Why Grades Shouldn't Exist - Alfie Kohn

AI in university assessment: do grades themselves have to go? - Analogue Resistance

Since I started teaching at the University of Amsterdam, roughly 20 years ago, assessment has become more and more schematic. Rules and regulations have prol…

“Walking on eggshells”: music educator perceptions of agency in times of surveillance and divisive concept laws

Legislation in the United States has increasingly led to limitations on what and how educators are able to teach in the classroom. These measures, often deemed divisive concept laws, can lead to a ...

Music educators’ perceptions of divisive concepts laws

Since the inception of widespread public schooling in the United States, state legislatures have mandated curricular content and instructional practices to advance various social projects and visio...

Music educators’ perceptions of divisive concepts laws

Since the inception of widespread public schooling in the United States, state legislatures have mandated curricular content and instructional practices to advance various social projects and visio...

Black Music, White Halls: Toward a Black American Music Curriculum – ACT

Published in Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education 25 (1): 52–76 [pdf]. https://doi.org/10.22176/act25.1.52

No One Dies in this Dystopia

I am all done with grading for the semester just past, but the work sticks to me in a way I can’t yet manage to fling off.

Childhood and Education #21: Grades and Standards

First you get to college via the wrong metrics, as previously discussed in #12. Then things get easier.

Divining an Afrofuturist Music Education – ACT

Published in Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education 22 (4): 131–58. [pdf] https://doi.org/10.22176/act22.4.131

Why students are throwing tons of money at a program that won’t give them a college degree

There's a hidden dark side of one of the hottest trends in higher education.

“I Made Myself Fit In”: Johny’s Story

The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to re-story the experiences of a first-year music teacher with regard to race and class. Johny was a first-year high school guitar teacher in the southwestern United States who identified as Hispanic and was raised in a family with a lower income. He was also a first-generation college student whose path to university study was atypical because of his major instrument, musical background, little high school music class participation, and entrance to postsecondary music study at a community college. Johny’s story is a work of critical storytelling and is interpreted through an intersectional framework. His story compels us to thoughtfully attend to curriculum, musical knowledge, equity, and how music educators can serve an increasingly diverse student population in schools of music. Issues for consideration include (a) increased support of nontraditional students, including those from marginalized populations, such as students with lower incomes, first-generation students, and community college transfer students, and (b) promoting meaningful and collaborative change across multiple areas in schools of music.

Streamline Evidence-Based Guidelines with GRADEpro

Discover how GRADEpro simplifies guideline development, enhances collaboration, and ensures transparency.

No grades, no timetable: Berlin school turns teaching upside down

Pupils choose their own subjects and motivate themselves, an approach some say should be rolled out across Germany

Sᴜɴʀɪsᴇ Oᴀᴛʜ 十 Tʜᴇ Sʏʟʟᴀʙᴜꜱ (ORI) - CC0 on Twitter / X

I am not that big on the attitudes among some who act like grading children at all is detrimental. Grading can obviously be beneficial! Insofar that the metric speaks to truth, the metric is truthful. One simply has to understand how to evaluate the meaning of a metric.— Sᴜɴʀɪsᴇ Oᴀᴛʜ 十 Tʜᴇ Sʏʟʟᴀʙᴜꜱ (ORI) - CC0 (@sunriseoath) October 28, 2026

The power of community learning

It's easy to imagine that some things have to be the way they've always been. That music has to be delivered on a round platter. That an overnight stay needs to be in a hotel. And that le…

The Myth Of The Spoiled Child – (Book)

The Work Of Alfie Kohn