Imagine receiving a low final class grade because of a long term assignment that you have been working hard on since the beginning of the school year or semester. You received a low grade because of poor group work, you did not learn much, and you failed because it was only one big grade with lower passing rates. Some schools have transitioned to a long term assignment grading system. This system gives a final grade for a class based on a project that you work on during the entire year or semester. Many other schools rely on the traditional grading system. This grading system is based on quizzes, tests, homework, and classwork. I prefer the traditional because long term assignments gives poor and inaccurate grades. With traditional grades …show more content…
A study in 2002 recorded that out of six classes, three classes with the new grading system, and three classes with the traditional system. The class with the traditional system had a 93% passing rate, and the long term assignment had a 64% passing rate. The students who did not pass with the long term system was asked why they failed, and if they would recommend the new long term system to other schools. Obviously, all of the students said that they would not recommend it, and they claimed that they failed because of group work, and inaccurate grading. Later, teachers were asked if they would recommend the new system, many teachers reported that they would not recommend it because they thought it did not give the students a very good learning …show more content…
With the long term system most of the time it is done with partners of groups. In the studies earlier shown, some of the students said that their grade was affected by other classmates participating in their group. Have you ever done bad on a project because of classmates? It is common for students of all ages to get distracted while working with partners or working in a large group. This can create a problem because unlike many other project, this project counts as your entire course grade. Students should not fail a course because of other students distracting which is an important reason why the long term assignment grading system should not be used. Some people believe that long term assignment grading systems will be more fun for the students. They also believe that it will benefit students with social skills. Both of these statements are very true and beneficial to the students. However, school are meant to give an education to help students with their future career and only partly helps social situations. Concluding that although the new long term assignment grading system is also beneficial, it has too many flaws compared to the traditional system. It is also too far fetch from to consider it
In her article, “The Case Against GRADES”, Alfie Kohn discusses the grading system and its faults. She opens her argument with information from an older psychological study that proves the negative impact of the current grading system, and she reinforces this with the proof that “no” research has contradicted this statement. Also, she gives many key reasons including: “Motivation”, “Achievement”, “Quantification”, and “Curriculum”. Kohn supports these topics with other reasearch for why the system is failing the students. She asserts that, “… the absence of grading is a necessary condition for promoting deep thinking and a desire to engage in it.” As support, she offers other solutions and then debunks them by proving that they would not solve
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.
Students understand the consequences of low grade averages, so they constantly evaluate grades by keeping up with their averages. Low grades cause academic probation. During the probationary period students are encouraged to focus on applying themselves to bring grade averages up to standards. While focusing on averages, students are able to change their study habits or learning styles for instance; some students learn by hands-on-training and others by reading comprehension. The grade scale can determine if a student needs further instructions or tutoring. One the other hand, students study habits play an important role in their grades. If a student makes the wrong decisions about studying and preparing for class their grades will suffer drastically. Study habits need to be evaluated and processed for tips to succeed.
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.
The author was a freshman at Princeton University when this article was written. He seems to have enough drive and determination in order to embrace grade deflation compared to his peers, who complained and disagreed with the grading system, which is what started this essay.
According the three leading effects of grading outlined in Kohn’s paper, the number one effect of grading is “grades tend to reduce students' interest in being taught.” I would agree with his argument grading and testing puts pressure on getting excellent grades and takes the focus off understanding and on “performing” acceptably. When I was younger, I was ferocious reading lately the only reading I accomplish is required for a class or studying a textbook. It was enjoyable since I loved reading; I was not required to read all the books I read due to my genuine love for reading and words. Because of that, I excelled in English.
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.
One argument in favor of peer grading is that it offers a student feedback on minor lessons, and it allows teachers to focus on curriculum, creativity, and grading major tests and papers (Grading). However, some psychologists view the practice of grading work in class as potentially damaging to students' self-esteem. Some students may be teased for getting good grades, or those who struggle in class work may also be ridiculed (Grading). Regardless of the grading practice, students are going to be teased by their peers. ...
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
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.
One of the issues, which Boyer points out , is that teachers and students have different expectations from college education. She says that the teachers are mainly concerned about students’ comprehension of the material, their attendance and attention while students’ hopes are to get good grades and to be well prepared for exams. It seems that the system of grading pushes students to not care too much about what is being taught from an understanding perspective, but only promotes more concern about grades instead. Some students don't really pay attention unless the instructor mentions an exam or something that will be graded. Furthermore, be...
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.
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
Hindering a student’s performance with a bad grade in the middle of the year can make them give up for the rest of the year. Once a student has received a bad grade they might lose faith in their academic ability. By giving up a student does not reflect their academic ability and their bad grades are not based on what they learned.
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