As another school year lurches into the collective memory, relegated to the digital archives, I find myself reflecting again on the purpose of grades?
The conventional understanding about those lettered evaluation marks is that they are meant to measure student performance -- skills and knowledge -- and apprise those students and their parents of their progress and to assist universities in sorting out who deserves admission and scholarships and, perhaps, in the aggregate, to help alert tax-payers as to the overall state of this school or that school district that they are funding.
By those criteria, any grade not arrived at through entirely objective means and based strictly upon the state academic standards is an act of insubordination.
And yet I find myself -- as I believe do many other teachers -- using grades for entirely different purposes:
Amidst the current deluge of data, such grading practices can result in students with high grades and low state test scores or with low grades and high test scores.
Such incongruities might suggest a watered-down curriculum and low standards and/or a failure to challenge the most capable students. But what they more likely indicate is the collision of an objective evaluating system (standardized testing) and an evaluating system that is most effectively utilized with at least some consideration of individual students, their abilities and their efforts.
I refuse to punish a student for what he or she didn't know before entering my class, nor reward one entirely for what he or she previously learned.
Hard work is the only way that child will get there.
Hard work isn't enough.
Perhaps -- at least in the short term -- but to deliver that message to a student who is trying seems to me to go against the very nature of education. Demoralization may work with snarky graduate students and boot camp recruits, but marginally skilled children in grades K on up to 12 do not benefit from such tactics, even if their lack of performance might justify it.
Same time, high grades not earned can be nearly as disastrous.
Students need clear expectations and must be made accountable to them -- but those expectations must, in the short run, be realistic or they will prove useless. They can make remarkable progress in the right circumstance - with a teacher who knows the subject and knows how to teach it -- if they are willing to work and they most surely won't make much progress if they are not.
We ought to expect more out of a child than she or he might think possible -- but not more than actually is possible. That is the intuitive genius of the best parents and teachers, to see that potential for what it really is and push a child forcefully toward it until the child starts to push him or herself.
This was a recurring theme among graduates this year from the high school at which I teach. The most successful of our students were the ones who expected the most out of themselves and worked the hardest.
That, of course, is no great revelation to most of us who have raised children or taught K-12.
The symbols on a report card might open doors, opportunities, and might encourage confidence -- but it is the learning represented by those grades that will ultimately make a difference for that student.
Follow Larry Strauss on Twitter: www.twitter.com/larrystrauss
In one of my intermediate school math classes of 30 far below basic students, I was told that no matter how well they do in my class, no one can ever receive an "A" in the class because they have already tested far below the standards. Just try to keep it a secret from kids that they won't ever receive an "A" in my class no matter what they do because I am not allowed to give them an "A". This is what is truly happening out there.
No, not depressing, it's downright Orwellian.
And stupid, which is maybe redundant--stupid and evil.
I am also a California teacher but thus far spared the "standards based grading." Perhaps because I teach in a part of Los Angeles where expectations are low and because our school is one of the very few exceptions to that. I don't know.
What would happen if you gave an FBB student an A?
Does the administration change it automatically?
Are you disciplined?
I think there are ways we might all get past the narrow constraints of the grading paradigm. Some schools -- mostly expensive private institutions -- have managed to do away with letter grades in favor of detailed written evaluations. That isn't going to be practical as long as a teacher like me has to grade upwards of 200 students eight times a year (including progress reports).
When students really enjoy learning they often don't need to be graded; they work hard, do their best, often with impressive results. Some of the best academic discussions I've had were with students in my room eating lunch or basketball players debating politics or linguistics or literature on a bus rolling through the darkened city streets after a road game.
Thanks.
I'm suggesting we recognize progress as represented by performance over time.The only thing that gets punished is laziness and lack of self-discipline. Thanks for the comment, daveinstpaul.
And you are a basketball coach. Should we just award baskets to the kids who try hard, and maybe a basket for a natural athlete should only count for 1 point.
