Research Paper
The school experience for every student is different. A difference in teachers, classmates, and curriculum. All factors contribute to the shaping of a student. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.” Education is about learning and expanding a student’s knowledge and creating character, but in the more recent generations the goal has changed directions. Schooling for youth has become more about snatching the highest grade from other students than focusing on achieving the greatest understanding of the topics. A traditional grading system has resulted in this. A new up-and-coming system being implemented is the pass/ fail grading system. This system is taking place in several medical schools like the University of Virginia and Columbia. The new change has benefitted the education of students and unlike the opinion of some educators, it assists the students by giving them a chance to learn the curriculum more than traditional grading.
Grading systems had not been established until the 1800’s, when public schooling started to become popular in the United States. They have become one of the most fundamental
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However, the most effective way of grading is not the one currently in action. It’s the one that is only now beginning to be implemented in some medical universities for the first one or two years of schooling. But, if the pass/ failing grading system becomes the universal system in all colleges in the United States, the education system will be changed for students of all ages. This system will lead to a change in students’ academic purpose. The focus will be on the well- being of the student, to enforce more than just grades, but good character and ethics. To do a student’s best on their own work for a high quality education, not
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 “How Grading Reform Changed Our School,” author Jeffrey A. Erickson discusses about how it is common in high schools to pass each student by their accumulated average of the entire class period. He described many examples to display the way of grading in high schools such as in behaviors, lessons, and tasks. He talks about the changes that were made and were in effect to achieve a grading average that reflects the student 's’ abilities and knowledge .
Colleges in America grade students academically for successful careers. For years students grades were calculate by an alphabetic/numeric grade scale. Today colleges are questioning whether grades should be determined by continuing to use a grade scale or switch to a pass/fail scale. Although, there were numerous of factors both positive and negative about a pass/fail system to take into consideration before making a decision. I feel that colleges in America should continue to use a grade scale to convey to students that grades have consequences, open doors to opportunity, and alleviates perturbation.
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.
I have always valued school and enlarging my intelligence; I receive a sense of pride from earning a decent grade on a paper or on a particular assignment. Alfie Kohn wrote an essay titled “From Degrading to De-grading”; in it he suggests a different view on the current education system. Even though students expect marks and even seem dependent on them, grading should spur on a love of studying not deter it. Grades tend to reduce a student’s inclination for stimulating tasks, and lessen students’ interest in erudition.
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.
higher than previously assigned for given levels of achievement.” This means that grades are designed to recognize various levels of success, making them an important aspect of the education system in countries across the globe. They help determine not only where students are accepted, but help students earn scholarship dollars to aid students in paying for their education. However, there has been a rapid increase in the amount of A’s awarded to students in America to help those trying to get into and pay for college rather than earning A’s for the content of their work. There is a huge difference between the number of A’s given to students in America and
In today’s College in America there is a debate rather institutions should use the grade scale or pass-fail scale to determine the success of a student. I believe that Institutions in America should use the grade scale rather than the pass-fail scale. A grade scale gives the student an accurate percentage no matter if they passed or fail but with the pass-fail scale it just gives you the letter grade rather than the actual percentage grade.
In the regular grading scale, grades do vary widely because of these four factors: a teacher's conception of achievement, a teacher's sense of equity and rigor a student's effort. The student's knowledge is based on the graded assignments that the student has completed. Getting rid of these standardized testings removes the insecurities that student's have due to low score and many more factors. Abolishing this test can lead to recognition of our grading differences and create a common conception of achievement on our own based on what we need to work on
The public high schools began a grading system as a way of telling an individual how they were performing. There was no interest by the public in reporting the school’s progress at teaching. Teachers, in an effort to recognize outstanding performers, looked for a way of rewarding hard-working students for their efforts The grading structure changed from superior and excellent to A’s and B’s. This placed much of the burden of recognizing academic talent on the high schools.
...hods of fill-in-the-blank or multiple choice exams. In my classroom, grades won't carry as much weight as the actual learning the students undertake.
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
A widely encouraged form of education is currently causing much debate, dual-enrollment. Dual-enrollment is the enrollment of a student in both high school and collegiate level courses. The question of giving high school students in such programs a “pass” has been present since dual-enrollment programs began. Though many schools have adopted the practice, several high schools and colleges remain undecided on the issue. However, high school students should receive a pass because colleges have much higher standards than high schools, expectations for high school students require our attention which may affect their work, and students do not make the final decision on how long they are able to work on assignments.
“What makes a child gifted and talented may not always be good grades in school, but a different way of looking at the world and learning.” That’s what the senior United States Senator from Iowa Chuck Grassley once said. When students get a “F” on their exam, that does not necessary means they are stupid, or they do not know the material. It could only mean they have a different way of learning, or a different way of explaining the material which the teacher is not aware of. There are different ways of learning that students have, and there are different ways they apply their knowledge into real life. Therefore, grades are not the best way to judge the students’ standing in their classes, nor is it the best way to judge their learning process. In addition,