Josh Kunnath, EdD

POWERFUL keynote from Dr. Bettina Love at #CATE2026, urging educators to “do the work” of combating injustice in our institutions and communities.

Improving Quality of Feedback with Hattie’s Feed Up, Feed Back, Feed Forward Protocol

As teachers, we know the importance of feedback in advancing our students' learning. We see it in our classrooms in those magic moments when their eyes light up after we suggest a new way to solve a problem or…

We explore how pandemic-era #grading changes shaped (or didn’t shape) lasting reform, highlighting principal vision, the fleeting nature of reforms, and flexible grading practices.

Grateful to collaborate with @mctownsley.bsky.social & Justine Radunzel! 🙏🙏

Thrilled to share our newly published article in the Journal of School #Leadership:

“Silver Lining or Missed Opportunity? A Mixed Methods Study of COVID-19 School Closures and #Grading Reform Efforts in K-12 Schools.”

doi.org/10.1177/1052...

Learning Out Loud: The Potential Impact of Peer Feedback and Steps to Get Started Nice work! fix ur spelling Overall, looks pretty good🙂 This makes no sense!? These are some examples of peer feedback I've seen and heard in my ELA classroom. They include a mixture of broad praise, editing suggestions, vague affirmations, and the occasional empty criticism. I'd like to say this only happened in my early years of teaching and that I haven't heard anything like it in years, but that wouldn't be completely true.

Check out my new post on peer feedback: The potential impact, keys to success, and practical implementation steps.

I vote yes 👍

How Can Teachers Motivate Students to Practice Without Points? This article advocates for "ungrading" student practice, emphasizing its role in improving grading accuracy and fostering a growth mindset. By eliminating grades for classwork and homework, students can focus on learning without the pressure of points. It also presents strategies to motivate students intrinsically and extrinsically, ensuring their engagement in practice.

"Ungrading" student practice can improve grading accuracy and foster a growth mindset. But making it work in the classroom can be challenging. I present motivation considerations to replace the role of grades, along with 5 steps to get started.

Reintroducing the Grading and Assessment Blog: Teacher Goal-Setting

"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new." — Dan Millman, Way of the Peaceful Warrior With the coming of 2026, I've decided that enough is enough! It's time for me to…

The Dunning-Kruger Effect plays a big part in #grading reform!

Proper preparation & professional learning is key to prevent misunderstandings, poor implementation, & major pushback from stakeholders 💡📚💭

Looking forward to doing something often neglected in my classroom: guiding students in #data analysis!

To start: glows & grows of class data by standard; then they'll look at individual data.

Next: students record in their notebook data page.

Finally: determine next steps

Clear is kind.

But deceptive #grading practices, like when teachers intentionally conceal the fact that HW/classwork isn't graded, are detrimental to trust & grade #integrity in the long run.

Deception shouldn't be used as a motivational strategy.

My weekly student #engagement self-assessment.

I really enjoyed Rick Stiggins’ session on student confidence in #assessment yesterday at the #VisibleLearning conference in Las Vegas.

His writing on balanced assessment has been a huge influence on my work & writing, and it was great to see the continual evolution of his work!

It’s wild how a few words can change your whole outlook on things.

Thankful for my son’s kindness as I’m working late tonight ❤️💙

“The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something.”

—T H White, The Once and Future King

A full agenda today working alongside
@yheasley.bsky.social to guide a really thoughtful & focused group of @KHSD_Official teachers from 8 school sites in #grading & #assessment reform.

I'm looking forward to seeing action research results in May!

Excited to present back-to-back sessions this morning in Burlingame, CA @ #CATE !
👉the 1st on clarity in the curriculum (grading adjacent)
👉the 2nd, along with @yheasley, on #equity in grading & assessment

Not all standards are created equal.

Teachers should prioritize those with endurance, leverage, & readiness for the next level—ensuring students master the most critical skills.

#competencybasedgrading

A clear grading purpose = informed grading decisions.

When teachers establish a focused grading purpose, students, parents, & school leaders can better understand & use grades effectively.

#competencybasedgrading

Honored to be named one of @TheSocialCore's "Coaches on the Move," along with my co-author and colleague @ryansikkes.bsky.social! 🙏🙏

Here's the white paper that earned us that designation: thecorecollaborative.com/wp-content/u...

#CBG #CBL

A company isn't a family.

Parents don't fire their kids for low performance or furlough them in hard times.

A better vision for a workplace is a community—a place where people bond around shared values, feel valued as human beings, and have a voice in decisions that affect them.

The 3 Ghosts of Inaccurate #Grading:

1) The Zero 👻

2) The Traditional Percentage Scale 👻

3) The Average 👻

When combined, these 3 ghosts lead to ghastly inaccurate grades.

👇👻 See👻 Below👻👇

I’m doing my annual rereading of the book as well!

I appreciate your thoughts on the book!

Do your #grading & #assessment practices help to prepare students for the future?

Our paper presents a practical 4-stage progression of grading reform that culminates in competency-based grading & assessment.

You can read about it here👇

thecorecollaborative.com/wp-content/u...

Hi Robert. I appreciate the warm welcome! I’m a high school English teacher, consultant, coach, researcher/writer.

Just got on Bluesky. Who are the educators I can follow interested in #grading & #assessment?