Why Are Grades On The High School Level Are Not Important?

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Introduction
This essay will focus on why grades on the high-school level are not important. Firstly, looking into how grades do not factor in all of the variables that lead up to the test and how the socio-economic factors influence grades levels. Also, how teacher bias can have an influence on the types of grades students get. Thirdly, they essay will be looking at the other side of the argument including how good grades can lead to better opportunities both in college and in the workplace.
Grades don't Measure Just Intelligence
A big part of measuring students' intelligence in school is through writing standardized tests and exams. This method was pioneered by Horace Mann, an educational reformer, in 1845. He hoped to measure individual …show more content…

"A family's socioeconomic level or status(SES) is defined by the income, education, and occupation of members of the household" (The IRIS Center, 2012, p. 6) In a paper published by Reardon (2016), there is a strong correlation between socio-economic status and the types of grades students get. Where students who come from poor or disadvantaged communities tended to score below the national average. While students from more privileged communities tended to score higher in their grades. These statistics aren't necessarily reflecting the level of education at these schools, but rather factors like the students' families, the neighbourhoods, and their experiences outside of school (Reardon, 2016). For example, there is a boy named Mark. His mother works two part-time jobs and his Father works in the night-time, therefore he sleeps through the day. Mark, who is the oldest boy in the house is expected to do chores and take care of his younger siblings when his mother is at work. There will be days when Timothy could not do his homework because his sister is sick so he had to take care of her. Therefore, Mark does not have as much time for completing his homework (The IRIS Center, 2012). The fact that grades cannot take account of these outside factors, they should have little …show more content…

Having good grades can help get a person into these universities. College and university can also be expensive and not everyone has the money to go to these institutions. Having good grades can help not only with getting into these places but also with providing scholarships to study at a discounted rate or even for free (Witmer, 2017). There are also other benefits to getting higher grades. One of these benefits is enrolling into the National Honor Society that opens up opportunities to travel and meet like-minded students thereby building connections (Polish Magazine, 2014). Although university is a great place to go and study many of the same skills can be learnt online or on short courses at very affordable rates. Codecademy for example, teaches one how to code for free, and there many people who now earn a living from what they learnt through the short courses that they offer (https://www.codecademy.com). So good grades are not really necessary for further learning outside of

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