What if a grade could become an invitation to practice instead of a verdict? When I taught high school, I noticed how often grades measured how well students remembered something for one day. Not whether they could actually do the thing later, in a new situation, on their own. Retention and regurgitation are easy to score. Mastery is harder to see, so it often goes unmeasured. Transparency is where I started making changes. When students can see what mastery looks like, what counts as evidence, and how a grade can move as their skill grows, grading stops being a mystery they are graded against and starts being a map they can use. A few shifts that helped me: Name the skill, not just the task. "Explain your reasoning" instead of "worksheet complete." Show the criteria before the work, not after. Students cannot aim at a target they cannot see. Let grades reflect current skill, not an average of early struggle. Early attempts are practice, not permanent judgments. Make reassessment a normal part of learning, not a favor. None of this guarantees anything. But it did change what my students paid attention to, and it made grades feel more honest to me. I wrote a full post working through this from my own classroom experience, including where my thinking shifted along the way. Save this for your next team conversation about grading, and send it to a colleague who is rethinking the same thing. The full post is linked in my profile.