou...
Belief in the necessity and utility of grades has been accepted doctrinally but without a demand for proof. —Susan D. Blum @susandblum.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/meet-ou...
Meet Our Board! — Grow Beyond Grades
Meet the educators helping guide Grow Beyond Grades into its next chapter. In this roundtable, our Board of Directors reflects on their paths to gradeless learning, the experiences that reshaped how t...
growbeyondgrades.org
August 29, 2026 at 4:06 PM
Belief in the necessity and utility of grades has been accepted doctrinally but without a demand for proof. —Susan D. Blum @susandblum.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/meet-ou...
We’ve got to give up our obsession with measurement. It’s destroying our kids, it’s destroying our teachers, it’s destroying our ability to deliberate, to think deeply, to participate in democratic society. @achiaravalli.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/dump-th...
What’s It Going to Take for Us to Dump the Tests? — Grow Beyond Grades
As schools reconvened on Thursday, January 7, many teachers faced two tasks: helping students make sense of yet another traumatizing “day after”—and getting them prepared for end-of-semester tests.
growbeyondgrades.org
March 7, 2026 at 2:47 AM
We’ve got to give up our obsession with measurement. It’s destroying our kids, it’s destroying our teachers, it’s destroying our ability to deliberate, to think deeply, to participate in democratic society. @achiaravalli.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/dump-th...
If you never get started on building infrastructure, the change you desire will never happen. And infrastructure building is a collective enterprise, not an individual one. —Barry Fishman growbeyondgrades.org/blog/additio...
Going Gradeless Requires Both Addition and Subtraction — Grow Beyond Grades
Although most gradeless teachers engage in “subtraction,” removing traditional grading from our classrooms, we also need “addition” in the form of new infrastructure that connects our individual effor...
growbeyondgrades.org
March 7, 2026 at 2:23 AM
If you never get started on building infrastructure, the change you desire will never happen. And infrastructure building is a collective enterprise, not an individual one. —Barry Fishman growbeyondgrades.org/blog/additio...
When the pandemic started, we heard from our administrators and state education officials to do no harm with our grading. Do no harm. What does that suggest about the way we graded before the pandemic? —Patti Forster growbeyondgrades.org/blog/do-no-h...
"Do No Harm" with More Equitable and Motivating Grading Practices — Grow Beyond Grades
“Our grading practices haven’t changed much from when I was graded, to when my son was graded, to now,” writes Patti Forster. “Grades are still used as rewards and consequences to compare students, an...
growbeyondgrades.org
March 7, 2026 at 1:28 AM
When the pandemic started, we heard from our administrators and state education officials to do no harm with our grading. Do no harm. What does that suggest about the way we graded before the pandemic? —Patti Forster growbeyondgrades.org/blog/do-no-h...
I want to create a classroom that would have engaged the 16-year-old me. —Aaron Blackwelder @growbeyondgrades.org growbeyondgrades.org/blog/why-i-g...
Why I Gave Up Grading — Grow Beyond Grades
Now, in my 24th year of teaching, I am the teacher I always wanted to be. I have strong relationships, my learners are engaged in the curriculum, and I feel I am making a lasting impact on their lives...
growbeyondgrades.org
March 1, 2026 at 12:39 PM
I want to create a classroom that would have engaged the 16-year-old me. —Aaron Blackwelder @growbeyondgrades.org growbeyondgrades.org/blog/why-i-g...
School is about learning, not grades. Changing how we talk about success in school is a great first step to putting the focus where it should be: on learning! —Ed Vogel and Jolene Zywica growbeyondgrades.org/blog/want-to...
Want to Go Gradeless? Here's How We Do It — Grow Beyond Grades
Grades are so much a part of our own learning experiences and the tools available to teachers today it might be hard to imagine your school without grades. But a it’s possible—and powerful—when you ca...
growbeyondgrades.org
February 28, 2026 at 11:22 PM
School is about learning, not grades. Changing how we talk about success in school is a great first step to putting the focus where it should be: on learning! —Ed Vogel and Jolene Zywica growbeyondgrades.org/blog/want-to...
A whole lot of the ills we associate with schools these days comes down to students not feeling like they have choice and voice and agency in what they do. @rickwormeli.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/10-27-2...
Differentiated Assessment w/Rick Wormeli — Grow Beyond Grades
In this episode of TG2Chat LIVE! well known educator and author, Rick Wormeli, discusses how educators can better communicate learning with students and stakeholders.
growbeyondgrades.org
February 28, 2026 at 11:16 PM
A whole lot of the ills we associate with schools these days comes down to students not feeling like they have choice and voice and agency in what they do. @rickwormeli.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/10-27-2...
It was contradictory for me to tell students to work on this particular skill and not worry about the results, just to turn around and put a poor grade on their work. @davefrangiosa.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/asset-b...
