Are Your Grades Fair? Reliability and Validity in Student Assessment

re the grades you're giving actually measuring what students know — or are they measuring effort, behavior, and bias? In this video, Dr. Matthew Courtney breaks down the two most important concepts in fair grading: reliability and validity. You'll walk away with practical strategies to build a grading system that truly reflects student learning. Because grades should be tools for growth — not guesswork. ⏱ CHAPTERS 0:00 — Introduction: Are Your Grades Real? 0:30 — What Are Reliability and Validity? 0:53 — Reliability in Grading Explained 1:50 — How to Improve Grading Reliability (Rubrics & Calibration) 2:14 — Validity in Grading Explained 3:00 — How to Improve Grading Validity 3:21 — Using Data to Monitor Your Grading System 4:47 — Student Self-Assessment and Peer Feedback 5:04 — Key Takeaways In this video, you'll learn: ✅ What grading reliability means — and why mood, bias, and time pressure undermine it ✅ What grading validity means — and why effort and neatness don't belong in your grade book ✅ How to use rubrics to remove subjectivity and create consistent grades ✅ How to align assessments directly with learning objectives so grades measure the right thing ✅ How to use data to spot grading inconsistencies across students, classes, and demographic groups ✅ Why student self-assessment is one of the most powerful tools for meaningful grading This is part of the Evidence Empowered Educator (E3) Method — translating peer-reviewed research into strategies you can use Monday morning. 🔔 Subscribe for weekly evidence-based strategies for K-12 school leaders and teachers — no fluff, no motivational anecdotes, just what the research says. #Grading #StudentAssessment #FairGrading #InstructionalLeadership #SchoolImprovement