Labor-Based Grading Resources

Since I'm asked a lot about labor-based grading contract resources for secondary and post secondary teachers, I made this page. I update it frequently, so do check back. If you have a link or something to add to it, please let me know. For ease of finding this page in the future, I've made the bit.ly below for this webpage and the QR code to the right. 

http://bit.ly/LBGResources

My Resources

I've published quite a bit about labor-based grading contracts. Here's a list of those resources. 

• Template Grading Contract 2023 -- here's my most current template grading contract that can be copied and modified. 
• Labor log template (version 13) -- this is a version of my labor log I provide my students in my courses, which accompanies my labor-based grading contract. 
• Labor planning document -- this template offers a way to help students plan units of time in the semester / term.  
• Labor tracking document -- this template works with the labor planning document and can replace the use of labor logs for student-controlled tracking of labor data on each assignment. 
• Labor log template -- this is a Google sheets template with lots of formulas that automatically propogate charts and graphs to help students reflect upon their labor as a practice over time. 
• Cripping Labor-Based Grading for More Equity in Literacy Courses (2023)
• "Stories About Grading Contracts, or How Do I Like Through the Violence I’ve Done?" (2020)
• Labor-Based Grading Contracts: Building Equity and Inclusion in the Compassionate Writing Classroom, 2nd edition (2022), particularly chapter 4 (what the practice looks like in my courses) and chapter 6 (detailed Q&A)
• Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies: Teaching and Assessing for A Socially Just Future (2015) in chapter 4 (pp. 184-194)
• "A Grade-Less Writing Course That Focuses on Labor and Assessing" (pp. 71-110) in Deborah Coxwell-Teague and Ronald F. Lunsford's First-Year Composition: From Theory to Practice (2014)

I also set up a G'drive (Grading Contract Resources) with lots of articles, sample template contracts, and other resources for teachers.  

My Blog Posts 

You can see all the tagged blog posts of mine that focus on labor-based grading contracts, but I've highlighted a few below that I think are most useful for those interested in the practice but have not yet tried them. 

• A Q&A on Labor-Based Grading Contracts (04 Apr 2021)
• Attendance in Labor-Based Grading (20 Apr 2020)
• How Do You Do Labor-Based Grading in Pre-Existing Curricula (11 Apr 2020)
• Higher Ed as the Oldest Plantation, Farber, and the Presence of Teachers (08 Dec 2015)

For Students 

While I offer some of the other resources on this page to students in my courses, the listed resources below I think might be directly helpful to students in understanding labor-based grading contracts, as well as grading more generally. I find all these useable with FYW students and written mostly for students. 

• "Labor by Labor," An Essay by Anisha Hossain (former writing student at ASU) -- this essay offers one student's experience with labor-based grading in my FYW course. It was her final essay. 
• What does a labor-based grading system afford you as a student and learner in a writing course? (18 Jun 2021) -- a blogpost and audio podcast that offers students the benefits to a labor-based grading system in writing courses. 
• What is a labor-based grading system and how will it produce a final course grade in a writing course? (14 Jun 2021) -- a blogpost and audio podcast that introduces students to labor-based grading systems. 
• Do Grades Help Students Learn in Classrooms? (08 Jun 2021) -- a blogpost and audio podcast on the negative effects of grades on learning in classrooms. 
• Why Does Conventional Grading Feel So Unfair? (02 Jun 2021) -- a blogpost and audio podcast recording that discusses some reasons grades feel unfair, such as the principle of mediocrity
• Where Does Grading Come From? (31 May 2021) -- a blogpost and audio podcast recording I made for students (and teachers) that helps explain the history of grading and its entanglements in Christian projects, immigration, race, and White Supremacy in the U.S. 
• So Your Instructor is Using Contract Grading ..., Dan Melzer, D.J. Quinn, Lisa Sperber, and Sarah Faye (undated) -- this page explains the practice of grading contracts
• Explaining Labor-Based Grading to Student Writers, Traci Gardner (28 Mar 2017) -- the infographic is from Gardner's post. 
• The Benefits of Labor Logs in Writing Courses (26 Nov 2021) -- this blogpost offers some ways to understand the benefits to keeping a labor log in a writing course. 

