There is a longstanding debate about whether traditional grading—letter grades based on a student’s content knowledge, classroom behavior, and extra credit—appropriately measures student success.

Last week, when I returned the latest batch of assignments in a short story class, the inevitable happened. A student approached me and asked, “Can I do extra credit?” This request flummoxes me more ...

To offer students extra credit—that is the question. In fact, it’s an age-old question, one that some systems, liked standards-based grading, claim to answer by completely eliminating it. Personally, ...