ABSTRACT
This chapter provides detailed directions for and advice to faculty who wish to implement the specs grading strategy in their courses. Faculty give a wide range of reasons for shifting to specs grading. All of these faculty found integrating and implementing specs grading in their courses quite easy. The pure specs grading approach may be most beneficial, but some faculty may find the change disorienting and prefer to ease into the new system or selectively use components of it. Faculty can apply specs grading selectively—for example, only on the assessment instruments required to earn an A in the course, or only on the instruments required to earn an A or a B, or only on the instruments required to earn a C or above. A synthetic grading schema based on assessment criteria presumes that the instructor is using an analytical rubric to grade a student product.