Others' Resources

I've not included all the blog posts and webpages from other sites that discuss labor-based grading contracts, or just grading contracts more generally. The places I list below are ones I think might be useful to teachers and students who are newer to grading contracts. 

• Jesse Stommel's "Ungrading: A Bibliography" -- this is a deep and rich set of resrouces and readings for those interested in ungrading, ideas, theories, practices, everything. 
• Megan Von Bergen's labor-based approach -- it's a table that shows the labors needed to get each grade possible in the course (Nov 2021)
• St. Olaf College's "Exploring Labor-Based Grading Contracts" page (2021) -- there are readings, sample contracts, and other resources on this site
• Canvas Gradebook and Labor-Based Grading Contracts, video by Heather Jordan, (15 Jul 2020)
• Toward Fairness and Equity: Labor-Based Grading During and After COVID-19, Jeffery Austin (17 Apr 2020) 
• What if We Didn't Grade? A Bibliography, Jesse Stommel (03 Mar 2020) -- a nice annotated bibliography of resources
• How to Ungrade, Jesse Stommel (11 Mar 2018) -- while not about contract grading explicitly, this post is about ungrading, which is the broader idea and it discusses key concerns
• If I Knew Then What I Know Now: Grading Contract Advice, John Warner (10 Jan 2017) -- a post that offers links to other posts on establishing grading contract classrooms
• "Why I Don't Give Exams (And What I Do Instead)," Greg Pask an article from a Biology professor about how he does ungrading and the problems with conventional ways of assessing in STEM courses

Published Resources

I'll add more published resources here, but these feel to me like important ones to read or consider initially when thinking about whether to do labor-base grading or not. 

• "Introduction" to The Hidden Inequities in Labor-Based Contract Grading, Ellen C. Carillo (2021)
• "Get The ‘F’ Outta Here: Exploring Contract Grading as a Decolonizing and Equity-Minded Assessment Practice in Composition Classrooms," dissertation, Brianna Kuhn (2021)
• Special issue of The Journal of Writing Assessment on grading contracts (2020)
• "Response to Joyce Olewski Inman and Rebecca A. Powell’s 'In the Absence of Grades: Dissonance and Desire in Course-Contract Classrooms,'" Lindsey Albracht, Al Harahap, Amanda Pratt, Ranmali Rodrigo, Clare Russell, and Virginia M. Schwarz (2019) 
• "In the Absence of Grades: Dissonance and Desire in Course-Contract Classrooms," Joyce Olewski Inman and Rebecca A. Powell (2018) 
• "A Grade-less Writing Course That Focuses on Labor and Assessing," Asao B. Inoue (2014) 
• "Critical Pedagogy is Too Big to Fail," Ira Shor (2009) -- a critical response to the Danielewicz and Elbow article that inserts critical pedagogy into the practice grading contracts. 
• "A Unilateral Grading Contract to Improve Learning and Teaching," Jane Danielewicz and Peter Elbow (2009) -- a foundational article on hybrid grading contracts that explains its workings and pedagogy. 
• "Not Ready to Let Go: A Study of Resistance to Grading Contracts," Cathy Spidell and William Thelin (2006)
• "Teaching Without Judging," Barrett John Mandel (1973) 

More to come. If you have a really useful site or post you think I should include on this page, please send me an email (asao@asu.edu). Thanks for coming by! 

last updated: 27 Feb 2024

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This information and resources on this page are offered for free in order to engage language and literacy teachers of all levels in antiracist work and dialogue. The hope is that it will help raise enough money to do more substantial and ongoing antiracist work by funding the Asao and Kelly Inoue Antiracist Teaching Endowment, housed at Oregon State University. Read more about the endowment on my endowment page. Please consider donating to the endowment. Thank you for your help and engagement.