The Limits of the Pass/Fail Grading System Pass or Fail Classes are beginning to be used all over the country, but they are not always the best option. Instead of a grading system, a student only receives a “Satisfactory” or “Unsatisfactory” on his or her paper. Pass or Fail classes limit motivation, do not have a fair grading system, and it is harder for a student to judge what he or she is good at. One reason that pass or fail classes are not a good option for classrooms is that students would lack motivation if they only needed a “C” letter grade to pass. They do not feel the need to put in as much effort if a low amount would end in the same results. Once a student has felt that they have learned enough to pass, they might not have the …show more content…
One student could work harder than others, but his or her grade will not reflect that. Colleges pick students with higher grade point averages for a reason. Since pass or fail classes do not have a scale of which students work hard or are good at the subject, they are not a good reflection of which students could go on to pursue those things later in college. “Consider a student who received the all-time top score for a medical school exam and was given the same grade as a student who passed by one question. This system results in general statements of evaluation… without providing a means of recognition for outstanding efforts” (VanWoerkom). If one person is much better than the other at a class, the person who knows what he or she is doing should have a better opportunity to use that knowledge because he or she knows what needs to happen. This is important for going into college, but even more important once they go on to use those skills later in life, because a mistake from not knowing enough could do a lot of …show more content…
Students use grades as a factor to show what they could be successful at in the future. If one is giving minimum effort and grades are all just “pass” it is hard to give comparison to one class over another. “Without an accurate representation that a traditional letter grading system provides, there is no easy way of knowing a student’s level of performance and knowledge” (8 Principal). If a student has no way of knowing if he or she has more success in math than in english, he or she will have a harder time picking a career. The letter grade system has been used for many years and in many schools for a reason. “The primary purpose of any grading system is to measure student achievement of established learning objectives. Performance data let individual students know where they stand in the development of needed competencies” (Miller). Basically, the letter grade’s main function is to show how well the student knows the material, and can act on that understanding. With Pass Fail classes, a student cannot measure how well he or she is doing on the
A third and the most obvious way that educators characterize the needs and abilities of their students is with grades. Whether your in first grade and get U's or S's, or your in highschool and get A's, B's, C's, D's, or F's teachers are always judging students ability levels. Anoth...
In other words, two teachers may give the same assignment two completely different grades based on their own grading style. This puts an incredible amount of stress on a student because they need to complete assignments that will satisfy their current teacher, whose expectations and grading style could be very similar or very different from the student’s previous teacher. Alfie Kohn believes that the influence grades have on a student’s life doesn’t help this situation, and may even make it worse by providing students with a false sense of security about their knowledge. In her article “From Degrading to De-grading”, she states that scores on tests can be largely based on how the test was written and what skills were tested (Kohn 240). Therefore, it is up to teachers to identify what topics students must master in order to be proficient and score well on standardized tests. But when the class is not structured with a consideration for the material used on such tests, students enter the test blind to the skills that they will be expected to know and use. Anyone can memorize a list of facts off a study guide and score well on a multiple choice test the next day, but skills such as analyzing literature and interpreting a handful of graphs containing data from a scientific experiment are skills that require time and hours of instruction to master.
In “What is a Grade” by Pat Belanoff, she explains the pros and cons of the grading system. In Pats ' essay she states “Perhaps the solution would to abandon grading altogether in writing class. I confess that this a solution that appeals to me greatly.” (151). Grades should not be present in the way we test students’ learning ability. School seems to be more about learning the material for a brief moment just to get a good grade rather then to actually learn and think about the information being presented.
In today’s society we feel the need to be graded in order to learn. The topic of the grading system has sparked three essays, by three different authors, about the pros and cons of the grading system. First, Jerry Farber, professor at University of California at San Diego, wrote A Young Person’s Guide to the Grading System (333). Next is Steven Vogel, professor at Denison University, who wrote Grades and Money (337). The last two authors in this compilation are Stephen Goode and Timothy W. Maier. They both are journalists for Insight on the News. While each of these authors have their own point of view on the grading system, all three essays talk about how being graded affects learning.
