should schools get rid of letter grades for assignments

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OPINION: The time has come to stop assigning letter and number grades

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Schools should move away from assigning letter and numeric grades during the pandemic and beyond. It’s time to eliminate both the way we grade and the grades we have assigned in the past. No student should be told that he, she or they are failing — particularly during or after the pandemic.

The pandemic forced school systems across the world to move to virtual platforms for teaching and learning. And ever since, students, parents and families have expressed concerns about grading.

High school seniors have worried about how virtual learning will impact their grade-point averages as they apply for college; students working full time — because their families need the additional financial support during the pandemic — or caring for ill family members have struggled to stay focused on school at all.

Families and communities have all worried about how they will support their children’s education and development while they learn at home. Parents of children who learn in diverse ways have been especially concerned.

One Nashville parent was told that her daughter with a disability was failing all her classes as a virtual learner. She was not alone: A December report revealed that nearly one in five Nashville public school students was   failing at least one class . And Nashville is not the only city reporting an alarming number of students receiving failing grades.  

I believe this is wrong. How can we fail young people during a pandemic? Moreover, why are students being told they are failing during a pandemic? How can we maintain the same or a similar grading metric during times of unprecedented challenge?  

As educators, we have a responsibility to reimagine our habitual mindsets about how to evaluate student progress.

Part of that reimagining must include the elimination of numeric and letter grades as we have known them in the past.

Here are some reasons why I believe it is time to stop assigning such grades:

• Grades are too often used as weapons that can create psychological and emotional harm to young people whose experiences, cultural practices and behaviors are incompatible with their schools and educators.  
• Grades perpetuate an unnecessary and relentless ethos of competition between and among students.
• Grades force educators (especially teachers) to place a number and/or letter value on developing students that fails to capture the complexity and diverse range of their learning, development, knowledge, understanding and growth. Indeed, students know and understand much more than we as educators will ever realize. Why attempt to reduce that knowledge and understanding to a numeric number?
• Grades send messages about worth and value that can contribute to students’ lack of self-confidence and self-esteem. Students may start to see themselves as a “B” student in math or a “D” student in history.

In some of the 16,800 school districts across the U.S., there is already talk about changing grading policies. Proposals include allowing pass-fail options and not having grades at all.

Still, educators tend to be preconditioned to assign grades — not necessarily because we believe they best reflect our assessments of student learning and development but because our grading practices are what we are used to.

Related: Why a high-performing district is changing everything with competency-based learning

Once students are physically back in schools, they will still be working through deep and broad levels of grief and trauma. Grades, particularly for our most vulnerable students, will likely only exacerbate the anxieties and challenges that they, and their families, face. The residual effects of the pandemic will likely linger for decades.

Students know and understand much more than we as educators will ever realize. Why attempt to reduce that knowledge and understanding to a numeric number? 

Rather than continue traditional grading practices, I recommend that school leaders re-center the goal of assessment: to provide feedback that propels teaching and learning — and consequently our young people — forward.

We should build better ways for educators not only to determine how students are doing but to report those determinations. One method is ongoing feedback.

Ongoing feedback involves both written and oral feedback and conversation.  It can include portfolio assessments that provide narrative feedback rather than one-dimensional grades. To make these assessments, teachers need time to provide written, narrative feedback to students, and schools need to build tools that capture the diverse ways students learn and develop.

Reimagining grading practices means finding time throughout the school day and year to see how students are doing and feeling, identifying areas where students need to improve and, perhaps most importantly, suggesting how educators can improve their practices to support students.

Reimagining grading also means helping students assess and evaluate their own work, which can be essential in an evaluation and assessment cycle. In addition, students and families need to be able to speak with educators in nonjudgmental and nonpunitive contexts and find ways to support educators and students alike.

We now have a real chance to disrupt traditional grading practices in schools, districts and even higher education. Such fundamental change can happen: I recall a time when people said colleges and universities would never stop using the SAT and GRE for admissions. Yet today, for instance, many institutions are rethinking their reliance on the SAT   as the main criterion for college admissions.

So, as we live through this pandemic and beyond, let’s place a permanent moratorium on traditional grades for the sake of the humanity in P-12 schools and higher education.

