I define collaborative grading as a system in which students and instructors determine grades for a given course in consultation with one another, usually through a process that combines extensive instructor feedback with regular student self-assessment and opportunities for students to continuously enhance their understanding through revisions, retakes, or resubmissions. Instructors who grade collaboratively offer feedback on student work throughout the semester but typically refrain from assigning points or letter grades to that work.

Because of the system in place, a letter grade must be issued at the end of each term. A combination of individualized descriptive feedback on the student's work, revisions and multiple attempts at demonstrating understanding, and one-on-one conferences with students throughout each semester leads us to determine an appropriate grade for the term. Yes, us. The thing that was missing was not whether things counted for points or the type of assessment. It was student input. Students making a case for a grade show such a high level of comprehension, digestion of the content, and metacognition. Through written reflections, vlogs, podcasts, and in-person conferences, students make the case for their grade—and I just listen.

Students in my classes give themselves a grade at the end of the term. I say, 'I reserve the right to change grades as appropriate,' but over 20 years, I’ve seen students grade themselves incredibly fairly. The students in my courses get As, Bs, Cs, and even Fs.

However, the discourse around ungrading as a liberatory pedagogical practice has ignored the ways that white supremacy and whiteness impact its implementation. I enter this conversation as a Black woman professor who uses ungrading, and I want to note my experience with its limitations...For Black faculty like myself who identify as critical pedagogues, there is a tension between institutional expectations of our bodies and our desire to create learning environments that affirm the full complexity of the students we teach.

Whatever your choice, ungrading is not only possible in a STEM course, it can be a transformative way for students to encounter the STEM disciplines as they truly are: away of understanding the world that admits multiple ways of knowing, bolstered by iterative conversations among people journeying together toward understanding.