A Simple Alternative To Grading Summary

Michael Thomsen argues against the A-F grading system in his essay “The Case Against Grades.” Thomsen even goes as far to say that the A-F grading system is to blame for the difficulty in reforming American education (1). He supports his conclusion with a few thought-provoking studies and statistics, but overall there are holes in his argument and he does not offer a realistic alternative. Thus, I disagree with Thomsen’s conclusion as I think that the A-F grading system is currently the best method for the United States to use.

This type of grading system has been shown to have several advantages. Body I. The Pros of Pass Fail Grading System. A. Takes pressure off students at certain levels. B. Give students a clear cut idea of their weaknesses

Alfie Kohn discussed multiple fabulous points in his article, “Degrading to De-Grading”. The author suggests more effective ways to assess students’ progress other than numerical or letter grades. Kohn goes into detail about why our current grading system is flawed. Grades can cause students to lose interest in learning which causes them to stop taking challenges. If students are not engaged and interested than they are not retaining the information they are being taught. The grading system can also cause students to develop unhealthy competition with one another for instance, “I got a better grade than you!”. Indeed, grades are a wonderful concept, but they tend to be more hurtful than helpful. In some cases, grades can have positive effects on students. For example, setting goals for various assignments, or receiving help where they are struggling. Though, there are alternatives that could make positive changes in the system.

Pragmaticism, indeed, will dictate that schools, assessments, and organizations long-established will not be altered for light and short-lived causes. Hence, a gradual shift in culture and method must occur which reforms the quantitative nature of grading systems. However, let the negative effects of the current grading system be known in a direct way:

Many teens are facing challenges with being accepted into college because some high schools across the United States do not have weighted grade point averages. Nor do they have equal grading scales. Although some schools follow this code, some do not, and that is unfair to students who take more challenging classes. Along with that, there are many other pros to this situation. For example, according to high school Superintendent Jack Thompson, “The pro of a weighted grading system is an effort to kind of give value to what we would consider a more rigorous class” (qtd. in Bonchak).

School is slave labor. Rather than enjoying or learning from their classes, students are forced to do useless work that will often be forgotten immediately. Grades are meant to show much a student understands a class, but instead are used as a scale of how well a student can regurgitate answers onto a test. Students only work for good grades because of the threat of being punished for failure, and the promise of reward for passing. The punishments in this case are detention or trouble from teachers, and the rewards are making the honor roll or getting bragging rights. The real reward for learning should be having new knowledge, but this is not taken into consideration. Jerry Farber, a professor at U.S.D, made the strong claim that grades are useless and harmful in his essay, “A Young Person’s Guide to the Grading System.” I wholeheartedly agree with Farber’s objection to our current grading system.

The third choice of the required reading that I read for my internship is Fair Isn’t Always Equal written by Rick Wormeli. This book is written to help schools and school districts transform their standard grading on assessments and homework to a standards based grading system. The book reasons why schools should look to change to a standard’s based grading system, and the benefits and the amount of information that this type of grading can give us about our students. Not only does this book give the benefits of the grading, it discusses ways to rewrite tests, how to use attendance and effort to give grades, and how to differentiate instruction and assessments to get a true picture of our students and their knowledge of the materials. Wormeli uses quotes from teachers and educational leaders in the different section of the book that have opposite views of standards based grading and the process they used to get to where they are at. This book was assigned to me to read over summer break to begin to prepare us for the change in grading formative assessments using standards based rubrics and the reasons why the change in necessary to truly see if students are learning.

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently,” Henry Ford stated. Students need to learn to fail in life to eventually succeed. Standards Based Grading (SBG) was created by Thomas R. Guskey. The point of SBG is to focus on the most recent work the student displayed. Frankly, that concept is unrealistic. The reality is traditional grading provides a more effective means of showing student progress and engagement. Not only is traditional grading understood universally, but the system motivates students to try their best on every assignment. Standards Based Grading may make the learning environment more relaxed for students, but is that always positive? To put it differently, civilians who have the perception that SBG is better are not understanding the reality that traditional grading is a more superior method.

The Credit System is a positive way that could change the way students learn. However it is not a realistic notion that all education systems will change to this method of learning. For example, what if a student only passes some of their classes associated with their grade level. Would the seniors graduate? How would educators determine what a “passing” grade is?

Have you ever gotten an A on a test before? Were you happy or excited? How would you feel If that grade was replaced by a number? This is what Standards Based Grading is doing to schools. While some will say SBG is helpful and less threatening than traditional grading, they are wrong. SBG is more harmful than helpful because letter grades are more precise, letter grades give more motivation, and collages are harder to get into with SBG.

The grading system is failed cause student focus on score and being on top of the class. In school, children may learn basic academic skills. Also, they may discover social knowledge by attending at the school, which the educational system base for testing and grading; therefore, they will evaluate with marks and understand of teacher’s technique “This stage lasts twelve years, a period during which the child learns that success comes from telling testers what that want to hear”(Baker 72). In fact this structure helps student to prepare for

Letter grades were introduced into American schools in 1911. The grading system was originally created in Europe in the 17th century as a means to rank students based on tests. By the 1930s and 40s, most

Over the past few years, the traditional grading system of A’s, B’s, C’s, D’s, and F’s have slowly faded away only to be replaced by the insufficient “Standards-Based Grading”. While some schools are adopting this unorthodox grading system, several others still continue to follow the traditional “A-F” grading system. Many believe that the standards-based grading system does not work well with all students and doesn’t accurately grade them. Standards-based grading is a fairly new system of grading where the student is evaluated on his or her ability to complete an assignment and master the concept, not by what they get right or wrong on each individual assignment. This has been very confusing to those who are unfamiliar with standards-based

Teachers have always used grades to measure the amount a student has learned. This practice is becoming ineffective. Many students have a wide range of grades, which show that grades may not show what a student really knows. Therefore, the standard grading system should be replaced. Some reasons why grades should be replaced are bad grades can hinder a child’s performance, grades define who a student is in the classroom, and grades are not an effective way to see if students have learned the material. The current grading system should be upgraded and every school should incorporate the plus/minus system in their method of grading.

Public high school grading systems should continue to be used because they hold everyone to the same standard, it’s easier for colleges to understand when looking at transcripts, and students are more prepared for colleges with the strict grading standards that public high schools currently hold. The public school grading system has changed multiples of times since the beginning of schools. The system was previously an arbitrary letter-based grading