From Degrading To De-Grading By Alfie Kohn

In his article “College Students Need to Toughen Up, Quit Their Grade Whining”, Robert Schlesingner addresses the emerging issue of grade inflation, and more specifically, the greater sense of entitlement that seems to prevail in the modern scholastic realm. Mr. Schlesingner begins his address by presenting his background and what standards and expectations were common during his time through both lower-level education and college. During his time [time in what?], a grade of C represented “adequate” or average work, B correlated with “an above average job”, and obtaining an A required “spectacular” performance by the student. [more concise] However, as cited by Mr. Schlesingner, an investigation by the University of California-Irvine seems to indicate that the values of each letter grade has changed, at least in the mind of the modern student with more students now believing that A’s and B’s should be more easily obtained and that the amount of effort put into a task should be considered when grading. Next, Mr. Schlesingner presents his opinions on this topic of grade inflation and the proper influence of student effort on grade. To conclude,

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.

Kurt Wiesenfeld's article, "Making the Grade," presents the social issue of grades. The author explores the extent of this problem by examining the social environment in which these students were raised. Wiesenfeld also addresses the changing attitude towards what a grade represents and the true value of a grade. The author effectively uses several writing strategies to engage the reader, influence the audience and illustrate how much thought he has given this issue. The essay is organized by a logical progression from thesis to individual claims and the author provides real-world examples for the issues. With those real-world examples, Wiesenfeld explains how serious the problem can become and demonstrates why the issue should be addressed.

Each year, the existence of grade inflation is gradually affecting the quality of education nationwide. Both secondary and primary levels of education are objected to this grading system in which higher marks are issued where it may not necessarily be fitting. Grade inflation not only affects students but impacts instructors, students’ parents, and the educational system as a whole, which creates a chain reaction effect on all. After observing two hundred colleges and universities, a study shows that greater than forty percent of grades distributed were of an A- marking or higher (Newlon 2). The idea of faultily increasing students’ markings proves to only hurt their futures in the long run, setting them up for imminent failure in the real world where a grade cushion does not exist.

Do students feel that education can take a toll on their life mentally and physically? Sometimes students feel that their diligent work and commitment is insufficient to do well in school. At times students cannot keep up with the standard expectations of education particularly with grades. Grading point averages and grades decides the eventual fate of a student. Education is based upon a positioning arrangement of lettering evaluations that as far as anyone knows shows on the off chance that you are learning and precisely the amount you are learning. Holy Family’s university grading system is unfair and it plays a negative role in the lives of students affecting students’ GPAs and their hope of the future drastically. No student should have to suffer from an unjust grading system that makes students feel less savvy than they really are.

Alfie Kohn, author of “From Degrading to De-grading”, discussed the negative psychological effects that grades have on students. School should be used to educate people and strengthen their mind so that they can more easily learn to deal with specific challenges they will face throughout their life. There are two articles that agree with the views of Mr. Kohn, “Higher Education” by Howard R. Pollio and “Do Grades Do Any Good?” by Jessica Ellis. The articles that were chosen describe the importance of removing or replacing the grading system.

Kohn thoroughly discusses the idea of marks and grades, and how they often take over a student’s life when they are the only thing a student cares about. I personally can relate to this as in the recent high school years, I myself have been focused of only achieving the highest grade. Issues such as this not only plague me but also plague my close friends, and this affects our overall friendship and desire to learn, and retain what we learnt. Kohn mentions this in his article

Have you ever had a bad experience with grades? Do grades create a preference for the easiest task? In " The Case Against Grades" Alfie Kohn argues why grades should be completely erased out of the system. I agree with him, when he says that "grades create a preference for the easiest possible task" and " grades tend to reduce the quality of students' thinking". I disagree with him, when he says that " Grades tend to diminish students interest in whatever they're learning".