H. Richard Milner IV is Cornelius Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor of Education at Vanderbilt University and president-elect of the American Educational Research Association. He is the author or editor of several books, including “Start Where You Are, But Don’t Stay There.” He can be reached at [email protected].

This story about grading practices was produced by  The Hechinger Report , a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for  Hechinger’s newsletter .  

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Pros and cons of the letter grading system

How does the traditional school of thought stack up against 'un-grading,' an unorthodox assessment method gaining traction among the nation's educators?

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In an attempt at easing the high school-to-college transition, some U.S. universities have begun implementing unorthodox student assessment methods, reigniting a debate over whether the traditional letter grading system still works. The new trend, called "un-grading," is a part of "a growing movement to stop assigning conventional A through F letter grades to first-year college students and, sometimes, upperclassmen," NPR reports. Though it existed before the pandemic, un-grading has "taken on new urgency" as of late, "as educators around the country think twice about assigning those judgmental letters A-F to students whose schooling has been disrupted for two years," The Washington Post wrote last year. Teachers and faculty at Texas Christian University, the University of New Hampshire, and Florida Gulf Coast University, for example, are among the growing group experimenting with some form of un-grading, which might involve allowing students to pick between written and verbal exams and letting them choose how their homework impacts their final score.

To help make better sense of the debate, we've outlined a few of the pros and cons of traditional letter grading below:

Pro: Letter grades hold students accountable

Advocates for the conventional grading system say it helps students easily identify "their improvements, mistakes, and areas they can work on," per Harlem World Magazine . Indeed, a precise scale for performance feedback allows students to discover their strengths and weaknesses and "build self-analytical skills."

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"Things like grades and clear assignments can be enormously useful handrails to help you make your way," Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, told NPR. Assuming that students are "too fragile" to receive feedback from the teachers "strikes me as missing a pretty significant element of the purpose of higher education," he added.

Con: Letter grades de-emphasize learning

Critics of the letter grading system say that "students have become so preoccupied with grades, they aren't actually learning," NPR summarizes. "Grades are not a representation of student learning, as hard as it is for us to break the mindset that if the student got an A, it means they learned," said Jody Greene, special adviser to the provost for educational equity and academic success at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In fact, Greene added, letter grades "are terrible motivators for doing sustained and deep learning."

The use of "letter grades as a currency" has "negatively distorted student motivation for generations," Jack Schneider, professor of education at the University of Massachusetts, wrote for The New York Times. "Regardless of their inclination to learn, many students strive first and foremost to get good grades."

Pro: Letter grades are universally understood

"Grading systems are universal in nature," Harlem World explained, and using a system that is understood across institutions makes it easier for students to "analyze and figure out where they stand in the world on the basis of their grades."

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Indeed, that the letter grading system is easy to understand is "one clear advantage over other models," Evan Thompson wrote in a blog for The Best Schools , an education resource website . "Everyone knows what grades mean," making it "easy for students to understand where they stand in a class or on a particular subject."

Con: Letter grades perpetuate an unfair system

Champions of un-grading say it addresses "the unfairness of a system in which some students are better ready for college than others," NPR summarizes. For instance, UCSC's Greene told NPR, lower-income students are most likely to feel anxiety about grades. "Let's say they get a slightly failing grade on the first quiz. They are not likely to go and seek help. They're likely to try and disappear," Greene said.

Letter grades have been used to "justify and to provide unequal educational opportunities based on a student's race or class," Alison Yoshimoto-Towery, chief academic officer of the Los Angeles Unified School District, and Pedro A. Garcia, senior executive director of the division of instruction, said in a 2021 letter to principals. In continuing to use the old system, educators "inadvertently perpetuate achievement and opportunity gaps, rewarding our most privileged students and punishing those who are not."

Pro: Letter grades encourage competition

Letter grades incentivize students to perform well by encouraging them to compete with each other, wrote educator Patricia Willis in a blog for Study.com , an online learning platform. Competitive students "are willing to work hard because they want to be first among their peers." A pass/fail system, on the other hand, leaves "little incentive for students to work hard." This can be especially true if students "feel that extra effort makes no difference in the end."

