North Dakota State University Research Fellow Awarded $300,000 To Study Equitable Classroom And Grading Practices

Tara Slominski was a North Dakota State University postdoctoral researcher. She was awarded $300,000. In July, she will be studying equitable classroom grading practices in rural and nontraditional student education. According to the abstract of the award, all or part of the research will come from the American Rescue Plan Act 2021. This program provides immediate COVID relief for American workers.

The award was granted by the National Science Foundation and is expected to begin on January 1, 2023.

According to The College Fix Slominski and Jennifer Momsen (her supervisor at NDSU), have been exploring alternative grading methods in order to provide more equitable learning environments for students.

Dave Rubin’s content is uncensored by big tech. The Rubin Report is now online.

Slominski’s research found that students from rural areas and nontraditional backgrounds are more susceptible to traditional grading restrictions when they enroll in gateway STEM programs.

This project is intended to provide educators with a new approach for grading. It addresses the “systemic inequitable” aspects and promotes “more equitable learning environments for all students.

Momsen is a professor and director of Biological Sciences at NDSU. She has done extensive research to find alternative methods of grading in order to create “equitable” courses.

Momsen gave a presentation entitled “Creating Equitable Classes through Alternative Grading Approaches”, in which she stated that traditional grading systems can lead to bias, inaccurate and demotivating. Momsen explained in a presentation how grades do not always accurately reflect the student’s learning and knowledge.

Momsen describes the changes she made to her classroom. Momsen described the changes she made in her classroom, including allowing exams to take again, self-grading assignments, and providing advice on due dates. She also said that she doesn’t penalize late work, assigns numbers or letters to assignments, and uses a method to calculate final grades.

Momsen explained how she determines the final grade for students in a blog post that she published from August 2020. This is a requirement of university.