This idea is absurd! Our educational grading system is a scale of A, B, C, D, F with mastery being an A, average being an C, and complete failing being an F. What we would be saying to our students under his point is no matter how hard you work and how much effort you give something, if you can’t be perfect you are no better than a failure. How many students would there then be that feel like why even try? This would lead to more drop outs which is another alarming issue.
Colleges in America grade students academically for successful careers. For years students grades were calculate by an alphabetic/numeric grade scale. Today colleges are questioning whether grades should be determined by continuing to use a grade scale or switch to a pass/fail scale. Although, there were numerous of factors both positive and negative about a pass/fail system to take into consideration before making a decision. I feel that colleges in America should continue to use a grade scale to convey to students that grades have consequences, open doors to opportunity, and alleviates perturbation.
students grades. The goals for all student learning should be on the same level but seems
...esome marks to students who do not deserve them just to see if they will put more effort into their work is completely wrong. Instead of encouraging them, it does the opposite. It will give such students “false feedback about their ability,” making them believe that what they are doing is proper, that it is the standard set of skills that everyone has, and that they will succeed in almost anything with the same attitude. This misconception will act as a disservice to these students because they believe that they “do not [need to] improve their mastery of a subject.” And once he/she reaches a point where they have to make a decision in the career path that they have chosen which requires said mastery and skill, they will realize that they have been misconceived and that they are not the intellect that they once believed they were.
Seeing this, the ability of grades to influence and create positive and negative roles to students remains to be the responsibility of the educator. Given that grades help manifest a standard for students to adhere to, teachers must try to create an environment where they can facilitate and motivate students to do better (Tomlinson, 2001). By using grades as an instrument for development, it can create a positive perception for students to improve and seek connections with instruction and course content.
Giving students a grade that they have not earned hinders the youth’s future educational success. A number of schools are no longer giving a grade of zero on assignments, tests, and exams completed by students. While other school districts continue to give students the grade that is adequate for the work they have done or have not completed. Giving students the grade that equals their work is designed to show students where they need to improve. Many school boards want to stop giving out zeros for work that hasn’t been turned in and give a grade that rages around the “D” area keeping children from falling behind in their classes. By allowing student to pass through the school system the educational board is raising their graduation and success
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.
Traditional grading system will be my focus of this essay. Grading as numbers or letters, a conventional way of assessing students’ achievement, is one part of education and has been lately in controversy in USA. The argument is that the conventional grading practice is not in support of the ultimate objectives of education. In fact, it is in conflict with the values of education. Thus in this essay, I will argue that traditional grading does not play the role it is supposed to play and it is time to have a new and better alternative to this.
When students have easier grading criteria, it increases their ability to learn the material instead of focusing on earning better grades without understanding the material. Students sometimes need grading criteria that will allow them to focus on their studying more than focusing on how they will be able to pass their classes with good grades that will not affect their GPA’s. For example, I have taken many classes throughout my college career such as Psychology, Philosophy, and Statistics, some of them I need as major requirements. I took the classes and I have no idea until this moment what I have learned in those classes. As said, I have learned the material for these classes to pass the exams, and forget what I have learned the day after the exam. In this case, I do not blame myself that I have not learned the material as I have to, because I learned it to pass the class with a good grade instead of passing the class with the
One change institutions should make to the grading system is to eliminate all factors that have noting to do with learning outcomes from affecting the students’ grade. According to the article, “Assessment of Learning Outcomes: What’s the difference?” written by Carnegie Mellon University, grades are often based on more than learning outcomes. Instructors usually include factors unrelated to learning outcomes such as attendance to class, participation, improvement and in some cases, grades are boosted a bit due to how hard the student is working.” These factors are
Students entering college for the first time look forward to the numerous tests that they are required to take least of all. Test taking and college are in tandem for many, but some debate that using testing as a grading system should be discontinued in universities. In theory it sounds like a great idea. It would cut back on stress and, more than likely, class time as well. However, stopping testing as a form of grading in universities would be soon regretted. Grading systems are an essential part of any education. Tests insure that that the student is learning what the teaching is teaching and identify areas that may need improving. The results from grading systems also show future employers or schools a glimpse of the kind of worker that a student will be. The numerous lists of positive effects on not only the students but the teachers, and even the university as a whole, outweigh the cons of using testing as a grading system.