Graduation Speech : A New Teacher

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.

Teachers strive for their students to score well because the score also reflects on their teaching. Teachers seem to no longer teach for students to learn material and retain knowledge but to “ace” tests. Some learn to teach according to the test. Students learn the information that is going to be on the test but do not necessarily fully understand the material they are learning. There are certain standards that have to be met with each test. In most states part of the scores reflect the

In “A Proposal to Abolish Grading” Paul Goodman suggests grading students is only setting them up for failure. He states, “a student will retain nothing of what he has “passed” in.” Goodman believes that students shouldn’t be tested for a grade, “but for his own advantage” so the student isn 't just “trying to get by” he will actually be encouraged to learn the material. Grades and testing have been around for over a century. Every American has had some kind of schooling in their life. As a student, I’ve always entered a new class with the mindset that I need to pass that class, hardly ever have I thought, “I need to learn as much as I can in this class.” So why should the system that educators believe works and have used for so long change? The American education system values grades and test scores more than students value learning.

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.

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

While the tests do have the same questions and choices for each student taking them, the opportunities education is suppose to give them are taken away. Education in schools is ultimately declining. To prove this, Americas education system stood at number 18 in mathematics in 2008, then sank to number 31 in 2009 (“Standardized Test”). It is not a speculation that students have been taught memorization has more value than comprehending information, there is no doubt with that theory. With all the intense pressure focused on students in this generation, kids are also being shown that grades are more necessary than real knowledge. Students at all age levels are extremely diverse. Student A could understand each in-class assignment given and receive high grades in the class, all while struggling to perform highly on tests. Student B, on the other hand, could use worksheets done in class for memorizing the important information, therefore helping him or her remember answers for the test. A piece of paper cannot verify if a student is well educated. Other proponents of education need to be taken into mind before grading a

Teachers are expected to teach the students, so the test scores increase each time the test is taken. However, not every student is a great test taker, which then causes a negative reflection upon the teacher in charge of preparing the student. These results also impact the school, as they do not get funding if their students perform poorly on certain standardized tests. In school, students are taught from a young age that school should be enjoyable, they should be creative, innovative, and find a love for learning. Unfortunately, standardized tests, are not equipped to measure the above mentioned ways of learning..

Pass or fail grading systems is just not accurate enough to determine a students performance on his or her work. It is almost just not fair especially for students in college that have classes with a pass or fail grading system. Its not fair because students pay so much money to go

Teachers are teaching the student so they good test scores not to what every student needs to learn to succeed in college or even high school. Every student is a different learner and acquire different techniques to learn something. Per the article Grading teachers on test scores a teacher explains that she is not teaching the students she is trying to get better test scores to keep her job, “The real reason for the improvement was that I had betrayed my teaching to get higher scores.” Teachers went to college to teach and learn how to be a proper teacher, when they get to the teaching part they are told exactly what they need to teach so that they should not lose their job. We need to start thinking of the students and create a different way to grade how the students’ knowledge improves not just grading the

Of all the problems we have in our education system, grading is the most misunderstood. Alfie Kohn reinforces the idea that grades have a negative impact on students,in his essay from “Degrading to De-grading”, by stating that grades encourage students to take the “easy way”, by taking the least challenging courses. Another point Kohn makes is that students’ learning is negatively affected by grades because the students only recite the information for the test. After the teachers test the information the students just “learned”, the information becomes irrelevant to the student.The students quickly forgot the information and never really learn it. Not only do grades harm the student, but also the teacher. Grades harm

When the majority of students achieve or don’t achieve on homework, projects or tests, it brings up an alarming truth. This truth being, the assigned task was either not taught correctly, or it was created with a difficulty harder than the standards. The Every Student Succeeds Act, signed in 2015, “requires—for the first time—that all students in America be taught to high academic standards that will prepare them to succeed in college and careers” (Every). What this means is, students must be taught academic standards well enough where they actively succeed on tests and assignments. The process to ensure the access to these high standards is the deliverance of “vital information [...] to educators, families, students, and communities through annual statewide assessments that measure students' progress toward those high standards” (Every). This provides an instructional outline for teachers, which is meant to conclusively enhance student understanding for annual standardized testing. When teachers fail to accurately build understanding for students, the children are the ones who suffer; they lose the chance to thoroughly learn the curriculum. In A Repair Kit for Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken Grades, by Ken O’Connor, he claims, “Grades are broken when the evidence used is from poor-quality

If a student is to fail a test after completing homework the way they were taught, is it because they really did not try? Or could it be because of how they were taught? Some students require a certain way to be taught things for it to be properly stored in their brain, therefore grading the homework could not possibly help their grade if they do not understand what they are being taught in the first place. If a child fails to complete their graded homework their grades will constantly drop after each assignment. Despite the fact that they fail to complete their homework, what their teacher could be missing is the important fact that the student is completely passes every test they take and every classroom worksheet sometimes complete the extra credit giving them a 110% but yet their average grade will be around a 63% all over a few practice worksheets given to

Imagine yourself back in your freshman year of highschool. It is early October and field hockey is going great. Classes are not too bad either, and reports are right around the corner. On Monday your teacher pulls you aside and lets you know that if you do not get at least an eighty on this next test you will not do well in the class. Not only do you have other work due for school, but you have a job, field hockey and only two days left to study and really understand the material. This is currently the issue with test, teachers are using them as end point grades. This means they use them to see how much someone knows. Hence, using tests as final scoring of what they have learned. In reality test should be used to help guide teaching. As a teacher we should realize that test grades are affected by a lot of outside sources and are not always reliable. Test should be used to help guide the way teachers help their students learn, not used to measure what a student already knows.

English class seemed to be the most dreadful to take within school. Writing essays for most of my grade in a class is not what I was looking forward too. When I entered college I knew that it would be one of many challenging classes I would have to take. Starting from the lowest English class to moving on up, the writing assignments became longer and more thought out. The time came when I got into this class that I knew more work was going to have to be put into essays and thus brought out what I had not seen before in my work progress.