Flawed System Vs. Traditional Grading System

According to a survey conducted by Robert Winberg, two of every four students prefer taking traditional tests over any other grading evaluation. In fact, most schools do not use a typical grading system like most people would think. Most schools have decided to try a different method. This method assigns students a long-term assignment where they must produce a project and present it at the end of the period, to show what they have learned. Teachers may find this effective, however I do not believe this to be the best option. Despite the horrible opinions and rude sayings about tests, homework, and quizzes, I think they are more effective. I believe the traditional grading system is a more effective way for teachers to grade than an oral-presentation because it is less time consuming, better for kids with social anxiety, and it gives students time to prepare and learn.

I suggested this book because it was the book I studied when I was challenged to question my own practices. This book showed me that grading practices are directly linked to student performance, and play an essential role in building a culture of learning. I learned that grading practices go beyond scoring papers and calculating final averages. Grading practices include creating quality assessments, focusing on standards, and involving students in the learning process. My goal for the book study is to apply my learning described in PGE#3 to guide teachers to the same conclusions. I asked to facilitate the book study because I felt that I could use my own experiences to help move us forward. My long term goal is to engage teachers in meaningful, research-based discussions in order to build a shared vision, allowing us to create a school-wide grading policy that supports student

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.

In “How Grading Reform Changed Our School” by Jeffrey A. Erickson, the Assistant Principal of Minnetonka High School in Minnesota, Erickson assessed how and what things are taken into account when distributing grades. Erickson claimed that the accuracy and truthfulness of grades are misrepresented with many common components that seem to be used for general grading standards.

“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.

There has been a lot of ideas on how students should be graded yet it always seems to be the same. Tests, tests, and more tests. There are so many issues with this due to so many variables. Everyone has a different life and some students do more than others outside of school. Why can’t students be graded based on how they perform on their personality, how much they are involved outside of school, and their home life? Is not everyone different?

Traditional grades are used throughout the country, and seem to be more popular in universities and colleges. The disadvantage of traditional grades is students who work hard and get a hundred percent in all their

The letter grade system offers many benefits to students the most compelling would be it is easy to understand there is a grade associated with a number system. If a student was to receive a pass/fail grade there is no desire to outperform nor do they have the desire

This effort based grading compares students to students rather than students to the standards. A New York Times article written by Adam Grant says, “The goal [of Common Core] is to fight grade inflation, but the forced curve suffers from two serious flaws. One: it arbitrarily limits the number of students who can excel [...] [Two: it] create[s] an atmosphere that’s toxic by pitting students against one another” (Grant). Standards are set for a reason: to determine whether or not students can achieve what they must achieve to be college ready after twelve years of schooling. When teachers begin to curve tests and offer additional incentives to build a student’s grade up, they’re essentially ignoring the fact that the student may not completely understand the topic. In a personal interview with Champlin-Brooklyn Park Academy Assistant Principal, Kimberly Nelson, it was stated, “regular course testing should be graded like standardized testing; compare students to the proficiency standard, not students to students” (Nelson). In support of this statement, two economists, “Pradeep Dubey and John Geanakoplos[,] concluded” through study and analysis of grading systems, “a forced grade curve is a disincentive to study. ‘Absolute grading is better than grading on a curve’” (Grant). In other words, students neglect additional studying, assuming their grade to be already

Thank you for reflecting on one of the longest standing practices in the American educational system. At our high school, I have seen a variety of view points in this area. Approximately five years ago our principal at the time asked the staff to discontinue the practice of grading homework. She used Ken O'Connor's (2011) book, A Repair Kit for Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken Grades as the foundation for the change. O'Connor (2011) contends, "Don’t use information from formative assessments and practice to determine grades; use only summative evidence" (p. 124). After much consideration the staff agreed to make the necessary changes to their grading practices. However, there was no groundwork layed with the students and parents. At first parent-teacher conferences of the school year numerous parents expressed their displeasure with the new policy. The major parental complaint was that their childs grades were suffering because only the test (summative) grade was being used to formulate the course grade. The policy was scrapped the next school year when a new principal was placed at our high school. Perhaps, if a strong foundation was layed with the parents and students, O'Connor's fix may have advanced on.

Firstly, everyone is already used to the grading scale. We memorize facts that are input into the tests. If we switch this up, people will be confused and not know what to do. There are many types of learning, hands on, memorization, these are just the start. If, or when, we convert to

Choosing which type of system I would have gots me stuck in between the two, I can see good from both sides of the argument. But with every argument there's one side that appeals to me more than the other and that has to be the A-F grading system. That's what we have been using for so long, I just feel like it should stay that way because it's what most people are use too. You could pass a class with a D and you would still pass it, even though that is not advised. Although if it comes down to it you have that at least while with pass/fail you would fail either way.

As far as grading goes I think it is a necessary evil. I do like how Standard Base Grading suggest using summative assessments as practice only and not allow it to effect students grades. I think it is important for students to practice and make mistakes with out consequences of it negatively affecting their grade. However there must be some type of incentive other than practice and mastering content in order to get all students to do homework or other formative assignments. I thought maybe giving extra credit for doing homework would encourage full participation in homework. But I am afraid it will skew the final grade to much that the final grade wont accurately effect the students ability. However I do like standard base grading over more traditional grading systems.

The new grading system overlooks the real potential of a student. For example – a student has got 45 marks while another student has got 49 marks, they both will be falling in the same category of A1 grade which is a very big conflict of hard work and luck.

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