Con: Letter grades fail to provide room for improvement

"The A-F letter-grading scale offers little room for improvement once the assignment, assessment, or course has concluded," said Jon Alfuth, senior director of state policy at the education nonprofit KnowledgeWorks, in a letter to the editor at Education Week .

"Just because I did not answer a test question correctly today doesn't mean I don't have the capacity to learn it tomorrow and retake a test," Yoshimoto-Towery told the Los Angeles Times . "Equitable grading practices align with the understanding that as people we learn at different rates and in different ways and we need multiple opportunities to do so."

Theara Coleman has worked as a staff writer at The Week since September 2022. She frequently writes about technology, education, literature and general news. She was previously a contributing writer and assistant editor at Honeysuckle Magazine, where she covered racial politics and cannabis industry news. 

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Why School Letter Grades Should Not Be Banned From Schools

GPA: What it is and How to Calculate it

A, B, C, D and F: They’ve been around since our grandparents’ days. These letter grades are marked on students’ assignments, tests, and report cards a handful of times each school year, as an indicator of whether or not Johnny is an ace student, an average student, or struggling mightily to get by. This grading system has withstood the test of time, and yet it has detractors. Some wonder how that can be. However, more and more public schools are moving away from this traditional grading system, but there are some good reasons to keep it in place.

Early Letter Grades

The concept of assigning a score or rank to assignments, assessments, and student work has been firmly in place since 1913. Schools have utilized a standardized system of grading using letter grades. The history of this type of assessment trace loosely back to Yale in the late 18th century when students who accumulated 20 academic points earned an “Optimi.” Sixteen points was the equivalent of “second Optimi.” Twelve points was “Inferiores” and – gulp – only 10 was “Pejores.” One can only presume that there was no classification for “F” because having reached this point, the student would no longer be attending Yale.

Current Letter Grades

After a few years of traditional education, virtually every parent and child understands the meaning of letter grades. It's a standard set of score that correspond with a student's performance on specific tasks. A is typically equivalent to excellent work or mastery of content. B is an indication that the student is doing well; average to above average. C is the score directly in the middle, and equates to average. D is below average and F is a failing grade; failing to meet minimum standards.

With the current letter grade system, students know exactly what each grade means, there is a familiar language within academic evaluation; therefore you can handle any grade accordingly. Schedule a conference with the teacher or have a talk – stern, concerned or congratulatory – with little Sally. Letter grades allow parents to act with conviction right out of the starting gate and then make adjustments as they get more information.

Imagine the confusion that could occur if – as is beginning to happen – some schools use alternative grading systems and others stick with letter grades. This can cause uncertainty if a child changes schools, possibly even blemishing his academic record if “B” doesn’t quite equate with the new school’s “pretty darned good” equivalent.

It potentially becomes more of a problem if the student is changing schools because he’s moving up to middle school, high school or college. Students can flounder at a critical point in their educations if the old framework they’ve been working within throughout their entire academic careers is suddenly removed and replaced with something else.

Post-Secondary Education

Admittance and acceptance protocols at colleges and universities depend to a great extent on a student’s grade point average. A B letter grade typically confers 80 to 89 points in grade school and high school, but what does a verbal assessment equal in terms of points? Verbal assessments are open to interpretation, which at the very least would cause post-secondary schools a lot of extra manpower to decipher for purposes of acceptance.

Even adults need a good reason to tackle difficult or even unpleasant projects – otherwise, the frequently used word, "procrastination," might never have been born. They want raises, recognition and promotions in exchange for a job well done. Kids are no different and, in fact, their immaturity may make grading motivating factors even more important to their accomplishments.

Letter grades provide motivation and goals. They say, “You’re here,” and “Here’s where you have to go to achieve the next level.” There’s little or no ambiguity because letter grades are consistent and easy to understand. If Johnny wants a better letter grade, he knows he’ll have to prep and study for that exam. There’s a direct correlation between action and letter grade ramifications.

