The Controversy On Grading The Success Of Students

Grading the Success of Students

Students can not be expected to succeed when the grading system is set up for them to fail. Putnam City school district recently moved to a 50% based grading system in an attempt to make it accessible for all students to succeed. This change sparked a great deal of controversy with teachers, students and parents expressing very strong views as to the benefits and liabilities of this new system. The 50% grading system is a fair and simple way to grade, as it is mathematically accurate by giving every grade level the same point spread, it is easy to interpret, and allows more students to be successful.

The traditional grading system that has been in place for

decades relies on percentages and awards ten percentage points to each letter A through D. However, the lowest letter grade is worth sixty percentage points, one and a half times the total of all other letter grades. Mathematically this makes very little sense. In addition, due to the large discrepancy, a student receiving a very low grade, or worse, a zero, has basically been given the “academic death penalty” as explained by Dueck (2014, p11). In some cases, there is little to no chance that a student will come back from missing one assignment. This also means that a very knowledgeable, capable student can fail a class due to forgetting to turn in one assignment or simply having one bad day out of a semester. As stated by Balingit and St. George, a student that receives a 0%, indicating no knowledge on a subject can later receive a 100% indicating a mastery of the material. However, due to the inflated point spread of the F letter grade, this student is still failing. This punitive version of grading does not accurately reflect student learning and is not mathematically accurate. Depending on how many grades are taken in a grading period, some students are unable to ever recover academically. However, with the 50% based grading system, all letter grades have an equal point value. No one letter grade appears to be more important or attainable than the others. With this grading system, students are able to recover from missing or performing poorly on an assignment and see that there is a reason to keep working toward mastery.

With traditional grading systems, the point penalty for a missing assignment or poor performance is so great that a student can find themselves unable to recover. After receiving one zero, as mentioned in the scenario above, a student would need nine 100% scores to return to having a grade of A in that class. For many, this is unrealistic and impossible to achieve and can lead to low confidence levels, student burnout, and higher dropout rates. With the 50% grading system, students can still be earn and lose points based on proficiency and effort, but they will be a more accurate representation of student performance. Students, who will occasionally make mistakes, are able to bounce back and achieve academic success.

Now, there are a lot of people who might think that this makes school too easy. That students will succumb to laziness and end up unsuccessful anyways. If students are not taught to be competitive with their peers, then how will they be able to achieve success in a competitive workforce. However, this is completely incorrect. Most grading systems ensures failure. 50 based grading still keeps a healthy level of competition, it also makes sure that students have a fighting chance of success. Students who strive to do well will not succumb to laziness, and the student who do not will still suffer the same consequences they always have.

50 based grading and the teachers that use it are actively fighting for students to succeed. This systems benefits outweigh its liabilities. It is a fair, easy to use system, and accurate system that grants students a fair chance at successful learning. At the end of the day don't all students deserve a shot at success?