Podcast: How Fremont High School is Changing Grading so it Reflects Learning

Grading practices are often treated as a “third rail” in school improvement—they can be a controversial and relationally complicated place to start. However, collaborating with veteran teacher leaders Sunny Chan and Sandy Tu at Fremont High School in Oakland Unified has been one of the highlights of my career. Through our work in the Breakthrough Success Community 9th grade on-track improvement network, they were invited to consider changes to grading practices to make them more fair, accurate, and resistant to bias. Mr. Chan and Ms. Tu took the invitation and ran with it, eventually adopting mastery-based grading in their Algebra team and reducing D/Fs in Algebra by 50% over five years.

Listen to us share this story on the podcast, High Tech High Unboxed. We share insights not only about grading practices, but also about the incredible work they have done to catalyze reflection and practice change among their entire 9th grade teacher team.