How and what schools report as grades is important. Academics argue that traditional grading reduces teaching effectiveness and the accuracy of reporting (Marzano & Heflebower, 2011). Many education experts advocate for standards-based grading (SBG) as a research-based response (Link & Guskey, 2022; O'Connor, 2018; Townsley et al., 2019).…

Grading reformers increasingly emphasize grading equity practices (Feldman, 2019), but a limited understanding remains of how teachers develop their grading strategies with equity in mind. We begin to fill the gap with this qualitative, inductive study, drawing from data gathered from 506 Arkansas teachers. Thematic analyses of survey responses…