Implementing Mastery-Based Grading at Scale in Introductory Statistics

• Published in: PRIMUS : problems, resources, and issues in mathematics undergraduate studies Vol. 30; no. 8-10; pp. 1054 - 1070
• Main Authors: Heubach, Silvia, Krinsky, Sharona
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Taylor & Francis 25.11.2020; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Academic grading; Academic standards; Assignments; College Faculty; College Freshmen; College Mathematics; Colleges & universities; Curriculum Development; Curriculum Implementation; Faculty Development; General Education statistics course; Grading; implementation at scale; Introductory Courses; Mastery Learning; Mastery-based grading; Mathematics education; rubric-based grading; Scoring Rubrics; State Universities; Statistics; Teachers; California (Los Angeles)
• ISSN: 1051-1970; 1935-4053
• DOI: 10.1080/10511970.2019.1700576

We report on a large-scale implementation of mastery-based grading in a General Education Introductory Statistics course at California State University Los Angeles. In Fall 2018, the course had 80 sections of approximately 30 students each and was taught by 37 instructors who ranged from long-time, experienced instructors to brand new teaching associates. In Spring 2019, the course had 16 sections with eight instructors. We discuss the design of the course, the structure of the assignments, and how we implemented mastery-based grading given that the course instructors are, for the most part, new to mastery-based grading. We have now completed two semesters of implementation and want to share our experiences and the adjustments we made for Spring 2019 as a result.