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Getting Started With Specifications Grading

If you’re considering alternative grading schemes, these resources shed light on an approach called specifications grading, or specs grading.

Grading
Dorothe Bach headshot
Dorothe Bach
Associate Director & Professor
Center for Teaching Excellence
View Bio
Updated: March 2025
Article

Alternative Grading: Practices to Support Both Equity and Learning

How can instructors harness their grading practices to support equitable outcomes and deep learning for all students?

UVA Center for Teaching Excellence
Article

Is Specifications Grading Right for Me?: A Readiness Assessment to Help Instructors Decide

CTE faculty members Adriana Streifer and Michael Palmer describe a readiness assessment tool that prompts instructors’ reflection on how different factors may pose or alleviate the risks of adopting nontraditional grading practices.

College Teaching
Book

Specifications Grading: Restoring Rigor, Motivating Students, and Saving Faculty Time

Get an in-depth introduction to specifications grading complete with examples from courses in a wide range of disciplines.

Linda B. Nilson
Article

Students’ Perceptions of Specifications Grading

In this well-designed study, my CTE colleagues Adriana Streifer, Michael Palmer and Jessica Taggart examine students’ predicted and actual experiences of specifications grading in courses across several disciplines.

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

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