Experimenting with Non-traditional Grading Policies
- Stefan DuBois
- Aug 6
- 6 min read
In the spring of 2026, four sections of the University of Denver’s first-year Spanish program piloted non-traditional grading policies inspired by Joe Feldman’s Grading for Equity. Arguing that traditional grading policies erroneously prioritize rules compliance over subject mastery, this book advocates for classroom practices which could be described as anywhere from groundbreaking to heretical. My own experience with them was overwhelmingly positive, and while they are not without their drawbacks, I hope my experience will encourage you to try them out in your own courses.
The policies
One other instructor and I adopted the following policies in our sections:
No grade for participation or attendance
No grade for formative homework (e.g. students’ online workbook)
No late penalties for graded assignments
Unlimited retakes for assessments
Feldman’s book justifies each of the above policies, but in summary, these ensure students’ grades are based on what—not how or when—they learn.
Results: Students still learned the material
One might think these policies leave no accountability for students. Quite the opposite: just 36% of our normal syllabus’ grade is based on assessments, vs. 75% for our pilot sections. The non-traditional policies left no leeway to squeak by without demonstrating mastery of the material.
Each spring, students completing our sequence self-evaluate according to ACTFL standards. Across all learning outcomes, students piloting non-traditional policies outperformed our traditional sections:
Self-evaluation data must be taken with a grain of salt, but it at minimum demonstrates confidence: a student knows they passed the course because of knowledge, not hoop-jumping.
We have validated that these measures are at least directionally accurate, most recently through OPI ratings for 27 student volunteers (15 from the traditional sections, 12 from non-traditional ones). All 27 scored Novice High or above on speaking proficiency. Acknowledging the small/disproportionate sample size (120 vs. 33), the self-evaluation data appears to be, if anything, an underestimation of students’ abilities. That is, the non-traditional policies certainly did not hinder students from learning, and may have even helped.
Student attendance and homework completion suffered
Prior to this pilot, student attendance and homework completion in my sections has remained consistent regardless of policy tweaks. This was not the case with the spring 2026 pilot:
This is unsurprising: Feldman’s book is called Grading for Equity, not Grading for Increased Attendance and Homework Completion. That is, the purpose of the policies is not to increase these measures, but to prioritize learning in an equitable manner. Examples of students with the most absences:
A student with a severe medical condition who missed extensively due to emergency procedures
A student who could not attend Mondays due to outside obligations, but instead spent an extra hour later each week with a language tutor
Both performed exceptionally on their assessments and finished the course with an A. Would it have been fair to penalize them for learning outside the classroom? It can hurt our ego when students don’t attend, but rather than mourning each absence as a loss, I learned to see every student who attended as a victory: reframing the above data, the median student chose to attend my class for 7 whole weeks with no incentive other than their own learning.
Still, even though this drastic decrease in attendance and homework completion did not prevent students from achieving program outcomes as established above, it can hardly be considered ideal.
My time was spent more efficiently
The real star of this pilot was the retakes. Allowing students to redo assessments mitigates anxiety, makes my bleeding heart hurt less when assigning low grades, and incentivizes students to learn from their mistakes rather than moving on. Surprisingly, the considerable benefits of retakes and no late penalties had virtually no impact on my time commitment.
Using time tracking software, I catalogued the hours spent on my classes with non-traditional policies vs. the previous quarter’s traditional arrangement. This was essentially unchanged (just 2 more hours over a 10-week quarter), with more time on retakes but far less on student emails and grading overall: no attendance grade or late penalties meant I wasn’t constantly negotiating with students’ sob stories, and ungraded homework allowed me to focus my feedback on assessments rather than than fiddling with the online workbook and Canvas. I suspect most teachers would happily make a similar trade.
Students’ opinions mirrored my own
Like me, students were overwhelmingly in favor of the policies on late penalties and retakes, while opinions were mixed when it came to attendance, participation, and homework. Illustrative comments:
“Having the option for retakes is great since it takes some stress off each individual evaluation and still evaluates if you gained language skills, no late penalties is also helpful for the same reasons (assuming you don't slack off completely). I would prefer attendance to be a little more incentivized since there were some days that I missed partially because I knew it wouldn't have as tangible of an impact on my grade (though overall, not having to worry about making it to every class so long as you're still where you need to be knowledge-wise was nice)”
“I think having that homework be a tool and be optional was a great thing, because otherwise it can just get frustrating and feel like busy work, which makes students prone to just trying to get them out of the way by using internet resources, and then it becomes a genuine waste of time altogether. So let them use it if they want to; otherwise, don't require it.”
“I appreciate the emphasis on results over a specific process. There are numerous possible avenues to learning Spanish and as long as you reach the destination (ability to read, write, speak), that is what matters most. I usually like the "easy" points associated with participation, [the online workbook], attendance, etc., but the retakes (again, emphasis on results) made up for it.”
Recommendations based on my experience
Consider dialing back—but not eliminating—attendance and/or participation
The ideal here seems to be incentivizing attendance while allowing flexibility. I have previously written about our existing policy, which doesn’t penalize absences so long as students make up the work. I would like to experiment with using that for attendance only and eliminating participation—I have historically found the latter to be highly subject to my own bias and only a negligible motivator for students, and this would free up weight in the syllabus to add to assessments.
Consider required but flexible homework
This could look like…
A minimum threshhold for 100%. If a student scores e.g. 90% or higher on the online workbook, a 100% is recorded for their final course grade. This allows for occasional missed assignments/not grinding the crank past the point of necessity, but still incentivizes completion.
Student choice. We currently require the online workbook as well as a ‘practice log’, where students can pick from multiple options. Perhaps we could combine the two, with the online workbook as one of many options.
Consider waiving a predetermined percentage of late assignments
I found students generally completed assignments on time even with no late penalties. But if that is a bridge too far, you could try a quiz-drop approach: at the end of the term, students are entitled to have a reasonable number (20%?) of late penalties waived. That allows flexibility, keeps students on track, and compartmentalizes gradebook finnicking to once per term.
Build in class time for retakes
Rather than using office hours as I did, find a day in your syllabus to dedicate solely to what was by far the biggest success of this experiment. Ideally there would be multiple chances throughout the term, but even just one day will make a massive difference.
Don’t be afraid to experiment!
While these policies seemed controversial, my class did not fall apart and I mostly taught as I always do--just with less time wasted on the bureaucratic side of teaching. Part of our jobs as teachers is showing students that it’s okay to fail, a courage we should model in our own instructional design. Try it out, and if it’s a disaster, you can always go back with the knowledge that you gave it a shot!
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Stefan DuBois currently coordinates the first-year Spanish program at the University of Denver. He enjoys keeping class fresh for both himself and his students by drawing inspiration from videogames, board games, and podcasts to create fun, communicative activities, many of which are available online at TPT.
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