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Flaws in todays grading system
Grading system related literature
Flaws in todays grading system
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Traditional Grading System
Education is undoubtedly one of the most important parts of any human society. Without it human beings could not have been at the current point of time where we all know tremendously about life and the universe. We are now better off than we were. However, it is clear that there is still huge variety of phenomena waiting for our discovery. The most important objective of education is to help human beings pursue their burning desires to learn and reach their potential. In that way we progress. Therefore, it is vital to help or at least not hinder education to fulfill its goals.
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.
Before we move our attention directly to the problems of marking system, let us take a short look at the history of early American colleges and universities. It is interesting to note that in the earliest days of Harvard, students were not sorted by alphabets or grades, but by the social status of their families. Moreover, it is quite clear that there was a sort of assessment used for student works until the grading system was invented. It was at Yale, Harvard and Mount Holyoke that the widely used three types of grading system - 4 scale, 100 percentage and letters – were invente...
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...mmendation might be the future of selection of students for jobs and graduate schools.
Work Cited:
Alfie Kohn, “Grading: the issue is not how but why”, Educational Leadership, Oct 1994, v52, n2, p38(4).
Christina Couch, “Going without grades”, The CollegeBound Network
Clifford H. Edwards; Laurie Edwards, “Let’s end the grading game”, The Clearing House, May-June 1999, v72, i5, p260(4)
Clifford H. Edwards, “Grade Inflation: The effect on educational quality and personal well being”, Education, Spring 2000, v120, i3, p538
Ken Myers, “Student in New York files suit complaining of grades received”, The National Law Journal, June 18, 1990, p4
Mark W.Durm, “A history of grading”, The Educational Forum, vol57, Spring 1993
Thomas R. Guskey, “Grading policies that work against standards…and how to fix them”, NASSP Bulletin, Dec 2000, vol84, n620
The article written by Michael Thomsen addresses the issue: should we as a society continue using a standardized grading system. Thomsen includes many reasons supporting his ultimate conclusion that we should not continue with any system of standardized grades. However, the reasons he uses to support his conclusion are affected by significant ambiguity which weakens the overall argument.
Miltich, Matthew. "Standardized Testing and Assessment Do Not Improve Education." Education: Opposing Viewpoints. New York: Greenhaven, 2005. 151-54. Print.
Goode, Stephen and Maier, Timothy W. “ Inflating the Grades” Dissent Fall 1997: 102-04 in Mary Lynch Kennedy and Haley M. Smith. Reading and writing in the Academic Community. 2nd ed, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall 2001. 345-350.
Evans, Donia. "The Case Against Standardized Tests." The Meridian Star. 24 Nov. 2013. The Meridian Star. 01 Dec. 2013 .
America is quickly changing to be a nation of inflation. Grade point averages have risen from 2.93 during the ‘91-’92 school year to 3.07 nearly a decade later (Harding 21). This is mostly due to the change in grading scales from a traditional seven point grade scale, which a student could only earn an A if obtaining a 93 percent or higher and doesn’t award students with any “minus” grades, giving a student a B if he gets a 92 percent, and a 10 point scale which adds “minus” grades, so it is possible to have a 91 percent and only have an A- rather than a B. Some states, such as North Carolina, are now requiring all of the high school to grade on a 10 point scale (Lee 1). This is supposed to aid students not only in getting into college, but getting a job as well, because that is the ultimate goal in everyone’s life, right? One is supposed to get into college to get a degree so they can make money for the rest of their life. But the problem arises because the importance of getting a job has surpassed the importance of getting an honest education. John Harding even made the point that grading has changed from a measure and motivator for students to perform and learn to an external evaluation
However, through this course I have also come to recognize that due to the negative perception that is placed on our generation, the political objectives of young people will likely never be given adequate consideration by public officials should we continue to practice engaged citizenship while disregarding electoral participation. My personal definition of citizenship is recognizing the privileges we have as citizens of the United States and contributing to one’s community in whatever way they are able to do so. A responsible citizen is not simply an observer of the political process, but rather an informed
It was one gloomy afternoon that my friend and I were on the phone talking about how our day was going. I complained to her how finals week is almost here and how there is so much to do with so little time. She, on the other hand, had an interesting story to tell that day and thought it connected well with my group assigned subject. She said it was a hot sunny day to be running a mile for a fitness examination. They were to run four two hundred meters to equal a mile. While she was running, the coach constantly yelled and accused her of cheating to complete the mile. She also said that the coach did not yell at the girls who just kept walking to complete the mile. I, then, asked her if the coach wa...
Aristotle, W. D. Ross, and Lesley Brown. The Nicomachean Ethics. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009. Print.
Kohn, Alfie. What Does It Mean to Be Well Educated? and More Essays on Standards, Grading, and Other Follies. Boston, MA: Beacon, 2004. Print.
In “How Grading Reform Changed Our School,” author Jeffrey A. Erickson discusses about how it is common in high schools to pass each student by their accumulated average of the entire class period. He described many examples to display the way of grading in high schools such as in behaviors, lessons, and tasks. He talks about the changes that were made and were in effect to achieve a grading average that reflects the student 's’ abilities and knowledge .
Nicomachean Ethics is one of his most well known works, and discusses Aristotle’s views on the purpose of human life. It is named after his son, Nicomachus. This work probably consists of texts or notes from his lectures, and is sep...
The Nicomachean Ethics, written by Aristotle, represents his most important contribution within the field of Ethics; it is a collection of ten books, covering a variety of interesting topics, throughout the collection.
Kohn, Alfie. The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann 2000.
Divorce can have multiple impacts on children of all ages and it affects them differently compared to the next. When we see or hear about divorce we were told negative things about it, which is not always the case. Children of Divorce has been around for several centuries and has a very important meaning in the lives of many. When you first start to read this paper you already have your idea of the definition
By nature, most students are brought up in an academic environment motivated to get A’s and B’s on their report cards. Those grades sometimes don’t thoroughly report how much a student has learned or gained knowledge in each topic. Some instructors throw in factors totally unrelated to learning, when the main objective of academic institutions is to learn. In order to clearly demonstrate how much a student has learned in the classroom, schools should change their current grading system and teach students how to learn.