Analysis Of The Article ' Degrading And De Grading '

Education is a long-term investment. We, as students, work hard to acquire knowledge and to hone our skills so that we may use them one day. The effort we put into a single assignment should be considered as both for that specific assignment and for our rounding as complete, educated individuals. And with this mindset, students should be motivated even more to put more effort and hard work into academics, with the goal of bettering themselves for the future and advancing their prospects as individuals. And with this hard work and effort will come progress, and this progress should be reflected in the grading—not necessarily on individual assignments, but on the student’s education as a

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.

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.

Pragmaticism, indeed, will dictate that schools, assessments, and organizations long-established will not be altered for light and short-lived causes. Hence, a gradual shift in culture and method must occur which reforms the quantitative nature of grading systems. However, let the negative effects of the current grading system be known in a direct way:

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.

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.

Over the years one major issue of grade inflation has often come up. Teachers frequently question the importance of grades and how that data is used to compare students. Many teachers see the need to place a high emphasis on grades, thus causing stress and anxiety when students have a low performance. As a result, we have a school wide problem of grade inflation from teachers who believe students effort and work habits should determine the grade they earn. I would propose taking a deeper look into the purpose of testing. Thoughtful educators see the goal of testing as the observation of progress being made by a student. We need to begin to hold students to high standards by gathering a balanced picture of a student’s ability and mastery. In doing so we must use different forms of assessing students, and not solely test or papers. Once we can begin to utilize all forms of assessments we can begin to get parent involvement in helping children to learn and develop proper work habits and study skills, hopefully resulting in true grade

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.

I just watched a video on youtube titled "Blowing Up the Gradebook" by Chris Haskell and it left me with a lot of thoughts about the way grading works today. During the video, Haskell talks about the current problems with grading and teaching today. He says that instead of trying to find things worth knowing, students find what they need to pass the class and put in the minimal effort to do so. He says that education is a game we put students through and instead of trying to set them up for success, we give them tests and grades that set them up for failure. He says that instead of playing this game that is impossible to pass, we need to change it and help them succeed. He talks about how we need to eliminate homework and due dates, we

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.

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.’

However, I do not agree that the credit system is a reliable solution to this. Farber has many good statements about learning, such as, “We’re grade junkies-- convinced that we’d never learn without the A’s and F’s to keep us going.” By saying this, he is saying that people think they need grades to get good grades and to complete their work. But if someone really cares about their grades and getting good grades makes them feel good, then schools have been successful. I believe that schools should teach the children to learn the materials and to learn to be self-disciplined. Also, I do agree that people are willing to learn something if they want to know, thus it would make teaching children easier. I also agree that forcing people to learn is not the solution-- they just forget and have to relearn everything over again. I believe that ultimately there is not a solution to the grading system. The credit system still requires someone to meet the requirements or to not meet them, which is technically still a grade. Passing and failing is grading someone, and there is no other solution to the grading system. I believe the credit system is a good idea, but it would never

The new grading system overlooks the real potential of a student. For example – a student has got 45 marks while another student has got 49 marks, they both will be falling in the same category of A1 grade which is a very big conflict of hard work and luck.

Teachers have always used grades to measure the amount a student has learned. This practice is becoming ineffective. Many students have a wide range of grades, which show that grades may not show what a student really knows. Therefore, the standard grading system should be replaced. Some reasons why grades should be replaced are bad grades can hinder a child’s performance, grades define who a student is in the classroom, and grades are not an effective way to see if students have learned the material. The current grading system should be upgraded and every school should incorporate the plus/minus system in their method of grading.