By Shiladitya Sen
(Quick shout-out to Michele McCormick, who emailed me to discuss contract grading. My conversation with her sparked the idea to turn this into a blog post. Thanks, Michele!)
From my introduction to Asao B. Inoue’s work on contract grading (via a workshop by Caroline Dadas), I was fascinated by the concept. I considered how I might use it and initially decided to hold off till I had tweaked Inoue’s approach to better suit my own pedagogy.
This was at the start of Spring 2021, when I was teaching three 4-credit 106 courses. We were, of course, completely online due to the pandemic. As we made our way through the semester, I found that students were, in large part, quite successful and benefiting from the extra time I could give them due to the 4-credit classes. However, there were also a small number of students who were falling well behind. I have the habit of canvassing (pun unintended!) students midway through the semester for feedback on the course and to check on their individual situations, and I discovered a clear sense of fatigue and stress in even the students who were doing well.
To address these issues, I decided to adapt the contract grading system and apply it to our third essay. My variation allowed students to determine a minimum grade for the paper by doing the basic things that they were supposed to do anyway. This system ended up working extremely well. Student stress decreased noticeably (as they confirmed to me while going over the assignment, while working on the paper, and in end-of-semester feedback) and I managed to reel back in some of those who were struggling.
In view of the above, I decided to try the same thing in my 3-credit 105 courses in the Fall 2021 semester, except that I did it with every paper. I intentionally did not apply contract grading to the entire course, but only to the essays. Hence, it excluded issues such as attendance, course citizenship and in-class work, discussion board posts, etc.
Here’s a sample of the contract grading segment from one of my essay prompts:
***
LABOR-BASED/CONTRACT GRADING
In this course we will be using a form of contract grading, which is designed to reward you for the time and effort you put into an assignment, rather than solely the quality of the paper. The default grade for this paper is a C+ and if you fulfill the basic requirements as laid out below, you will automatically get that. If you do not fulfill basic requirements, the grade will drop, and if you do more, then the grade will rise. Note that these are only minimums, which means that you will never get a lower grade but can always get a higher one. For example, if you meet all the requirements for at least a B paper and submit an A-level paper, you will get an A.
Basic requirements (for a C+):
* Bring the first draft for the paper and workshop it in class on the due date.
* Submit the final draft of the paper on time, while meeting all basic requirements for the essay (using two external sources, closely analyzing the chosen examples of media, etc.).
Additional options (doing this will raise your grade to at least a B):
* Submit the second draft for the paper by the due date and improve it for the final draft based on my feedback.
Rewrite option (this will boost your grade by at least 2 grade increments):
* Submit a rewritten draft of the essay, addressing the issues that I comment on in the final draft. This will be due within 10 days of the final draft being returned to you. I will share other requirements for the rewrite after the final drafts are in.”
***
Having used this approach for the entire semester, I am happy to report that it was an absolute success, for both me and my students. I’m going to use it again in the Spring, especially since multiple 105 students who signed up for my 106 courses specifically asked if I would do so. Here are some benefits that I noticed, broken down (loosely) by area.
Student engagement/stress: Multiple students reported that the contract grading system substantially reduced stress. I should note that my version meant that each essay got a letter grade as usual (not the case in Inoue’s system). When I discussed it with students, everyone who hazarded an opinion said they preferred to have individual paper grades (and that not seeing one would leave them more confused—and stressed—about precisely how they were doing). The contract grading absolutely did not diminish student engagement and effort, and I had only a single student who explicitly indicated (students get very comfortable with me, so they are usually very honest about lack of engagement or effort as and when it occurs) that they were happy to coast by doing the bare minimum to get a B in each paper. For Paper 3, since there was no time for rewrites, I replaced that option with one where students could set up a Zoom meeting where they brought in a complete draft and revised it further for the final submission. Multiple students from each class took me up on the offer. Lastly, I was able to use the contract grading policy to reassure a few students who had fallen behind that they could still make up work (albeit with penalties for lateness) and pass the class. Not only did a number of them begin submitting late work, but a couple of them ticked every box on the contract grade for Paper 3, which allowed them to move from a mid-semester F in the course to a final C.
Rewrites: I have long used a rewrite policy, where students are allowed to rewrite any/all of their papers, as long as there is time left in the semester. As mentioned in the sample above, I folded the rewrite option into the contract grading system. This actually ended up saving me a good bit of time, since they had one rewrite option per paper and I did not return the rewrites with comments. I used to do that previously and it took a significant amount of time with limited value, since only a tiny number of students rewrote a paper more than once. I got less rewrites this semester, but the option resulted in precisely the same benefits (i.e. students not complaining about grades, even students who didn’t do rewrites reading comments carefully in case they might, etc.).
Quality of student work: As I have heard from just about every instructor I have spoken to who has used contract grading, I found absolutely no diminishment in the quality of papers. Students did not slack or blow off the assignments simply because there was a minimum they could achieve with limited effort. Many students took on risky topics because the contract grade provided them some reassurance. For the record, I would have happily accepted slightly worse student work as a tradeoff for the other benefits, but that simply did not occur.
Pedagogy: As exemplified in the rewrite option, a cornerstone of my pedagogy is giving students agency and responsibility—and consequences for their choices. I am (as I tell students on the first day of classes) not there to hand out grades or to punish students for what they fail to do. I treat students as adults and provide them with opportunities and support so that they can do their best work. What they do with those options is up to them and I do not take it personally if they choose not to use the options or make an effort. The contract grading system fits in very neatly with and helps emphasize this philosophy.
Lastly, I should mention that I am completely transparent with my pedagogy, constantly clarifying to students how and why I arrive at my decisions, asking for their input and acting on it where possible, adapting my course to their needs (and telling them how I am doing so), etc. I do not do this in a single lecture or one specific class, but constantly in small segments through the semester, working such information as seamlessly as possible into our activities and conversations. This emphasis on transparency and communication definitely facilitated student comfort with, and appreciation for, the contract grading system. They knew exactly why I was using it, what the benefits and risks were (for example, I was honest about the fact that it was easy for them to do the minimum that they wanted to get a passing grade or even a B), that I was experimenting with it and prepared to see it crash and burn, etc. I am firmly convinced that this level of communication was one of the major reasons that I did not get a single complaint all semester about the contract grading system.
In short, I think contract grading is a great idea, but (like most things in teaching) how and where it will work in your classroom is likely to differ substantially from another instructor’s. And how it will work today is also quite possibly different from how it will work tomorrow (I’m already thinking of tweaks to what I have done so far). I suggest trying it out, taking as small steps as you need, and feeling comfortable tweaking Inoue’s system as much as you need to make it work.
And if anyone wants to talk to me more about my approach or about contract grading in general, I am always available.
*gets off soapbox*
Deep Down in the Classroom 