Asset-based Assessment is Equitable Assessment — Grow Beyond Grades
Although I always valued students’ improvement over time, the way I was assessing didn’t support those values. I said I valued process, but my vision was on product, which limited the opportunities fo...
growbeyondgrades.org
February 28, 2026 at 11:11 PM
It was contradictory for me to tell students to work on this particular skill and not worry about the results, just to turn around and put a poor grade on their work. @davefrangiosa.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/asset-b...
Students weren’t benefitting from my use of feedback to recreate lessons they hadn’t learned in the first place. And feedback continued to be far more work for me than it was for them. @achiaravalli.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/notch-u...
Notch Up Your Nitpicking with Replace/With Pairs — Grow Beyond Grades
In my nitpicking, I spent far too much time bogged down in reiterating past teaching. In my marginal notes and technology-enhanced comments, I was giving a low-quality version of the lesson I’d given ...
growbeyondgrades.org
February 28, 2026 at 11:00 PM
Students weren’t benefitting from my use of feedback to recreate lessons they hadn’t learned in the first place. And feedback continued to be far more work for me than it was for them. @achiaravalli.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/notch-u...
Education systems writ large are still very much about hierarchies and measurement and ranking. We are all participating whether we choose to or not. @edifiedlistener.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/1-23-22...
Care at the Core w/Sherri Spelic — Grow Beyond Grades
Sherri Spelic, an elementary physical education teacher at American International School Vienna, shares her experiences and reflections on assessment, as well as how we can create more inclusive, resp...
growbeyondgrades.org
February 14, 2026 at 1:33 AM
Education systems writ large are still very much about hierarchies and measurement and ranking. We are all participating whether we choose to or not. @edifiedlistener.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/1-23-22...
Students shouldn’t squander years of their life, stumbling about to see what jobs accidentally present themselves that maybe they won’t hate. —Peter Hostrawser growbeyondgrades.org/blog/tell-me...
Tell Me About You, Not About Your Grades — Grow Beyond Grades
Students using spikeview view their learning as a journey. They see where they have been, can explore what’s next, and make informed decisions on where not to spend time. It’s not a snapshot of one cl...
growbeyondgrades.org
February 14, 2026 at 1:27 AM
Students shouldn’t squander years of their life, stumbling about to see what jobs accidentally present themselves that maybe they won’t hate. —Peter Hostrawser growbeyondgrades.org/blog/tell-me...
How successful was my education if all I have to show for it is a high school GPA? Was I ready to stand out from the crowd, or to receive a certificate honoring my conformity to the system? —Peter Hostrawser growbeyondgrades.org/blog/tell-me...
Tell Me About You, Not About Your Grades — Grow Beyond Grades
Students using spikeview view their learning as a journey. They see where they have been, can explore what’s next, and make informed decisions on where not to spend time. It’s not a snapshot of one cl...
growbeyondgrades.org
February 14, 2026 at 1:26 AM
How successful was my education if all I have to show for it is a high school GPA? Was I ready to stand out from the crowd, or to receive a certificate honoring my conformity to the system? —Peter Hostrawser growbeyondgrades.org/blog/tell-me...
They're seeing their story come to life, and that in itself is motivating! —Ekta Sahasi growbeyondgrades.org/blog/2-27-22...
Helping Students Own Their Own Narrative w/Ekta Sahasi — Grow Beyond Grades
Ekta Sahasi is the founder of spikeview, a global pre-professional portfolio platform for students and young adults. She is reinventing how Gen-Z represent themselves online, build meaningful networks...
growbeyondgrades.org
February 14, 2026 at 1:14 AM
They're seeing their story come to life, and that in itself is motivating! —Ekta Sahasi growbeyondgrades.org/blog/2-27-22...
As my work neared completion, a sinking feeling gradually began to come over me. Finally I realized what it was. It was the dread of handing it in to be evaluated. @carolblack.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/evaluat...
Children, Learning, and the 'Evaluative Gaze' of School — Grow Beyond Grades
The evaluative gaze of school is so constant a presence, so all-pervasive an eye, that many people have come to believe that children would actually not develop without it. But an oak tree does not re...
growbeyondgrades.org
February 7, 2026 at 6:38 PM
As my work neared completion, a sinking feeling gradually began to come over me. Finally I realized what it was. It was the dread of handing it in to be evaluated. @carolblack.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/evaluat...
A watched pot loses the desire to boil. @carolblack.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/evaluat...
Children, Learning, and the 'Evaluative Gaze' of School — Grow Beyond Grades
The evaluative gaze of school is so constant a presence, so all-pervasive an eye, that many people have come to believe that children would actually not develop without it. But an oak tree does not re...
growbeyondgrades.org
February 7, 2026 at 6:37 PM
A watched pot loses the desire to boil. @carolblack.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/evaluat...
Students are proud of the effort they have put in and excited that their work is valued. You see their confidence grow and their love for learning shine. —Gillian Berard growbeyondgrades.org/blog/student...
