There is a longstanding debate about whether traditional grading—letter grades based on a student’s content knowledge, classroom behavior, and extra credit—appropriately measures student success.

A student of mine—let’s call her Emily—asked me that question at the end of one class last year. We had recently finished a test on factoring, which she had been struggling with. When I handed back ...

Using words like ‘factors,’ ‘denominators’ and ‘multiples’ may be part of a constellation of good math teaching practices ...