What is a Grade?

     What is a grade? Is it a true measure of what you have learned? Of how much effort you put into your schoolwork? Or is it simply a letter?

      I live in a grade driven household. An ‘A’ is passing, ‘B’ is failing, and anything lower than that and you might as well just not come home, ‘cause it ain’t gonna be pretty when you do. Report cards are sacred things, the scriptures of the almighty grade. So I pour myself into my schoolwork, spending hours upon hours every night—every weekend—studying and completing work. Just so I can get a printed ‘A’ on that flimsy piece of paper. Which is fine, I guess, but I fry my brain a couple days before the test trying to remember everything, and the moment the test is over, I can’t remember a thing.

     Is that learning?

     Even more frustrating than not being able to remember what the heck I just learned is getting back a grade on an assignment or assessment that I sewed pieces of my soul into, and finding out I failed (as in, not an ‘A’). Then, when I look around, I see the people who did the assignment in ten minutes, writing down utter BS, get the A that I deserved. Did they learn? Did their grade accurately reflect the amount of effort they put into it? No.

     I understand the concept behind the grading system. If there is a numerical value assigned to how much information is learned, then it can be monitored. It’s easier to see when a student is struggling and in what class. It’s an easier way for academic programs and institutions of higher education to see how much a student knows and whether or not that student is worthy of admission or is educated. But there are ways to trick the system.

     Last year I had a teacher who called them “cream-puff grades,” but no matter what they’re called, they have the same purpose: to save or kill a grade. When completed, a cream-puff grade can save your GPA by balancing out poor test scores. If left undone, they can be your undoing. These little froo-froo assignments (i.e. worksheets, charts, maps, practice problems, homework) might be meant to make sure you are learning (see argument above), but all they do is pad your grade. However, if for some reason they end up as a zero in the gradebook, you can kiss your perfect GPA good-bye.

     My friends are smart. Really smart. Most of them are probably smarter than me. But they are lazy procrastinators. Not a judgment, a statement of fact. They forget to do their homework. And their grades suffer. Just because they didn’t do the homework doesn’t mean they don’t know the information. Just because I did do the homework doesn’t mean I understand the information. In a system where a student is only a test score, learning is becoming less and less important.

     I truly feel that standardized testing will be the downfall of our nation. Teachers spend nine months of the year teaching us the state test at the end of the year. Essentially, we’re memorizing the answers to the test. That isn’t learning. That’s regurgitation.

     Schools should be teaching life skills. If we’re going to bother with math, then teach us how to balance our checkbooks and make smart investments. Not a bunch of mumbo-jumbo we’ll never use. Instead of chemistry, teach us how to cook.

     More than that, though, schools should teach what the students want to learn. Shoving information down our throats doesn’t mean we learned it. In classes that I enjoy, that I really want to learn about, I remember more of the information after the test. I start to acquire skills that I carry on through the next year. In classes that don’t interest me—pfft, I’m lucky if I remember enough to take the test at all.

     Learning should be an experience to be enjoyed—a process that makes us better people—not something that is required by law. Just because a body is in a seat does not mean the mind is there too.

     (Oh, dear Lord, please help me. My AP English has leaked into my Appalachian Literature. Darn you, Hume and your blasted is-ought principle!)

     The best way to get the actual act of being educated into the education system is to nix standardized testing, do away with traditional grades, and allow students to choose all of their classes. Standardized testing is so flawed that it cannot even come close to accurately measuring a student’s knowledge. Especially considering that there a numerous ways to trick the computers that grade the tests. Can anyone say Writing Assessment? (Please refer back to my point about BS-ers and perfect grades. Again.)

    Let’s trash the traditional grading system. It can be fooled into thinking a person is much smarter than they really are. It can leave a truly intelligent person behind in the dust. Switch to holistic scores that don’t need a specific numerical value—that don’t look at a heap of inconsequential nothings, but instead evaluate the work as a whole. Assess work on how much effort went into it as well as how well it conveys the student’s knowledge. Or better yet, how about no grades at all? How about conversations one-on-one between the teacher and student to judge how much the student really learned—not just memorized.

    Beyond that, forcing a student into a class that does not even remotely appeal to them is a recipe for disaster. At an elementary school level it might be acceptable. Elementary and middle schools lay a base knowledge for higher education, and when you’re that young, you don’t really know what you want to learn. But by high school, students have at least a vague idea of what they plan to do with their lives. At the very least, they know what classes interest them. Let kids choose all of their classes in high school. Don’t tell them what classes they must take. And watch the attendance rates climb. Watch habitual skippers actually come to class. Watch individual scores and grades (if you insist on keeping them) soar. Watch us learn.

~J