Using Qualitative Feedback Of Grades

Alfie Kohn’s Article “How Not to get into College” analyses many key factors of how the current school system does not work and how we as members of society need to work together extensively to remodel the system to ensure the success of future students by valuing education over grades. By looking at how students only join clubs and and worship numerical grades only to impress colleges; students facing pressure from parents, teachers, and society to get good grades and succeed in life; and how students live through many mental health implications due to a multitude of factors surrounding their educational life, we can determine that systemic factors of this society have turned students of this generation into grade grubbers.

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.

Schools and college professors, who give you a good grade for excellent productivity on assignments, allow students to perform poorly, but still benefit relative to a person with an A. Two articles that observe grade inflation, find the rising problems of grade inflation, and finding solutions for grade inflation. Stuart Rojstaczer, an author from Grade Inflation Gone Wild, is a professor of geophysics at Duke university, and created gradeinflation.com in regards for his concern about grade inflation. On the other hand, Phil Primack is a journalist and teacher at Tufts University, and published in the “Boston Globe” Doesn’t Anybody Get a C Anymore? While college students, who work with little effort and still attain easy A’s by working poorly on assignments and exams, Primack and Rojstaczer, develop a firm connection towards grade inflation and the solution that can regain control over real education.

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.

While many believe that the grading system has a concrete standing in the success of education, other’s believe that it actually can inhibit or at least lessen the effectiveness of learning. In “A Young Person’s Guide to the Grading System,” Jerry Farber states that for the longest time, many have dismissed the fact that grades could be harmful to the learning process. He argues that grades lack the ability to bring about self-discipline within the students learning the content. While the educational system has rendered changes throughout the years, the grading system maintains its virginity and has been fairly untouched. He insists that many educators are in strong belief that grades are the only way to ensure that learning is to take place within the classroom. Most of society would dictate that the system has been fairly effective in getting individuals through their schooling. But as Farber points out, students tend to focus more upon the grades they are receiving and less upon the content itself. Throughout his writing, Faber uses many forms of rhetoric to persuade the reader to believe the fact that the grading system is corrupted and should be changed, and offers a solution which is referred to as the Credit System. With this being said, it can be stated that Farber effectively conveys his argument through his appeal to a younger

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.

    Grade inflation, the belief that students are receiving grades that they haven’t worked for and therefore don’t deserve. But what’s so wrong about grade inflation? When learning about this subject we also open the doors to learning about the multitude of other problems plaguing our educational system that could use our attention much more than grade inflation does. Through grade inflation we’re able to understand problems often forgotten about and looked over.

“Grades don’t prepare children for the ‘real world’- unless one has in mind a world where interest in learning and quality of thinking are unimportant” (Kohn, 9). Grades, as we all know, have been the ultimate form of estimating how much of a certain subject someone has learned for many years. As the years have passed however, new innovative ways to help the way kids learn, other than judging them with numerical values and letters, have surfaced that can possibly rid us of this barbaric system. Alfie Kohn has done a very effective job explaining them, while pointing out many of the flaws in the old schooling system with his read “The Case Against grades”. He does this by providing eye-opening facts along with refreshingly innovative ideas to get the reader’s attention while tapping into their emotions and allowing these two to join forces to create a logical appeal.

    It's June, and another graduating class is hoping, among other things, to achieve high grades. Of course, "high" is a subjective target. Originally a "C" meant average; today however, the expectations and pressures to give and receive "A's" and "B's" takes its toll on teachers and students alike. This nullifies the value of the traditional grading scale and creates a host of entirely new problems. The widespread occurrence of grade inflation seriously affects the credibility of secondary and post-secondary education in America.

Gaining education enhances a respectful life for an individual to live respectfully in the society. In this modern era, every individual needs to be educated. Education is one of the ways where people can know about the history of their country and also about the latest technologies. In the essay “Grades and self-Esteem”, the author Randy Moore, argues about self-esteem in students and their grades. He also claims that teachers should be genuine in giving grades to their students rather than focusing on their self-esteem. I agree with the author’s view regarding the grading system and disagree with the Moore, regarding building self-esteem in students.

Undeniably, it is a short term benefit, but in the long run it doesn't seem much of an advantage. It teaches students to work hard for rewards instead of because they want to excell and be successful. Potentially making students care more about passing rather than learning and gaining important skills to help them throughout life.

Grades, an alphabetical ranking system to determine one’s ability, skill, proficiency in any one subject or topic. These are commonly used in schools, to rate and judge the performance of students within a certain subject, in an institution, such as high school, middle school, primary school. Thus grading judges how well the students are fare with the schools current method of teaching, and if the students are meeting the academic standards. Since grades are used from primary school, all the way up to the end of high school, how does grades effect the students, and do grades do more harm than good for the students?

I graduated from Fairview High School, where I experienced many things, and one of the things that stood out to me the most was the failure I experienced my sophomore year as a student there. I had never done so poorly in school until that year, and doing so changed my entire character. My first semester as a sophomore at Fairview I received a 1.667 GPA, and a 1.286 GPA the second semester. When my final grades were given to me I didn’t even know what those numbers meant, and definitely didn’t have a clue on what they meant to my future. You may find it hard, or funny to believe that someone in his second year of high school doesn’t know what a GPA is, but I am a first generation student, and back then I had no idea how much that GPA was going

This allow students to grow their cognitive skills and non-cognitive skills. Such as concentration and self-control.This makes children to cope with something difficult.