WHAT—

Grading Contracts are a system of grading that “decouple[s] evaluation from grades” (Elbow and Danielewicz, 10), and instead, give students grades based on their work or labors. Students’ labors might include completing homework assignments, attending and participating in class, turning in assignments, drafts and revisions on time, and turning in a specific page-requirement for each assignment.

Key Features

Student writing and work is not graded for quality (though quality is regularly discussed).
Grades are not given on individual assignments; they are typically withheld until midterm and/or the end of the semester.
Teachers do provide written feedback on student writing that responds to their ideas, explains their strengths and weaknesses, and offers suggestions for either revisions or future improvements; feedback is only geared towards responding to their writing—there is no need to justify or explain a grade.
Higher final course grades are the result of extra work that is intended to increase and deepen learning experiences for students.
Teachers keep track of student labors by recording attendance and homework and assignments as complete, incomplete, missing, or late.
All work (homework, attendance, major assignments, drafts) is treated as being equally important; that is, there are no percentages that create work hierarchies (e.g., research paper is 30% of the grade, participation is 10%).
Students understand exactly how to get various letter grades and have a clear understanding of where they’re at all semester. Students have more agency and access to whatever grade they want to get.
There is room for varying levels of teacher-student negotiations of final grades, given extenuating circumstances, that is encouraged to take place via face-to-face discussions.

Different Models

Guaranteed B (Elbow and Danielewicz, 2008)

- All students are guaranteed a B for completing the work of the course and missing no more than 1 week of class;
- Grades higher than a B are based on the teacher’s evaluation of the quality of the writing, as going above and beyond the basic expectations; an “A” is for rewarding superior writing quality.

All Grades Are Labor-Based

- The default grade is still a “B”; however, students get an “A” not through stronger quality of writing, but through laboring more—via extra credit, longer papers, including more sources, etc. (Inoue 2019)
- Final +/-s on course grades are either at the teacher’s discretion or the result of extra labor

Different Approaches to Classroom Negotiated Contract

- Through class discussions, you arrive at what “A”, “B” or “C” writing is, and this is how you grade student writing (Shor 1996)
- Through class discussions, you negotiate what level of effort an “A”, “B” or “C” involves and that is the grading contract (Inoue 2005)
- Both of these models involve classrooms that center a good amount of class time on discussing grading, writing, and effort as class content

Different Approaches to Communicating Grades with Students

- Tallying students’ efforts each unit, providing them with a unit grade based on their labors;
- Tallying students’ labors and giving them a midterm contract grade, and then a final course grade;
- Waiting until the very end of the class to evaluate efforts and grades
- Asking students to keep a labor log (Inoue 2019), so they are aware of their efforts and grade throughout the semester;
- Using Canvas to collect all homework and writing assignments, so students can see what work has been turned in on time and what hasn’t

WHY—

There are a number of pedagogical reasons to shift to grading contracts. Here are a few that are explored in more depth in some of the references below.

Grading contracts are valuable because they:

Offer students the opportunity to be experimental and exploratory in their writing—to take risks, rather than only producing writing that is thought to be “correct” or doing exactly and only “what the assignment requires”;
Value the time and labor students decide to commit to the class; privilege students who are investing the time, energy and effort into literacy learning.
Create opportunities for teacher feedback to be more of a genuine response to student writing instead of a justification of a particular grade;
Encourage students to engage with feedback on their writing more;
Provide students with a clear and concrete understanding of their grade at all times throughout the semester; grades are simple and easy to calculate;
Do not penalize or reward students for the level of knowledge about and experience with writing and language prior to entering class; all students have the same potential to earn an A;
Encourage diverse writing and are accepting of language differences.

HOW—

Using grading contracts requires thinking through some logistics. The following questions and bulleted considerations and options are some of the key aspects of a grading contract that are worth some extra pre-semester planning and thinking time.

How will you create meaningful extra work that fosters deeper learning experiences?

Create a limited amount of extra credit projects students can do throughout the semester at any time;
Create add-ons to major assignments that ask for more work (longer, the use of more sources), reflection on the work and learning, resources for other students, additional revisions and feedback from others, or other small ways to increase the work in ways that foster learning;
Consider when you will allow extra work to be completed—any time students want, when major assignments are due, or some combination of the two
Consider how much extra work is necessary to get an “A”; ideally, you want to create a balance between extra work being rigorous, but doable by all students.

How will you track student labors and work?

Ask students to submit all homework and assignments using Blackboard/Canvas to track lateness via timestamps (making each assignment worth 1 point means that students either have 1 point per assignment or a 0, is a way to use the grading features in these LMS systems)
Use your own spreadsheet (Recommendation: take notes regarding dates, homework/assignment name, and level of completion)
Consider the different options of labor-based categories and their implications:
- “Late” work means that you’re allowing students to make it up within a 48-hour window;
- “Unsubmitted” work might mean that something is either done or not done, no make-ups allowed
- “Complete” vs. “Uncomplete” should be clearly articulated for both yourself and students. In writing classes, for example, a “complete” draft (for me) means an introduction, use of all required materials/sources, a full essay with all body paragraphs, and meeting the minimum page length (I let the conclusion slide for drafts). While you can be flexible about complete/incomplete, it helps to have a clear definition when starting.

What are you willing to negotiate with students? When and how?

Will you allow students to do extra work to eliminate absences, late work, etc.? If so, how much extra work is necessary for what?
Will you allow students to use “pleas” in order to advocate that a particular lateness, absence, etc. not count against their grade? If so, what is your procedure for this?
Will you allow students to negotiate their final grade or the +/-? If so, when and how?
Will you allow the class to discuss and negotiate the terms of the grading contract? If so, when and how will you build this into your class time?
When and how will you let students know where they are at in terms of their final grade?

SAMPLE CONTRACTS—

All grades are labor-based, a sample contract based on Asao Inoue's model and work (see Labor-Based Grading Contracts below).

Peter Elbow's Guaranteed B contract

B-Contract version of Elbow and Danielewicz's Grading Contract (Carrick 2020)

Labor-Based version of Elbow and Danielewicz's Grading Contract (Carrick 2020)

Unit-based Grading Contract that de-emphasizes extra credit work

Unit-based Grading Contract explained via Q&A to students (from SUNY Cortland)

WORKSHOP MATERIALS—

Sample Gradebook (used to assess Kate's grading contract in particular)

Sample Feedback on Student Writing (used with Kate's grading contract)

Video of Grading Contract Workshop

Reading for Students

Jense, Derrick. "Grades" and "Choices" (two partial chapters, scanned together) in Walking on Water. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2004.

Further Reading

Elbow, Peter and Jane Danielewicz. “A Unilateral Grading Contract to Improve Learning and Teaching.” English Department Faculty Publication Series, University of Massachusetts—Amherst, January 2008. Available on the SCHOLARWORKS@UMassAmerhest website: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/eng_faculty_pubs/11/

Inoue, Asao B. Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies: Teaching and Assessing Writing for a Socially Just Future. Anderson, SC: Parlor Press, 2015. Available on the WAC Clearinghouse website: https://wac.colostate.edu/books/perspectives/inoue/

----------. “Community-Based Assessment Pedagogy.” Assessing Writing vol. 9, 2005: 208-38.

----------. Labor-Based Grading Contracts: Building Equity and Inclusion in the Compassionate Writing Classroom. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado, 2019. Available on the WAC Clearinghouse website: https://wac.colostate.edu/books/perspectives/labor/

Shor, Ira. When Students Have Power: Negotiating Authority in a Critical Pedagogy. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1996.