Sorry, Grades should reflect level of accomplishment. Nothing else.
Should the system destroy learning desire in a student? Would it not be better for the student, the community, and the economy to develop that student to the full potential.
You might argue about grades being arbitrary. First, grade levels are completely arbitrary. There is no customization for the student's ability to learn that material at that time. Why is this absurd? I have never gone into a store and said, "I am x-years old. Give me some clothes." Certainly education is more important than clothes, and yet we don't customize it.
Second, the test questions are arbitrary. I remember an exam on the U.S. Constitution / Bill of Rights. When was the last time an employer asked you about your opinion of the 7th Amendment in an interview? Ever been stopped by a police officer in a random Bill of Rights stop, and ask to recite the 17th Amendment? This is just for factual test questions. Forget essay questions. There are multiple answers to even simple essay questions. There are multiple ways to judge your readiness.
Third, except for tests grade automatically through some sort of bubble-in score card, there is tremendous subjectivity in a grade. And those sorts of factual bubble-in tests represent the lowest and least useful information from an educational basis.
Grades are anything but as cut and dry as you perceive them to be.
I agree that grades should reflect accomplishment. Progress is accomplishment. If a student enters my class reading and writing at a 7th grade level (in an 11th grade glass) and leaves performing only 9 months below grade level -- having traversed more than 4 of the 5 years he was behind -- should he receive a big FAIL on his report card because he didn't entirely catch up? I think that student deserves an A.
Don't you?
I've had parents go to the principal and threaten going to the school board. With tenure, I didn't really care. Today? I'd say, "Whatever." They are looking for any possible way to get rid of experienced teachers in FL. If a parent is determined to do the wrong thing, I doubt I'd fight it too hard. You know how some parents back their kid's lies, excuses, and behavior. Today, they win and the student loses. Sorry.
I have been a manager of large teams for years, and I have never fired someone because their GPA was 2.3 during their undergraduate years. In fact, some of the absolutely best graduate students did poorly during their undergraduate years. They went into the workplace, and returned to graduate school after developing work experience.
Grades should reflect the real world. You have either met the criteria or not. You list your micro-bio as a scientist. As an example to you, if you propose a new theory, it either stands up to peer-review or it doesn't. Your lab results support your idea or they don't. Your patent application for a new thing is accepted or not. Your paper is accepted for publication or not. When you fail in those, it is not the end. You go back and revise you theory, your lab tests, your application, or your publication. You continue to revise, rework, and learn. Grades teach our students that projects have an end point. In most work, we are face with processes that have no specific end, just milestones of accomplishment.
Hope that helps.
Grading is a political process. It is as political as creating standardized test questions and evaluating them. Grading is as subjective as teacher evaluations, with or without test score growth. Some grading systems MAY be less subjective. As Lynn Canady says, Math teachers often will talk your ear off about their complex grading system, while we History teachers tend to say, "Yup, that grade seems good nuff."
For me, grading is just the least enjoyable, and the least valuable things that I have to do. I'll use grades as a warning shot. At times, I'll use grading to motivate. When I do so, I consider that a defeat. But life is too short to worry much about grading issues.
My best years, I completely weaned my seniors off grades by their last semester. And yes, THAT was worthy of celebration. They had nailed down a great lesson about inner directedness.
That is a great accomplishment to wean those seniors off of grades. The closest I've come is to get them to understand that their lack of inner directedness is the cause of their mean teacher's grading system.
Since he is a baseketball coach, lets just award only 1 point for baskets by the natural athlete, and give three points to the klutz, just because he has to work harder.! It would encourage them more! Duh!
As for your analogy to basketball, I actually will bench a really good player who isn't giving 100%. Allowing a player to swagger around the court and lazily show his prodigious talents is bad for morale and the wrong model for younger players on the team.
A high school basketball coach is an educator first, a competitor second. I'd rather have a losing season and have my players learn the right things than sell my soul and sell-out my players and win a championship. So your analogy is a false one.
Nice try.