Responding to Twin Pandemics: Reconceptualizing Assessment Practices for Equity and Justice

Alison Cook-Sather   |    Volume 16 Issue 2  |   

The intersection in 2020 of the new COVID-19 pandemic with the ongoing pandemic of anti-black racism exacerbated existing injustices as well as caused and revealed new inequities in US higher education. Because inequities in assessment in particular were intensified by these twin pandemics, faculty at several US colleges revised assessment approaches as part of their pedagogical partnership work over the last year. This paper describes the one-on-one, semester-long, pedagogical partnerships these faculty undertook with undergraduates not enrolled in the faculty members’ courses. It reviews the commitments of such partnership work to equity and justice, offers examples of how four faculty-student pairs across the disciplines at three US colleges revised their approaches to assessment, and analyzes how these examples work toward equity and justice. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of such work not only at the intersection of twin pandemics but under all circumstances.

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