The Case Against Letter Grades

Detractors of the letter grade system argue that a student may be less likely to tackle difficult challenges because messing up might lower her A to a B, but it’s hard to imagine any quality grading system that would not be affected by poor performance unless it literally notes, “A for effort, at least.” However, if the final product was substandard, no matter how hard Sally tried, Sally can only benefit from going back to the drawing board so she can understand how to get it right next time.

Detractors also say that once a student reaches his or her letter grade goal, they are likely to stop trying and coast through to the end. He’s already there, right? What’s left to do? Plenty. An A at mid-semester doesn’t guarantee an A at term’s end – there are assignments and tests to come, so becoming complacent and slacking off will only bring that A down. The argument of possible coasting doesn’t particularly make sense. Even if the student doesn't immediately acknowledge the importance of maintaining, they will most likely remember next semester when their mid term grade is an A.

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How to calculate a report card grade, how does a gpa work.

• SeattlePI: The Pros and Cons of Report Cards and Letter Grades
• NEA Today: Are Letter Grades Failing Our Students?
• Indiana University Bloomington: An A Is Not An A Is Not An A: A History of Grading (PDF)

Beverly Bird has been writing professionally since 1983. She is the author of several novels including the bestselling "Comes the Rain" and "With Every Breath." Bird also has extensive experience as a paralegal, primarily in the areas of divorce and family law, bankruptcy and estate law. She covers many legal topics in her articles.

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Will Letter Grades Survive?

A century-old pillar of the school system is under fire as schools look to modernize student assessment.

Under pressure from an unprecedented constellation of forces—from state lawmakers to prestigious private schools and college admissions offices—the ubiquitous one-page high school transcript lined with A–F letter grades may soon be a relic of the past.

In the last decade, at least 15 state legislatures and boards of education have adopted policies incentivizing their public schools to prioritize measures other than grades when assessing students’ skills and competencies. And more recently, over 150 of the top private high schools in the U.S., including Phillips Exeter and Dalton—storied institutions which have long relied on the status conveyed by student ranking—have pledged to shift to new transcripts that provide more comprehensive, qualitative feedback on students while ruling out any mention of credit hours, GPAs, or A–F grades.

Somewhat independently, schools and lawmakers have come to the same conclusion: The old models of student assessment are out of step with the needs of the 21st-century workplace and society, with their emphasis on hard-to-measure skills such as creativity, problem solving, persistence, and collaboration.

“Competency-based education is a growing movement driven by educators and communities focused on ensuring that students have the knowledge they need to flourish in a global economy,” said Susan Patrick, chief executive officer of iNACOL, a nonprofit that runs the website CompetencyWorks. “The future of jobs and the workforce will demand a new set of skills, and students’ capacity to solve complex problems for an unknown future will be essential.”

For their part, colleges—the final arbiters of high school performance—are signaling a surprising willingness to depart from traditional assessments that have been in place since the early 19th century. From Harvard and Dartmouth to small community colleges, more than 70 U.S. institutions of higher learning have weighed in, signing formal statements asserting that competency-based transcripts will not hurt students in the admissions process.

The emerging alignment of K–12 schools with colleges and legislators builds on a growing consensus among educators who believe that longstanding benchmarks like grades, SATs, AP test scores, and even homework are poor measures of students’ skills and can deepen inequities between them. If the momentum holds, a century-old pillar of the school system could crumble entirely, leading to dramatic transitions and potential pitfalls for students and schools alike.

Picking Up Steam

Scott Looney, head of the Hawken School in Cleveland, was frustrated. His school had recently begun offering real-world, full-day courses in subjects like engineering and entrepreneurship, but he was finding it difficult to measure and credit the new types of skills students were learning using A–F grades. Looney started reaching out to private high schools and colleges looking for alternatives.

Though he found that many educators shared his desires for a new assessment system, he came up empty-handed.

“The grading system right now is demoralizing and is designed to produce winners and losers,” said Looney. “The purpose of education is not to sort kids—it’s to grow kids. Teachers need to coach and mentor, but with grades, teachers turn into judges. I think we can show the unique abilities of kids without stratifying them.”