Student-led Conferences: The Key to Going Gradeless — Grow Beyond Grades
With student-led conferences, families hear how students are progressing, more than any number or letter could tell them. Families become a part of the process, learning about their child’s interests ...
growbeyondgrades.org
February 7, 2026 at 6:30 PM
Students are proud of the effort they have put in and excited that their work is valued. You see their confidence grow and their love for learning shine. —Gillian Berard growbeyondgrades.org/blog/student...
With student-led conferences, families hear how their child is progressing, more than any number or letter could tell them. They become a part of the process, learning about their child’s interests and passions. —Gillian Berard growbeyondgrades.org/blog/student...
Student-led Conferences: The Key to Going Gradeless — Grow Beyond Grades
With student-led conferences, families hear how students are progressing, more than any number or letter could tell them. Families become a part of the process, learning about their child’s interests ...
growbeyondgrades.org
February 7, 2026 at 6:29 PM
With student-led conferences, families hear how their child is progressing, more than any number or letter could tell them. They become a part of the process, learning about their child’s interests and passions. —Gillian Berard growbeyondgrades.org/blog/student...
Notably, there was less anxiety on and around assessment days and more in-class conversations about actual learning, rather than scores, afterward. @natebowling.com growbeyondgrades.org/blog/taking-...
Taking Unneeded Anxiety Out of Assessment — Grow Beyond Grades
To counteract the anxiety caused by high-stakes assessments and grades, Nate Bowling invites students to focus on feedback and learning. Life is hard enough for students; assessment practices should n...
growbeyondgrades.org
February 7, 2026 at 6:22 PM
Notably, there was less anxiety on and around assessment days and more in-class conversations about actual learning, rather than scores, afterward. @natebowling.com growbeyondgrades.org/blog/taking-...
It is time for educators to take charge of the broken narrative. We need to tell a different, more accurate story. —Lisa Wennerth growbeyondgrades.org/blog/the-cas...
The Case for a Teaching Community — Grow Beyond Grades
We know our students thrive in cultures that welcome, affirm, and challenge them. Lisa Wennerth explains why we need to also model this understanding by creating prosperous professional communities am...
growbeyondgrades.org
February 7, 2026 at 6:16 PM
It is time for educators to take charge of the broken narrative. We need to tell a different, more accurate story. —Lisa Wennerth growbeyondgrades.org/blog/the-cas...
We won’t be capable of dismantling the narrative if we simply 'close our doors and teach.' —Lisa Wennerth growbeyondgrades.org/blog/the-cas...
The Case for a Teaching Community — Grow Beyond Grades
We know our students thrive in cultures that welcome, affirm, and challenge them. Lisa Wennerth explains why we need to also model this understanding by creating prosperous professional communities am...
growbeyondgrades.org
February 7, 2026 at 6:13 PM
We won’t be capable of dismantling the narrative if we simply 'close our doors and teach.' —Lisa Wennerth growbeyondgrades.org/blog/the-cas...
Underserved students may have learned to get by with as little time in class as possible—to protect themselves and their mental health. Though you promise your classroom will be different, they may be hesitant to believe you. @karismjones.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/stuck-i...
Going Gradeless with Students Stuck in the Old System — Grow Beyond Grades
On the first day of class, your introduction to the gradeless classroom doesn’t go as expected. As you field students’ questions and concerns, you feel hurt and frustrated. Going gradeless is supposed...
growbeyondgrades.org
February 7, 2026 at 6:06 PM
Underserved students may have learned to get by with as little time in class as possible—to protect themselves and their mental health. Though you promise your classroom will be different, they may be hesitant to believe you. @karismjones.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/stuck-i...
As you field students' questions and concerns, you feel hurt and frustrated: this gradeless system is supposed to relieve anxiety, not cause it! What is going on? @karismjones.bsky.social www.growbeyondgrades.org/blog/stuck-i...
Going Gradeless with Students Stuck in the Old System — Grow Beyond Grades
On the first day of class, your introduction to the gradeless classroom doesn’t go as expected. As you field students’ questions and concerns, you feel hurt and frustrated. Going gradeless is supposed...
www.growbeyondgrades.org
February 7, 2026 at 6:01 PM
As you field students' questions and concerns, you feel hurt and frustrated: this gradeless system is supposed to relieve anxiety, not cause it! What is going on? @karismjones.bsky.social www.growbeyondgrades.org/blog/stuck-i...
Achieving a student-centered instructional model may be challenging, but it is well within the reach of teachers who are dedicated to elevating a culture of shared responsibility for learning. @mirplo.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/hover-f...
Getting Started With "Hover-Free" Teaching — Grow Beyond Grades
Achieving a student-centered instructional model may be challenging. Miriam Plotinsky, author of the book Hover-Free Teaching , offers ways that teachers can foster a culture of shared responsibility...
growbeyondgrades.org
February 7, 2026 at 5:52 PM
Achieving a student-centered instructional model may be challenging, but it is well within the reach of teachers who are dedicated to elevating a culture of shared responsibility for learning. @mirplo.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/hover-f...