Grades carry a lot of weight. They communicate expectations, shape student motivation, and often determine who advances and who doesn’t. Yet in many competency-based classrooms, grading systems were designed for a different purpose—ranking performance at fixed points in time rather than supporting learning as a developmental process.

In this Zone, you’ll pause to examine your current grading practices and the beliefs that sit beneath them. You’ll explore why traditional grading structures often become unstable in competency-based environments and consider the mindset shifts that make more aligned approaches possible—even when grades or scores are still required.

The goal here isn’t to “fix” your grading system or decide what to change. It’s to build clarity. By surfacing tensions, assumptions, and constraints, this Zone helps you enter the rest of the pathway with a clearer picture of where you are, what’s getting in the way, and what questions are worth asking next.