Thanks for this informative article. I was wondering if you’d heard of specifications grading which is a lot like contract grading — in fact it’s so similar that I have a hard time being clear about the differences, but one difference is that individual items that students turn in (e.g. essays) do get a “mark” (not exactly a grade) that indicates the extent to which the work meets the class standards for acceptable work. I was wondering if you’d heard of this concept and/or whether you tried it out or considered it, and what you think of it. (Disclaimer: I’m a specs grading person myself, but feel free to criticize the idea. Like you, I don’t plan on going back to numerical-based grading anytime soon, or actually ever.)