How The School Is Through A Letter Grading System

The American education system has not changed drastically since the 1900s. In the early 1900’s before grading, teachers were expected to communicate in depth to their students on how they were doing in the class. This worked well for small groups and individual tutoring. The ability for this information to be passed on to those who were not involved with the learning process, such as employers and parents was limited. By the mid 20th century schools changed drastically as they introduced grades in the form of letters. The American schools now became more standardized as A, B, C, D and F represented ones grade. Depending what percentage a student received determined letter they got. An example is an A is a mark of 90-100%

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.

Historically, letter grades have served as a tool to rate educational intelligence. By looking at the progression of a student’s grades over time, people are able to determine whether or not the students are developing skills in certain areas. Using a one letter grade to determine progress has received many critiques as a common system used in America’s education. Critics claim letter grades cause students motivation and creativity to decrease because grades shift students focus from learning the material to obtaining a good grade.

In the first section, Erickson considered the need for a more consistent and clear grading system. When Minnetonka High School decided a new and improved grading system was essential, Erickson pondered what factors should determine a student’s grade. For a considerable amount of time, grades could be affected by presence, manners, determination, extra credit, and contribution. These grades, however, were meant to represent and embody only what a student has learned and the knowledge he or she acquired.

First and foremost, letter grades have been used since the 19th century without any complications. “The traditional grading scale is universally recognized. Virtually everyone knows that earning an A is good while earning an F is associated with failure. The traditional grading scale is easy to interpret and understand. The simplistic nature of the system makes it user-friendly for teachers, students, and parents. It also allows for a direct comparison from one student to another within a specific class” (Meador). Ultimately, parents remember and understand the letter grading system. It's easy to be happy that their child earned an

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.

High school grades are a better way of looking at a student’s work progress than through only an standardized test(s). High school grades give a better idea of how the student will look in their future education and career. Standardized testing can shock and freak some students out and make them worry and not do so well, where as high school grades can be looked at through an extent of time on the student. Also the test scores have been categorized by the students work ability, and there are many other problems with the tests for example with the questions and how the results come out. “High school grades reflect years of effort and are a more reliable assessment

The current academic grading system is helpful in student performance. The main reason the opposition disagrees with my point of view is simply that they believe the system has unfair limits and is not easily understood by everyone. The opposition argues that,“the grading scale is easy to manipulate because it is often subjective in nature.” (Meador) They argue this because, every teacher has a different teaching style and ways of grading. For example, during high school chemistry, my teacher required that we explain our solving process on each

Michael Thomsen argues against the A-F grading system in his essay “The Case Against Grades.” Thomsen even goes as far to say that the A-F grading system is to blame for the difficulty in reforming American education (1). He supports his conclusion with a few thought-provoking studies and statistics, but overall there are holes in his argument and he does not offer a realistic alternative. Thus, I disagree with Thomsen’s conclusion as I think that the A-F grading system is currently the best method for the United States to use.

“Our educational goal [is] the production of caring, competent, loving, lovable people” . The students found in the schools across the United State are the future of America. They are the doctors, teachers, business people, lawyers and many other roles, that will be out in the workforce in the years to come. What they learn in school will impact them immensely; it is the responsibility of a teacher to give students the best education in order to ensure the common good of the future. It is essential for students to not only learn content matter, but also the skills to enable them to participate in a democracy. Due to standardized testing, the emphasis of education has become on score and rankings rather than learning. A standardized test does not look at the whole student, the scores provided are on a very narrow aspect of education. In the classroom, there are countless ways for teachers to assess the student as a whole person not as just a score. Standardized tests scores should not be the sole criteria for determining a student’s academic achievement.

“Children feel like failures now as early as PreK, preschoolers are being expelled at 4 X higher rates than K-12 children. . .” These are the words of Dr. MArcy Guddemi, Gesell Institute’s Executive Director. Testing is filling lives of children now with stress and negative feelings for school instead of the happy place full of learning it should be. Test scores’ impact on learning is not even effective and most score change is due to life outside of school. Schools also spend great amounts of spending on these tests every year. School is important for numerous life skills and lessons; with excessive testing children aren’t able to learn these lessons. The U.S. Department of Education and its local counterparts needs to administer fewer standardized tests because they don't accurately show learning, they are costing us too much money, and the impair growth.

Oakley came running into the room where her parents sat. "I got all A's!" She proclaimed with an air of success around her. "I barely even studied for anything. Guess I am really smart isn't I?" Her parents smiled at each other with pride glimmering in their eyes. As Oakley strutted about the house she felt accomplished, and that she could do anything. This is the idea that schools all over the United States try to portray. In today's society, the educational system has lost its balance. Although, it depends on where you live, what type of school you go to, and how much you care about your grades the educational system has lowered their standards altogether. Lowering standards sets students up for failure, does not teach students respect or desire for good grades, and it does not teach work ethic or diligence.

Many secondary schools throughout the county are trying to figure out the most effective grading policy. Schools have tried many different grading policies and learning philosophies. Some schools use a mix of projects based and formal pen and paper assessments, while other schools are competency based. The most effective grading policy is a mixed project based grading system because it accountable, is applied consistently, and promote positive student study values.

Some people like Stephanie Cordie believe that effort should be counted. Stephanie Cordie states, “Some parents and teachers don’t like the new system. They worry that nothing happens if the kids don’t do their work”(Cordie, 2014). The new system is that students to be graded on what they know. As this evidence shows that some parents and teachers disagree with the new arrangements. It says they are worrying if the kids don’t do their work. Parents and teachers don’t like other teachers that students are graded on skills they would rather be graded on effort. The new system would make students do their work by seeing where is their level. Also, another evidence is, “New tests uncovered gaps like the one at Lincoln Elementary. It also led to questions about how students can get good grades without learning anything” (Cordie, 2014). Well, the new system will help them to learn, to encourage students to do their work. It is better to grade on skills to learn the students

This book provides an overview of high stakes accountability and standardizations happening in American schools. Specifically, Bower and Thomas critique the system of grading and testing through the voices of many different authors. It presents these as problems affecting the education and meaningful learning of students. The book is written as a collection of essays that look at the failure of testing and grading. The history of the historical failures of testing and grading are also explored early on in the book. For example, in the introduction Kohn argues that grades and tests predict the future of grades and tests and nothing else. Kohn states, “it doesn’t tell us much at all about their future creativity, curiosity, happiness,