Joe Feldman (Equitable Grading) Professional Development

Joe Feldman's professional development on equitable grading challenges educators to fundamentally rethink one of the most consequential yet least examined aspects of teaching: how we assign grades and what those grades actually mean. As the nation's leading expert on equitable grading and author of the best-selling 'Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms' (now in its second edition), Feldman—a former teacher, principal, and district administrator—demonstrates how traditional grading practices are often mathematically unsound, biased, and counterproductive to student motivation. His framework rests on three pillars: accuracy (grades must reflect only academic performance, not behaviour or compliance), bias-resistance (grading practices must be designed to minimise the impact of implicit biases), and intrinsic motivation (assessment systems should build students' internal drive to learn rather than dependence on external rewards and punishments). Feldman's professional development helps teachers understand why practices like the 0-100 scale, averaging, and grading homework for completion actually undermine the goals they're meant to serve, and provides concrete alternatives—like the 0-4 scale and standards-based approaches—that better support learning and equity. The second edition includes new data from both academic research and real classrooms demonstrating the benefits of equitable grading for all students. Designed to support professional learning communities and book study groups, Feldman's work provides the research base, practical tools, and reflective frameworks needed to transform grading from a source of inequity into a powerful lever for student success.