Grading Conference Day 1 Preview

The 2026 Grading Conference is only a week away, and we’re excited for another great year of sharing knowledge and building community around alternative grading. Here’s a preview of what you can expect on day 1:

After a brief conference orientation, we’ll welcome Sarah E. Silverman for our first keynote on “Access friction in grading: Navigating conflicting student (and instructor) needs in student assessment.” Sarah is an independent faculty developer and instructor of Disability Studies. You may recognize her from past sessions at the Grading Conference, where she’s given presentations on the intersections between alternative grading and disability. Her keynote will tackle a thorny problem: what to do when our approaches to assessment work for some students and not for others.

Speaking of thorny problems, day 1 also features several sessions on how to scale the implementation of alternative grading for large classes or multiple sections of a course. (True to the conference’s roots, much of this work comes from the discipline of math!) Those teaching large classes may also be interested in the many sessions on specifications grading during day 1—including one from the specs grading sage herself, Linda Nilson.

Additionally, we’re excited to bring back a series of sessions from past conferences designed specifically for those who are new to alternative grading. On the first day, conference organizer Ashleigh Fox and friend-of-the-conference Adriana Streifer will host workshops that cover the problems with traditional grading and the basics of alternative grading. While these sessions are open to anyone, they’ll be especially useful to those who are looking for some background on the main ideas of the conference.

Some of our most popular sessions at past conferences have been our student panels, and we expect that to continue this year. The last slot of day 1 will feature a panel of students from Syracuse University reflecting on their experiences in an honors seminar about the “Problems with Grades.” Its goal is not only to bring student voices into the scholarly conversation about assessment but also to give instructors some insight into how we can help our students think more productively about grades.

That’s not all you’ll see on day 1: there are also sessions on student motivation, peer feedback, AI and alternative grading, aligning grading with our values, teaching Generation Alpha, preparing faculty for ungrading, and more. Plus, all attendees are welcome to join us for the first conference social hour from 6:00-7:00 pm EDT.

There’s a little something for everyone on day 1—we hope to see you there!

Emily Pitts Donahoe is the Associate Director of Instructional Support in the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and a Lecturer of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Mississippi. She is a member of the organizing team of the Grading Conference, and writes regularly about alternative grading on her blog Unmaking the Grade.