From Degrading to De-Grading

This article offers an argument towards shifting our assessment system away from a rigorous grading metric and moving towards a system based more on teacher-student feedback, collaboration, and holistic assessment. Studies have shown that emphasizing the importance of letter grades can reduce student interest in learning in favor of achieving high marks, reducing students' preference for challenging tasks, and lowering the quality of student output. The author argues that grading is already pretty arbitrary, each grade just a function of an individual teacher's choices in assessing a student. He also argues that grades are not necessarily correlated with learning, and that the focus on grade takes attention away from actual learning. Grades also encourage cheating and contribute to a negative social atmosphere within schools. The author then attempts to counter some common objections, positing that the practical difficulties of making such a change should be viewed as problems to solve. Some of these problems or objections include that students are driven to succeed by grades, or that assessment for the rigors of higher learning necessitates the use of some quantitative metric due to the sheer amount of people that exist. The author acknowledges these difficulties and offers some ways, if not to abolish grades, to at least de-emphasize them within your classroom or school, such as not grading on a curve, not ranking students, or using an assessment system based primarily on teacher-student collaboration and feedback. Though it seems like there is no other way for one teacher to accurately assess their many students in the traditional educational environment, the author challenges the very structure of this environment and asks how we can radically reshape education to focus more on learning than grades.

I think the author provides a pretty good argument, all things considered. Grades aren't the end-all be-all, and its undeniable that on a basic level they distract from learning. I found the author's argument that grades are ultimately arbitrary inventions of an individual teacher to be most compelling; in this sense, the more holistic system isn't so different, in that they're both abstractions of a singular teacher's choices. While grades serve a purpose for colleges to judge applicants, it's arguable whether they offer any benefit to lower grade levels, especially in light of studies that discourage retention as a practice for its ineffectiveness in promoting achievement. However, in response to the question "Is there value in a grade? Are they still important?", I have to say yes. The arguments presented in this essay are good, but very idealistic. Such changes would require a radical overhaul of the structure of education and educational assessment, and perhaps even society itself. However, I believe that the further integration of technology into the educational environment will go a long way towards asserting this goal. Many of the changes needed for our system to become less dependent on a rigorous grading metric can be proportionally solved through the intelligent application of technological advances. The argument for getting rid of grades is one of many in a larger argument towards becoming a more global, connected, and democratic society through technology.

Kohn, A. (1999, March). From Degrading to De-Grading. High School Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/fdtd-g.htm