Changing

Education —

One classroom

At a time

Chris Sarkonak helps teachers, schools, and education leaders move beyond points and memorization—rethinking assessment so students learn to understand, reason, and solve what they’ve never seen before.

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THE MISSION

To replace memorization with mastery—equipping people to understand deeply, think critically, and solve problems that don’t come with a textbook answer.

Real learning isn’t recall. It’s the ability to reason through something you’ve never seen before—and that’s a skill any room can build.

THE VISION

A generation of learners and leaders who are unafraid of hard problems—because they’ve been taught how to think their way through them.

When understanding becomes the standard, curiosity compounds—in classrooms, on teams, and across entire organizations.

Changing education starts with the people who teach it.

Chris taught senior-years physics and mathematics in Manitoba—and somewhere along the way he noticed the students who thrived weren’t the ones collecting the most points. They were the ones who actually understood.
That became the mission. He ‘ungrades’ his own classroom—trading marks for feedback and genuine understanding—then helps other educators do the same: leading professional development, keynoting education conferences, coaching teachers around the world, and serving as the Perimeter Institute’s regional coordinator for Manitoba. It started with one classroom. Now it’s reaching classrooms everywhere.

On stages, in print, and in the research.

Chris speaks and writes about assessment, ungrading, and student agency for educators across North America and beyond—from national conferences to teacher professional development.