By Wendy Rummerfield (California State University East Bay ), Josue Alcaraz (California State University East Bay ), Shonushka Sawant (California State University East Bay )
Information
Introductory statistics is a core class many undergraduate students take to fulfill graduation requirements. Unfortunately, this course has become a barrier to graduation for some students, especially those of historically underserved backgrounds. Some instructors from other disciplines are attempting to reduce these disparities by implementing “ungrading.” Ungrading is broadly defined as a style of assessment that focuses on substantive qualitative feedback rather than quantitative scores in an attempt to promote learning over grades. However, as most universities require letter grades to be submitted at the end of the term, the ungrading method lets the students decide their own grade. Literature on the subject has shown how ungrading reduced equity gaps relating to retention and passing rates. To our knowledge, no such study has been conducted in a post-secondary introductory statistics classroom. To test the efficacy of this approach, we conducted a pilot study in two sections of our 35-student introductory statistics course during the 16-week Spring semester of 2023. One of the sections was evaluated using traditional merit grading, while the other section received only written feedback and self-assessed their own grades. Our poster will compare quantitative scores on all assessments, and qualitative survey responses and self-reflections across each group.