2025 GOCSD Innovation Summit

This session invites educators to reflect critically on their grading practices. To do this, teachers will be encouraged to reflect on what they are grading and whether those grades accurately represent what students truly know and can do independently. Through guided reflection and group discussion, teachers will explore strategies to ensure that assessments are meaningful and align with standards. The next time teachers hear, “Is this for a grade?” or “Will I ever use this?” they can provide an answer with confidence.

What if there is a way to increase engagement and achievement without a new initiative or costly curriculum? Companies spend millions each year improving employees' workspaces because employee comfort is directly tied to their productivity and the company’s bottom line. Engagement and achievement are our bottom lines, but we rarely examine the impact of students’ working conditions in high schools. This session merges research from psychology and architecture with education and draws on original research with responses from 120 schools. Participants will be able to make tangible, practical changes to high school classrooms that increase student engagement and achievement.