Podcast: Rethinking Zeros in the Grade Book

What’s your take on eliminating zeros from the grade book? Does your school have a no-zeros grading policy? Even if it doesn’t, you probably have opinions about it. 

Setting 50% as the minimum grading threshold is a well-meaning effort to more accurately assess student learning, but it can also create new—and frustrating—challenges for teachers and students.

In this episode of School of Practice, teacher and instructional coach Tyler Rablin explores the tradeoffs of eliminating zeros from the grade book. We’ll hear from teachers in our community with firsthand  experience navigating the policy, and discuss exceptional strategies for building motivation and accountability without relying on numerical penalties.

Related resources:

• Getting Rid of Zeros Won’t Fix the Grade Book Well-meaning efforts to assess learning accurately have led some schools to set 50 as the lowest grade, but that can have negative consequences. Here’s a better solution.
• Template: Late Work Contract Tyler Rablin’s template for his late work contract.
• Do No-Zero Policies Help or Hurt Students? No-zero policies spur serious—and productive—debate among teachers. We look at the big insights on both sides of the argument.
• Why the 100-Point Grading Scale is a Stacked Deck What to do about a 100-point grading system with a troubling history—and inherent flaws that carry over into the present day.
• The Case Against Zeros in Grading Teachers can rethink their grading practices to make them more mathematically fair for students and allow for redemption for a missed assignment.
• How to Help Students Focus on What They’re Learning, Not the Grade Work that emphasizes students’ developing skills instead of a graded product reminds them to see learning as their goal.
• Why Teachers Should Grade Less Frequently Excessive grading stresses out kids and teachers, stifles innovative teaching, and fails to deliver as a true measurement of learning.
• Research: “Equitable” Grading Through the Eyes of Teachers A national survey of teachers examines “equitable” grading practices like no-zeros policies and their impact on student engagement, accountability, and learning.
• Research: Can We Trust the Transcript? Recognizing Student Potential Through More Accurate Grading Grades shape students’ opportunities and futures—but can transcripts be trusted? This report examines more than 33,000 grades and finds that traditional grading practices frequently misrepresent student learning, with implications for equity, access, and educational decision-making.