How Does Grades Help Students?

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

Discussion of One Question: How does the student’s exceptionality affect his or her learning and/or behavior? Include descriptions of strengths, interests, and talents as well as those areas that pose a challenge to the student. (K ’s) exceptionality hasn’t change, who, he is as a student or individual. He 's just like most of our student’s who is struggling to learn grade level material and being a ESL (English Second Language) student has challenged his ability to translate comprehension between the two languages. As I stated before (K) has an (IEP) to help give him strategies to comprehend core academics. (K) express confusion and he doesn’t understand why some subjects are easy for him and others are more difficult. He is a great reader and (K) can answer most single direction question about a math problem; however, if the problem is asking him to set- up a multi-digit mathematical problem. He tends to have a more difficult time setting up mathematical problem with the correct math operation.One of (K) many strengths is his ability to read with fluency. He always will to help his fellow classmates on math problems that are easy for him to solve. His academic strength lies in math, even though, he struggles with higher math functions/problems. (K) has been place in advance band by his band director, due to his dedication in playing different instruments. (K) is also an extra helper for the band teacher due to his dedication to music. He loves to play soccer, basketball,

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

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.

Alfie Kohn discussed many 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 such as, portfolios or narratives. Kohn goes into detail about why our current grading system is flawed. Grades can cause students to lose interest in learning, this 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,

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.

First, grades are used to “evaluate student performance” (Thomsen, 1). Colleges analyze grades to determine students’ proficiency or overall comprehension of course material. Employers use grades

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.’

A student can be excluded from their peer groups because they have a bad grade. Being left out can make a student not want to improve academically. If they get bad grades others will see them as a poor student and will expect them to do poor in life. The process most schools use to evaluate student performance is grade point average and class rank. The academic recognition programs that exist in the United States are driven by a student’s grade point average and class rank. Those measures serve as the primary method in establishing student recognition. If this ranking is not the sole factor in the recognition program, it is always included in the student’s assessment. The school culture recognizes individuals that are in the top one-third of the school’s class rank

If they are not graded on that, then will not be able to see how those aspects of their education are necessary in the “real world”. This can also negatively affect their grades. Students that are good at regular assignments, but not good when it comes to tests, it could be a serious issue for them, as it will be harder to get their grades back up. Several teachers told parents that they wouldn’t award the highest number on the scale, or that extra work must be completed to earn 4s, leaving children confused on how to reach the advanced level of proficiency (See “Parents give standards-based grading scale F” ¶ ). Since students aren’t being graded on their classroom participation or homework completion, their grades can take a major downfall if they do make a big mistake, such as bomb a test, and they might not be able to make up for it by earning bonus points from extra credit either. If they do, then it would be a lot more work than it should be. Students who are “standards-based” graded will see their overall grade drop due to the system’s inability to evaluate all aspects of their education, as well as not being able to fully understand its methods.

There are many ways for you to improve your grades. It is really important to get good grades because in the future, you can go to a great college or have a great job. Students with bad grades are most likely the ones who will have a poor choice job. It is also important to get good grades because it shows that you want to do your best. There are many causes of high academic performance. One way to have a good grade is to pay attention in the class. Some students in the class do not listen in call, but you need for listen to what the teacher is talking about, so you won't struggle in class. In the class you would want to remove all of your distractions, and stay focused on the teacher. You also need to keep focused on the teacher don't let your mind start to wander off, and if this does happen to come back to reality and stay focused. Another way to get good grades is to come to class and come prepared. You never want to be late to class because you might miss something import the teacher has said, and it is important to bring everything you need to the class because if you forget it then you can't do the assignment that the teacher has giving. It is also important to develop a routine. What this means it make your day look like the previous day, for example 8.00 wake up eat breakfast. At 9.00 go to your classes, and after class do your assignments, then if you have free time do what ever you want. By doing this you are teaching your brain what time of day it is, and this helps your brain pay attention. You should also find a better environment. What i mean by saying this is that if you have a hard time in the back of the class you should move, or if someone continues to talk

Trying to maintain good grades is very important when in school. Having grades like “A’s” and “B’s” for example will result in having many educational opportunities and rewards. Colleges, job companies, or scholarship committees will review grades and other information on a school transcript to see if that student is eligible and satisfy the requirements needed. GPA stands for grade point average, so the higher the grade, the higher the GPA will climb up. This results in getting more money for college if the grade point average is an excellent score. There are some events and programs that reward students for having high and excellent grades. The National Honor Society is one of those programs. In order for a student’s grade to stay on top, completing school assignments are an essential way to do so. It’s not possible to get through or even pass a class without completing assignments. Usually, the class expectations will say for example quizzes are twenty-five percent, homework or classwork is fifteen percent, and tests are forty percent when it comes to grading work. What if the student just focuses on the bigger percentage? Even though the bigger percent has more impact on a student’s grade, the smaller grade percentages can still affect the student if it has not been completed at all because it adds up and it still badly affects the grade. This is why completing assignments are important. Participation in a class setting will improve a student’s grade because getting involved in the class discussions will help to understand the subject better. Some teachers even grade on participation, which can be an easy “A”.