Eliminate Letter Grades Have you ever gotten a “bad” grade in a class, but did the best you could? This is a very common scenario that most children encounter. More than half of a student body have been pressured by teacher or guardians to increase their grade in certain classes. Except, in the end students lose interest in school and learning all together. All of this is a chain reaction due to student's work ethic being labeled with a letter grade. Schools should eliminate letter grades because it’s in the student’s best interest and it’s also a tremendous stress reliever. To begin with, eliminating letter grades is the first step in the right direction to protect children's passions. Without letter grades, more and more students will …show more content…
According to Dr. Jim Robinson whenever you’re stressed your brain has a hard time processing any other material than whatever you're stressed about. Schools not using letter grades can protect their community’s mental health by just one change. Whether we like it or not children in middle and high school are labeled. No one likes to be labeled by something they know isn’t true. If teachers let students know what they feel their students are good at, and what needs some work it’ll be easy to find students true selves without having anxiety of being labeled with a letter (Thomsen). Some students have an obsessive need to be the best at everything they do and need to get the best grade. While doing this, they are putting a barricade on their learning path. One way to be on top is to rush through your work and not fully understand the concept just to get the satisfaction they need. Without letter grades on the other hand, students will finally realize that there is no race to success. The only person they’ll be trying to beat is themselves (Belkin). When schools don’t have letter grades teachers would be able to make sure their students work load is for their abilities, and there’s nothing that they’re not capable of doing. Many teenagers are prone to sleep loss and inconsistent sleeping schedules because of loads of homework which may take a while to understand if you’re not at that level yet. Research shows some students take longer than others to grasp and fully understand the lesson they are learning. If students manage time better and keep up with their school work, many will gain more sleep which adolescents need to thrive, which narrative grades will provide (“8 Pros and Cons”). Many children will notice the difference in their mental
An F is a grade that many students fear of obtaining in their school career, unless the student does not care about his or her education. In Carl Singleton’s article, What Our Education Needs is More F’s, Singleton expresses his belief that if students begin to receive more F’s, students would be working harder to earn good grades, parents would become more considerate of their child’s education, and teachers would be stricter and harsher when grading. Therefore, education systems requiring teachers to frequently give more F’s will fix the “inadequacies of American education,” or so Singleton believes. (Singleton). Unfortunately, Singleton’s plan if enforced, would have several negative effects to it, such as; students’ motivation would instead diminish rather than accelerate, students would not
...ragile product, and what we perceive that’s associated with it can seriously affect the process of learning as a whole. Students need to ask themselves what they are actually learning and why! Students need to understand what a letter grade means to them financially and educationally. Students need to approach grades without fear of a letter, or the fear that their scholarship gets taken away. Students should be learning for the right reasons for the biggest educational benefit. As soon as students stop following their dreams and passions because of an A, B, C, D, or F, is a very sad day; one that I hope to honestly never see, and I hope students see it the same way as well.
Worrying too much about grades can cause students serious problems like not really understanding the work, make them not feel smart enough and lose interest in school and can cause anxiety and other health issues. In the article Mr. Bains said “ Indeed, there are several problems with strategic learners” (Project Information Literacy October 10, 2012 page1/4). One of the problems is students don 't really understand what they are learning if once they reach that high grade they want they will just stop. I am very guilty of only performing for the grade because I did it all throughout high school. I was taught that getting an A was the highest grade you can get so once I reached that A I...
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.
When students arrive at university, professors expect them to understand the material to an exceptional standard. The problem is that grade inflation is occurring more regularly in secondary schools and universities across the country and when these students’ marks are sent to universities or colleges, the student may be given multiple scholarships for something that he/she should not have earned. Grade inflation is conceived between both students and teachers, meaning that the students are given higher grades when they have inadequate learning, reading, and verbal skills, while the teachers do not have to grade as many papers as they should in the real curriculum. There have been multiple examinations that have confirmed that grade inflation is very real and still occurs today. Students seem to think that they do not need to put forth much effort in school to do well and grade inflation encourages this thought.
