Grades: Help or Hindrance? Essay

In the article, “From Degrading to De-Grading”, by Alfie Kohn he discusses the harmful effects grades have on students. Kohn argues that there are better ways to assess students’ progress other than letter or numerical grades. Grades are a great concept but they tend to be more hurtful than helpful. Cheating can become a problem, students won’t take challenges, and they develop unhealthy competition between one another. There have been many studies conducted over the years that support Kohn’s argument.

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.

One example demonstrating that grades lead to limited learning of material, can be illustrated by a study that was conducted of students, some of whom were graded. One group of students was told about being graded and the other group was not. The group who was “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” (Kohn). This experiment shows how students concerned getting a good grade detracts from the students overall understanding. In my experience, students have so much homework, activities, and pressure to excel that it becomes challenging to learn topics outside of those being assigned. For example, in order to complete history worksheets, students do not always read the passages to find the answers, but rather skim the passage for keywords

Teachers expect their students to work hard for good grades and achieve the highest possible test scores on standardized test. If all teachers are concerned about is the grades their students are getting and not whether or not they are learning the material being taught to them. They can’t expect students to retain the knowledge they are receiving with the pressure of high expectations from teachers. The stress of memorizing for a test is unbelievable. All students care about is how many questions they can get right, what grade they have received, and how much it will affect their grade. A majority of students forgets the material they spent

Keeping my grades up will open new doors by expanding my job choices when I graduate high school and college. Also, having high grades will give me the opportunity to be on honor roll and high honor roll. Honor roll gives me a chance to be remembered for my academic abilities. Next, keeping my grades as high as they can be gives me intelligence that I can use in the future for the rest of my life. On top of that, working hard in school will pay off by giving me more opportunities in life and by creating a wider window for success in the future years of my

A students success can determine how the rest of their life will play out. If a student is unsuccessful and gets bad grades it will give them a harder life. Adults with an A average from highschool

Grades: Unneccessary for Learning 30 years ago, the United States of America was ranked the leader in quality of education. However, today it is now reported to be the 36th highest in the world. The learning experience has altered drastically in the recent years. In his essay, “A Young Person's Guide to the Grading System,” Jerry Farber claims that students have become addicted to grades. He further explains that due to the negative impact grades have, people believe they need to be graded in order to keep them in line.

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.

Most students’ do assignments and prepare for tests only to get a good grade. They do not care about learning, as long as they are able to graduate. Learning does not come from being graded, it takes discipline and passion to learn. When trying to learn something new most people practice and or study rather than being graded.

“When students focus their attention on grades and how they are performing, learning may not result”-Joseph Holtgreive.

It comes to a point where the A is more important than how they achieve it. Unfortunately, this is the reality of the grading system. In some cases, students feel the need to cheat to get that A. “Researchers have found that the more students are led to focus on getting good grades, the more likely they are to cheat, even if they themselves regard cheating as wrong” (Kohn, 169). Though, a letter grade means nothing, it cannot tell you what a student can do, what they understand, or what they need help with. Grades are completely invalid. Tests tend to be more focused around what the teacher feels important. “Any given assignment may well be given two different grades by two equally qualified teachers. It may even be given two different grades by a single teacher who reads it at two different times” (Kohn, 168). At times, grades may even be pass or fail, which says nothing about the student’s abilities. This can cause unnecessary stress for said students, which can lead to

Everybody thinks about grading differently. Some say that grading evaluates how well a person understands a topic. Others say that it is a terrible way to separate the smart from the dumb. I believe that grading students can make or break their confidence. Students shouldn’t be graded in schools because their confidence could get destroyed and some grades are not accurate, this gives students false hope and sets them up to fail.

“My analysis if coercion in schooling was all very nice, but the department required I give grades. If I didn’t give grades, I wouldn’t be allowed to teach” (Jensen). This sparked the interest of motivation and its effect on grades in education, and it came to me after reading Derrick Jensen’s passage “Grades”. Do grades motivate? In Jenson’s quote, his motivation to give grades to his students was driven by the ability to keep his job.

But fear of failure, whether economic or academic, can motivate both.” However I believe some children do value their education just as much as an adult might; not all children need flunking as a means of motivation for them to act studiously and get good grades. Although, I do concede that some children disregard their education, I still maintain not all children disregard their education. There are many children who value their education as much as an adult might without the fear of failing. AP students for example, AP students show how much they value their education by taking AP classes.

Let us start by considering this: Awarding students higher grades helps to develop more self-esteem and greater feelings of pride if they have something to work for. Whereas if they are continuously receiving low grades this could lead to pupils thinking they’re not ‘good enough’ or ‘smart enough.’