Are Grades a Necessity in Education?
Comments(3) I think the answer would have to be a ‘yes’. There has to be some way of quantitatively evaluating knowledge for logistical purposes. Do I think we may put too much of an emphasis on grades or we may be using them incorrectly? I think the answer to that would also be a ‘yes’. This is not the first class I’ve been in that had discussions on the implementation of grades, and I’ve heard convincing arguments from students, teachers, administrators, etc. for both the pro and anti grade sides.
The purpose of grades is rather clear: provide an efficient and objective way to summarize a student’s knowledge of material. Unfortunately, getting good grades and understanding class material is not a one to one correspondence. Many tests are designed for fact and formula regurgitation and do not allow for students to truly demonstrate their understanding of the concepts presented in class. Students recognize this divide, as many of the ‘anti-grade’ students have claimed that they would focus more on learning if they were not worried about getting good grades, as if the two were mutually exclusive.
Thus the problem lies with assessment I think; we must be designing assessments around giving opportunities for students to actually demonstrate their knowledge. Now this is easier said than done, which is why such assessments are not common, but I think it’s something that must be done if we want to pursue a better correlation between grade and understanding.
I also think that colleges and universities will only accept a certain form of assessment. And that just so happens to be letter grades. If teachers wanted to change the way we assessed students they would not only have to change the system in their school, they would also have to change the systems around the world. I think as long as universities and colleges put a high importance on grades, teachers will be forced to continue to give them out to students.
I agreed with you. Grades are the backbone of what makes up the education system. I do not think it will ever happen that all educational institutions will adopt a no grades system. Thus, how will schools determine who qualifies to be doctors, lawyers and the like? However, there are some programs and institutions that does offer no grades or will adopt the no grades system could be more beneficial for the students/learners and the society at large. For instance, the Bachelor of Education program at UBC does not have a specific marking system. Thus, it is a pass or a fail system.
However, all secondary schools in North America (that I know of) employed the “yes” grades system. For two primary reasons, the first reason is to promote competition. The way our world runs is purely by competition. Although I am not always in favour of always being competitive, but schools seem to force students to be competitive especially through major projects and exams. The second reason is all universities determine who gets into their universities through marks. Although it has changed a little bit, thus more and more universities are adopting the profile aspect into their admission processes as well.
Again, I agreed with you on this part: “Thus the problem lies with assessment.” For all the upcoming high school teachers – the one way in which we can better the grading system is through the way we assess our students’ performance through homework, assignments, projects, presentations and exams.
I too found “The Case Against Grades” article to be a bit idealistic in terms of the potential of removing letters and numbers from the equation surrounding assessment. I agree that with universities requiring grades for admittance and standardized assessments such as SATs, MCATs, and LSATs, it seems that giving students letter and number grades is unavoidable. In order for this ‘no grades’ movement to be successful there is no doubt that institutional changes need to occur in sync. However, what I believe is more important for us as future educators to take from the article is to be aware of how letter and number grades can affect student learning. The article points out many key arguments, that grades and letters often detract from students exploring a topic and often results in them following the marking rubrics too closely. I think we are all in agreement that the main message from the article is that we need to ensure that our assessments and rubrics truly reflect the knowledge, as well as the knowledge process we want our students to acquire and present. As you said, easier said than done but I think by giving our students more options on the way they present their knowledge is a good start. Multi-modally as we have all learned can be a great tool and even self-evaluation has more merit than I think we give credit to. Finally, although it adds more to our plate, taking the time throughout the year to discuss with our students one on one about their learning is important – I think that many of them would be much more honest, and have more insight then the adult population perceives.