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
During high school years, letter grading is helpful because it tells the scholars if they are doing well or bad in a class. The letter score should not be replaced with pass and fail because the letter grading is better. The students would not work as hard to excel in their studies because they would not have a standard to work towards. The undergraduate student would not want to do their work because if the students get a bad grade on an assignment. The student will fail the class. The letter grade will help the students see how they are doing in the class. When a student does not have a standard to work towards it makes it easier for the student to fail because there is nothing between pass and fail.
For many students in the United States who aim to get into good colleges, grades are of absolute importance. Therefore it makes sense that things like extra credit and “fluff” grades (Grades just for doing something) pique our interest. Whether that’s a good thing for our mental health or not is not what we are discussing today. Extra credit can motivate students to do something they wouldn’t have done otherwise, such as a charitable act. However, the ramifications of this “reward for charity” system could result in both positive and negative externalities. Whereas a grade could be a welcome reward and encouragement for students who do a good deed, it puts pressure to contribute on students who may or may not actually want to to it, and it could overshadow the cause or charity it is actually meant to support.
Grading System Reform Teachers have always used grades to measure the amount a student has learned. This practice is becoming ineffective. Many students have a wide range of grades, which shows that grades may not show what a student really knows. Therefore, the standard grading system should be replaced. Some reasons why grades should be replaced are bad grades can hinder a child’s performance, grades define who a student is in the classroom, and grades are not an effective way to see if students have learned the material.
We all understand that students learn at different paces and that few individuals could feel that if they do not understand the criteria given to them that they are doomed to fail, not only in school, but in life. These kinds of thoughts alter the mind of the student to the point of stress, anxiety, and depression, leading them into acting out, misbehaving, or dropping
Grade retention, better known as “staying back”, “being held back” or “repeating”, has been the topic of much debate within the educational system. The controversy which surrounds this long-standing issue has been reinforced by such topics as the recent endorsement of academic standards. Research indicates that “the rate of retention has increased by approximately 40% in the last 20 years with as many as 15% of all American students held back each year and 30-50% held back at least once before ninth grade” (Dawson, 1998). These discouraging statistics pose copious problems within a school system. The difficulties can be appreciated at the organizational level, as well as inside the classroom and, most troubling, within the individual students. The consequences, both positive and negative, reverberate throughout the school system. Grades retention is an issue which requires a prodigious amount of examination and should be considered carefully and thoroughly.
Students would try harder to get the grade they want, but if students take a pass or fail grade students “will result in...becoming lazy and less focused”(ConnectUS).There is an incentive to do better when having a letter grading system, students would try harder to get that A, while the other students would easily get a pass. Students will also try to compete with each other to get the better grade and see who can do the best in the class. With a pass or fail students can pass with a C, but nowadays average students are not good enough to succeed in the future. So the pass and fail grading system is promoting laziness. While on the other hand, letter grades promotes competitiveness and gives students incentives to do better in
A statement from the Huffington Post states, “From a very young age, we are told the importance of getting good grades. Especially in high school, we are told time and time again that our grades affect what college we will get into. While grades are extremely important, people often forget about the importance of learning, not just getting good grades. There is a difference between the grade received in a course and the amount of learning that took place in the course.” Parents and institutions should teach the importance of learning. The society around the upbringing of students emphasizes getting good grades as apposed to getting every detail and aspect mastered. School priorities should be reevaluated and changed for future students
Everyone knows of the recent decline to our nation’s economy. From a failing job market, to rising food, and gas prices, the United States’ economy hasn’t been good to anyone who lives here. However, some of the worst damage to the economy has been to our nation’s schools. Due to budget cuts forced on by the government, school districts and townships all over the nation have been forced to make drastic changes. School’s everywhere have been forced to cut teachers, library aids, close schools, have students pay for transportation, and even cut classes from school curriculums. Perhaps the most important classes, that we may not even know have such a big impact on us, are being cut. These classes are music classes. The classes include choir, band and orchestra. Eliminating music classes from school curriculums is a bad decision because these classes are essential to a student’s academic growth and development.
...ke school something that the students can look back on and think that it was a meaningful time where they learned a lot about life instead of a time where they thought they would have a break down because they got a low score on a test. School should be a time to make mistakes in a safe environment that they can learn from, not a place that they are petrified to make a mistake for fear of retribution on their grade cards. Its time to change the school system to save future students from becoming stress crazed and to let them know that there is more to this world than a grade card and in the long run it is a very small fraction of life.