The Dreaded Grades

What comes to mind when you hear the numbers 100, 90,80,70,60, and 50? Grades, most likely.  Some will say that grades help teachers assess if a student is reaching a target or average. Some might even say that grades help a student easily understand how well he/she is doing in a class. But what do those grades stand for and what do they measure?

In my eyes, grades are in place to keep a record for parents, teachers, and the school district about how a certain student is doing. They easily help identify if a student is A) above average, B) average, or C) below average in a certain subject. This can be used to place kids in an advanced or extra help class environment. Most teachers believe that grades show if you reach your target, but I think that our grading system today only measures if you are "smart" in a certain subject.

 

Our grading system does not seem sensible or fair to me. Instead of focusing on a student understanding a certain skill, it ranks you based on every topic altogether. By looking at your grade, you are not able to understand what concepts you need improvement in and what areas you are doing well in. Additionally, if you do not understand one skill, and do poorly on one assignment, your whole grade for that class can suffer.  I do remember getting a 90 on an assignment once in English and it brought my grade down 2-3 points, even though I did well on all other assignments in that class. This grading system is also poor because it makes certain assignments count more than others.  This means that if you understand all topics except one and that one counts for more of your grade, you could get a lower score overall than you deserve. What our school really need is a change in our grading system.

 

A new grading system, by the name of Standards-Based Grading System, has began to stir up conversation all over the nation. This grading form gives a student a number from 0-4, not only in every subject, but for every skill/concept, based on how well they display that they understand it. This breaks down a child's grade as much as possible to help students and parent understand what skills they need to improve in and what skills they have mastered. If a student does not understand one topic, their overall grade is not effected, because overall grades are based on what number is the majority among all concepts and subjects. I believe that this system is much fairer and is much easier to understand. However, I do not believe that schools should completely switch to this system.

 

I think that the best possible grading system would be a combination of our grading system now and the Standards-Based Grading System. The new system should take the idea of breaking down the subjects into certain skills from the standards-based system, but should still keep a larger scale (like our system right now; the 100 point system). For myself, having a 4 point scale is hard because there is such a slim line between doing superior (4) and doing good/average (3). If you do not COMPLETELY understand a topic, you would probably get bumped down to a 3, whereas if there was a larger scale, you would not drop a whole letter grade (maybe just a few points). For someone who is always shooting to be advanced proficient, a larger scale is better because there is a larger range/ chance to get a number that is considered "superior" or "advanced" (A- 90 through 100). I also believe that we should keep the idea of not letting one bad "grade" in one topic (standards-based grading) bring down your whole overall grade.

 

Grades are such an important part of our everyday lives. They add stress, excitement and push us to be our best. Wouldn't a system that really helps you understand you knowledge of a certain skill be more helpful and fair?

 

Camille <3