Alternative grading schemes, often implemented to promote “equity” and “social justice,” reward students based on quantity of effort rather than quality of work.

“Am I racist if I hold standards for students?”

That was the question presenter Lauren Servais struggled with during a 2021 California Community College webinar on alternative grading strategies. Despite her reservations, Servais ultimately embraced “grading contracts,” an approach to grading in which the teacher distributes marks based on a student’s effort, not the outcome of his or her work.

Across the country, universities are using this and other alternative grading models that guarantee high marks based on some standard other than merit. Alternative grading schemes like these—often advanced in the name of “equity”—are complicating parallel efforts to address rampant grade inflation, and even spreading the influence of quasi-Marxist ideas in the academy.

The popularity of alternative grading schemes has been rising for years. Teachers of writing courses were early adopters of contract grading, as some questioned whether instructors could consistently and fairly evaluate essays under traditional grading systems. “Specification grading” gained traction in the mid-2010s, particularly in STEM fields; similar to contract grading, it requires students to complete a set of tasks associated with each letter grade in order to achieve that grade.

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