Mastery-based assessment uses grading and teacher feedback to encourage student's to correct previously incorrect work to further their understanding and master skills before moving on to more advanced work (Armacost & Pet-Armacost, 2003). 

In my first few years at the high school level, I was repeatedly faced with students who would struggle to understand the goal process I was using for student-directed artworks. Every time we would work through this process there would be several students who finally succeeded at writing a goal correctly on the day the artwork was due. They had spent 2 weeks just trying to figure out what they wanted to do and write it down in the given format. I felt defeated as Farah (2021) did when he felt the ned to move on to new content even though he knew not everyone was ready. 

But what if you could make sure everyone had mastered each skill before moving on to the next one? At the same time, those that master skills quickly have plenty of work to do. Mastery-based grading combined with student-paced lessons provide the opportunity for every student to learn the essential content. 

Armacost and Pet-Armocost (2003) reported that the majority of their college engineering students were satisfied with this form of assessment and believed it helped them to learn better. However, some of my students, even at the end of the year were still irritated by it. Farah (2021) explains that students often push back on this type of assessment because they are accustomed to only learning what is required to pass. They like being able to skip learning that is hard for them. 

Another reason my students don't like my assessment methods is because my assessments are very small, assessing only one or two items each day, meaning students often received zeros and 50's before ultimately resubmitting the work and getting a 100. In other words, my students felt forced to resubmit the work. In the studies by Armacost and Pet-Armacost (2003) as well as Ranali and Moore (2015), the assessments were longer, which meant that students could still receive a passing grade for incorrect work. They felt they had the option to raise their grade, but could get credit for the class if they simply passed. This mentality is precisely the one I hoped to eliminate when I began mastery-based grading. When a student accepts a grade that will simply prevent them from failing the course, they have no motivation to learn the material they missed and will continue to have gaps in their knowledge moving forward. When we let our students skip out on learning that is difficult, the student misses the opportunity to see that they are capable of learning even what is hard for them. 

To start with a positive outlook on mastery-based methods, it's important to be upfront about how it will work and the justification for these methods with students and parents (Renali & Moore, 2015). Parents especially need to understand that a zero in the gradebook is not as dire as it is in other courses. Some parents are very strict with grades and I had a few students whose parents punished them severely when they got a zero. I had to speak with those parents to help them understand that a zero doesn't mean their child isn't working hard or that they aren't turning in their work. It means they haven't mastered the material yet, but with some time and support, they will. I recommend adding this information to they syllabus or some other document you want students to return signed. Explain this information to your students and make it clear that getting the paper signed by their parents is in their best interest. It could prevent a punishment when they inevitably receive a low grade on an assignment. 

Yes, more time is spent on grading (Farah, 2021; Armacost & Pet-Armacost, 2003; Ranali & Moore, 2015). I know that sounds like a major downside, because rarely is grading fun, but the time grading is well spent, as it results in additional learning (Farah, 2021; Armacost & Armacost, 2003; Ranali & Moore, 2013). Remember, I also stated earlier that Plug and Play assignments are typically very short and only assess one or two skills. Typically grading is quick and can even be done with the student during class if you have a tablet you can walk around the room with. 

Time limits for resubmitting work were used by Armacost and Armacost (2003) as well as by Ranali and Moore (2015). However, only Renali and Moore (2015) addressed turning in work late. After noticing an increase in students failing to meet due dates, they began docking points that could not be recovered to incentivize meeting deadlines and prevent too large of a gap between the practice of a skill and the assessment (Renali & Moore, 2015). Armacost and Armacost (2003) don't explicitly explain why they have resubmission time limits, but they imply through their culminating student survey they were worried the continued work on earlier assignments will make it difficult for the students to keep up with current work or other courses' assignments. 

By employing student-paced methods, all the previous issues are either resolved or deemed inappropriate. 

• Penalizing a student for turning work in late is an external motivation, and a choice-focused environment needs to foster intrinsic motivations. Docking points for late work undermines the effectiveness of mastery-based grading to motivate students to learn the content regardless of how much time it takes them. 

• When due dates aren't enforced, students turn in work they feel meets expectations. There's no motivation to turn it in otherwise, because there isn't a penalty for turning the work in late. This perspective lowers the amount of grading I have to do and keeps me from getting frustrated by correcting and providing feedback to students who know they've turned in substandard work. It also avoids negative extrinsic motivators. 

• I do have due dates, but they're primarily to help students manage their time. If a student gets too far behind, they won't be able to complete all the work required. While rare occurrences of a student needing to work on a few assignments outside of class may come up, there is a buffer period at the end of each grading period. This time allows students who work slower or need more time for corrections to complete all the work before the end of the grading period. By allowing these students this time, they feel more capable and their continued work won't have an impact on other classes. Those who have finished the mandatory work for the grading period work on self-directed explorations or fun teacher-designed passion projects during this time. 

When grading for mastery, keep in mind the point is to assess the student's knowledge. "If repeated resubmissions are likely to only create work without producing formative learning activity, it would be better to give students the benefit of the doubt" (Renali & Moore, 2015). 

Strangely enough, the studies I read researching mastery-based grading were courses involving a lot of math and other content with very specific correct and incorrect answers. The faculty in these studies were concerned about academic dishonesty (Armacost & Armacost, 2003; Renali & Moore, 2015). Plug and Play assessments are typically very centered on the student's individual work or reflective in nature, so the student can't copy their work from the internet or a classmate. When the work does require answers that could be copied, I use Turnitin. I always expect my students to help each other, so discussing answers is okay, but sharing an entire document or copying and pasting is not. 

Renali and Moore (2015) point out that mastery-based grading takes the pressure off teachers when introducing a new concept or experience. If your lesson isn't great and lots of students don't "get it," you can see what needs re-teaching and students can simply correct their previous work. In fact, there have been several times that I have only graded a few submissions before I abandon the initial grading. It was obvious that very few understood some aspect of the work, so instead of marking them all wrong, I simply addressed it in class the next day and asked everyone to check their work and resubmit it. It saved me time in grading and the students weren't frustrated at having to resubmit because it's a common part of the course. 

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Armacost, R. L. & Pet-Armacost, J. (2003). Using mastery-based grading to facilitate learning. 33rd Annual Frontiers in Education,T3A-20. https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2003.1263320

Farah, K. (2021, March 7). How to set up mastery-based grading in your classroom. Cult of Pedagogy. https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/mastery-based-grading/ 

Ranalli, J., & Moore, J. P. (2015, June). New faculty experiences with mastery grading [Paper presentation]. American Society for Engineering Education, Seattle, WA, United States. http://dx.doi.org.libproxy.library.unt.edu/10.18260/p.24524