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Jesse Stommel compiles two decades of eyebrow-raising in Undoing the Grade: Why We Grade, and How to Stop

It was the summer of 2023, sometime in June or July, and Jesse Stommel (PhD, English 鈥�10) had big weekend plans.

He said to his husband, 鈥淚鈥檓 going to write a book this weekend鈥濃�攁 book about grades, in particular, and all the trouble they鈥檝e caused.

It was a tall order for such a short period of time, no doubt, but it wasn鈥檛 as though Stommel were starting from scratch. He鈥檇 been taking a critical eye to grades for two decades and had published numerous essays on the topic, several of which had been read by tens of thousands of people on . 听

鈥淚 was already starting to piece these things out in public and have conversations,鈥� says Stommel, who teaches writing at the University of Denver. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 how my writing process always works. All of my books are adapted from previously published stuff. This is because I don't think in a vacuum. I need to think alongside other people.鈥�

All Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Stommel toiled away, editing previously published materials, organizing those materials into chapters, writing three brand-new chapters and then bookending everything with a by and an by (MA, English 鈥�05).

鈥淎nd come Sunday night,鈥� he says, 鈥淚 had a draft of the book.鈥�

That book, titled , was published on Aug. 14.

I can give you A鈥檚

Growing up, Stommel loved school. Grades, however鈥攇rades he didn鈥檛 love.

鈥淚 did really well throughout elementary school. I was super engaged,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hen I hit middle school, where I was being graded in the traditional way for the first time, and I got almost straight D鈥檚 and F鈥檚 in sixth grade.鈥�

His grades improved the following year, but not by much. Being graded had sapped him of his motivation, he says. 鈥淎ll of a sudden I didn鈥檛 want to do any of the work.鈥�

But things changed in eighth grade, thanks to his dad and brother.

鈥淭hey bet me I couldn鈥檛 get straight A鈥檚,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd so, the first semester of eighth grade, I got straight A鈥檚.鈥�

His teachers couldn鈥檛 believe it. They were flummoxed, and perhaps a little suspicious. How could he turn things around so quickly? What on earth was going on?

鈥淭hey sat me down and asked me what had happened, and I told them about the bet,鈥� says Stommel.

Yet that meeting opened his eyes more than it did his teachers鈥�, he says, because it led him to the realization that grades were performative, character traits of a role he was being asked to play. 鈥淚f what you want is A鈥檚,鈥� he recalls thinking, 鈥淚 can give you A鈥檚.鈥�

This discovery, and the good grades that arose therefrom, freed Stommel up, he admits, relieving him of the pressure and judgment that often came with D鈥檚 and F鈥檚. But it also made him aware of the stakes involved in the pursuit of high marks, stakes he continues to think about to this day.听

鈥淲henever I see a perfect grade point average, what that represents to me is a willingness to compromise yourself, because that's what we're constantly expected to do in traditional grading systems.鈥澨�

From grader to ungrading

Stommel began his teaching career as a grader, evaluating the work a professor had assigned to students.

鈥淭he experience of doing nothing but grading gave me an interesting perspective on what grading is and how it works,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t had nothing to do with the relationship between me and students. It was just this abstraction of their work and the quality of their work, as though that can be separated from who they are and who I am.鈥�

Stommel wanted to do something different when he became an instructor of record. But what?

His first source of inspiration was CU Boulder English Professor , who taught Stommel a total of four times, twice when Stommel was an undergraduate and twice when he was a graduate student.

鈥淚 really admired Marty鈥檚 approach. He didn鈥檛 put grades on individual work. Instead, he had students grading themselves and writing self-reflections.鈥�

Stommel also found inspiration in CU Boulder English Professor R L Widmann, with whom he co-taught courses on Shakespeare. Widmann encouraged Stommel to think of assessment not as a judgment laid down from on high but as a conversation between student and teacher.

鈥淪he would develop deep relationships with students and then be able to tell them exactly what they needed to hear at exactly the moment they needed to hear it. And they trusted her.鈥�

Stommel combined Bickman鈥檚 and Widmann鈥檚 approaches in his own classes, along with what he learned about teaching and learning from books like John Holt鈥檚 and Paulo Freire鈥檚 . And thus ungrading, which Stommel defines as 鈥渞aising an eyebrow at grades as a systemic practice,鈥� was born.

But that鈥檚 not to say Stommel believes his ungrading practice is the only viable option. Not even close. In his essay a revised and expanded version of which appears in Undoing the Grade, he provides a smorgasbord of options for the ungrading-curious, including grading contracts, portfolios, peer assessment and student-made rubrics.

The goal of ungrading, he says, is not to replace one uniform approach to assessment with another. It鈥檚 for educators to develop an approach that best fits them and their students.

鈥淭he work of teaching, the work of reimagining assessment, is necessarily idiosyncratic.鈥�

Myths and paradoxes

But in a world without grades, wouldn鈥檛 academic standards fall? Wouldn鈥檛 students lose motivation? Wouldn鈥檛 they be rewarded for learning less?

Questions like these, Stommel says, reflect the cultural anxiety surrounding grades. And while it鈥檚 important to remember that this anxiety is itself real鈥斺�淚t鈥檚 based in real feelings that we have as human beings,鈥� says Stommel鈥攊t鈥檚 equally important to remember that the problems from which it stems may not be.

Take grade inflation, or the awarding of higher grades for the same quality of work over long periods of time, as an example. Like , author of , Stommel calls grade inflation a myth, but he also believes concern over it points to a real phenomenon: the desire for education to be taken seriously.

鈥淲e're seeing all kinds of pushes on the education sector,鈥� he says. 鈥淧eople are saying that education isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing, or it鈥檚 actually doing harm.鈥�

That many teachers鈥� jobs lack stability, especially in higher education, doesn鈥檛 help, Stommel adds.

鈥淲hen you see the utter precarity of educators鈥攚here most educators are not making a living wage; where 70% of educators in higher education are adjunct or on one-year contracts, sometimes even on one-semester contracts. When you see all of that happening, there is a desire to have some relief. And I think that鈥檚 when we talk about something like grade inflation.鈥�

Nevertheless, Stommel argues, the claim that lower grades means better teaching is a misleading one. High standards and high grades are not mutually exclusive.

Stommel cites a former student to prove it. 鈥淛esse鈥檚 class was one of the hardest I鈥檝e taken in my life,鈥� this student wrote of one of Stommel鈥檚 classes. 鈥淚t was an easy 鈥楢.鈥欌��

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