According to Paul Goodman, essay writer that had his essay published in The Little, Brown Reader, teachers will “try to goad or threaten” students “by grading” when they are not doing well, which does “more harm than good” (313). Grading is used as a consequence tactic, both at school and home. After a teacher issues a consequence, then the student’s parents find out and give their child more consequences. This goes back to students studying hard without really learning, just to avoid trouble this time. I, myself, have subjected to this idea that my entire life will fall apart if I even receive a B. I am scared that I will lose my scholarships, have my privileges taken away, and become a disappointment to my parents. Fear of consequences drives students to stress themselves to excel. In the worst-case scenario, they may resort to cheating their way up. The consequence of low grades brings so much fear to students that it forces them to memorize material, rather than learn it, just to get an

Alfie Kohn brings attention to this unfortunate truth in his piece From Degrading to De-Grading, where he exposes many of the existing flaws present in the grading system today. He first does this by listing the three primary main effects of grading. The first being, that "grades tend to reduce students ' interest in the learning itself" (Kohn). Secondly he reveals his analysis that "grades tend to reduce students ' preference for challenging tasks"(Kohn). And lastly, Kohn expresses his belief that "grades tend to reduce the quality of students ' thinking"(Kohn). To give Kohn some credit, he does justify his sentiment toward grades by including somewhat brief explanations annotated to each of the aforementioned effects provided by him. The issue with his argument isn’t necessarily that it is factually incorrect, but that the current method of grading is far more effective

Psychologist Jennifer Crocker found in a study that “When students were asked about what they base their self-worth on, more than 80 percent said academic competence...” Similarly, a student recalls the first time she ever looked at a scoring rubric, “….Suddenly all the joy was taken away. I was writing for a grade — I was no longer exploring for me.” The school system is unforgiving towards mistakes, setting students up for failure. Grading based on ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ tells students that mistakes should be avoided at all costs. This does a poor job in preparing high-schoolers for the workplace where mistakes are made daily. Risks produce a higher chance of mistakes, so risks are avoided, killing intrinsic motivation. Educational expert Alfie Kohn explains, “The research quite clearly shows that kids who are graded – and have been encouraged to try to improve their grades – tend to lose interest in the learning itself, avoid challenging tasks whenever possible (in order to maximize the chance of getting an A), and think less deeply than kids who aren’t graded.” Grades do not encourage learning, they fear students into taking the easy way

This article offers an argument towards changing our evaluation system away from a traditional grading and towards a system that is based more on feedback and teacher-student cooperation. Studies have shown that letter grades can reduce a students' interest in learning, reduce a students' motivation for challenging tasks and reduce the quality of student's thinking. Kohn argues that grades should be abolished in order for students to get a real learning experience. The essay emphasizes that students are not interested in learning and understanding the material, but instead on how they can get a good grade on a test or GPA. Grades also promote cheating, it makes students compete with each other. The desire

1st Body Paragraph: First of all, the grading system is notorious for hurting instead of helping students eagerness to learn. For example, in Alfie Kohn’s article of “The Case Against Grades”, Kohn mentions that “In one experiment, students told they'd be graded on how well they learned a social studies lesson had more trouble understanding the main point of the text than did students who were told that no grades would be involved.” This experiment that proved how implementing grades would otherwise decrease a student's performance, it emphasizes the fact that grades are hurting students understanding. Adding on, students are in fact more eager to learn without grades. In Kohn’s article, one teacher recalls “Without grades, I think my relationships with students are better”. “Their writing

Summary of Source E: The pressure of grades has enormous negative effects on the students motivation to learn and challenge themselves.

Flunking students can make one cheat in school. Cheating happens a lot in school because most don’t get caught therefore, students don’t understand the consequences of cheating. According to Sherry, “Passing students who have not mastered the work, cheats them and the employers who expect graduates to have basic skills” (Sherry). Most employers expect graduates students to know the basic skills, but yet some don’t. Overall failure does not help students ' success in life. For example, I have witnessed my classmate cheat in math class. Some students blame that it’s hard to understand the teacher’s teaching skill therefore one needs to cheat. The point is many students does not take the initial to go to tutor. Cheating has bothered me, especially when one tried to study and the other don’t but still pass the class. In multiple test, a classmate who sat next to me always used one’s phone to google the answer or stared at my answer. Throughout the test, I