Looney began brainstorming a new type of transcript for the Hawken School, but quickly realized he would need a critical mass of schools to influence college admissions offices to accept it. With the initial support of 28 other independent schools, Looney formed the Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC) in April 2017. The group has since expanded to 157 schools, including both historic institutions like Phillips Exeter and newer alternative schools like the Khan Lab School.

In joining the MTC, each school commits to phase out its existing GPA- and grade-based transcripts for a digital, interactive format that showcases students’ academic and enrichment skills, areas for growth, and samples of work or talents, such as a video of a public speaking competition or a portfolio of artwork.

.css-1ynlp5m{position:relative;width:100%;height:56px;margin-bottom:30px;content:'';} .css-2tyqqs *{display:inline-block;font-family:museoSlab-500,'Arial Narrow','Arial','Helvetica','sans-serif';font-size:24px;font-weight:500;line-height:34px;-webkit-letter-spacing:0.8px;-moz-letter-spacing:0.8px;-ms-letter-spacing:0.8px;letter-spacing:0.8px;}.css-2tyqqs *{display:inline-block;font-family:museoSlab-500,'Arial Narrow','Arial','Helvetica','sans-serif';font-size:24px;font-weight:500;line-height:34px;-webkit-letter-spacing:0.8px;-moz-letter-spacing:0.8px;-ms-letter-spacing:0.8px;letter-spacing:0.8px;} The purpose of education is not to sort kids—it’s to grow kids. Teachers need to coach and mentor, but with grades, teachers turn into judges.

While the transcript is still in its infancy, organizers say it will resemble a website that each school will be able customize by choosing from a menu of skills like critical thinking, creativity, and self-directed learning, along with core content areas such as algebraic reasoning. Instead of earning credit hours and receiving grades, students will take courses to prove they’ve developed key skills and competencies. Looney insists that the transcripts will be readable by admissions officers in two minutes or less.

The MTC’s work is not entirely original, though, and takes its lead from a number of public schools—most notably in New England—that have been rethinking traditional methods of assessing students for more than a decade.

Some are supported by the nonprofit group Great Schools Partnership , which helped influence Maine, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire to adopt state board of education policies or legislation in the last decade on proficiency-based assessment systems. Other districts, in Florida, California, and Georgia, have made similar changes more recently, and pilot programs have emerged in Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Illinois, Ohio, and Oregon.

There’s also backing from colleges. The Great Schools Partnership was able to garner the support of more than 70 colleges and universities, suggesting that higher ed admissions offices are ready for the change.

"We are accustomed to academic reports from around the world, including those from students who have been privately instructed and even self-taught,” said Marlyn McGrath, Harvard University’s director of admissions, replying via email about the transcripts. “In cases where we need additional information, we typically ask for it. So we are not concerned that students presenting alternative transcripts will be disadvantaged because of format.”

Mastery Versus Seat Time

But the new transcripts are just the tip of the iceberg, according to supporters, part of a larger movement to do away with a system where kids can progress through grades or courses without really understanding material and be promoted for seat time and good behavior. When students move on to harder topics, they continue to accumulate gaps in their knowledge—a setup for failure in the later grades or collegiate years.

Under a competency model, kids can no longer just “get by,” said Derek Pierce, principal of Casco Bay High School in Portland, Maine, which has used a proficiency-based transcript since 2005.

The new transcripts “get kids focused on doing their personal best on meeting or exceeding standards rather than getting a better grade than the kid next to them,” said Pierce. “There is no longer a ‘gentleman’s C’.”

However, without widespread agreement on the necessary skills and knowledge required for core classes, proving mastery may be just as elusive and arbitrary as the current system. Even MTC member schools won’t rely on a shared understanding of what mastery means. Instead, each school will be able to quantify it independently, leaving college admissions officers—according to critics—without a clear basis of comparison.

Our learning structures have to be much more nimble to allow today’s learners to navigate through opportunities where they can see themselves as the authors of their own education.

While competency-based education proponents argue that the new transcripts will identify students with skills that academia has traditionally overlooked, others worry about equity for marginalized students, who already struggle in the current system. Some critics have suggested that the new transcripts may be a way for wealthier schools, especially private schools like those in the MTC, to give their students an even greater advantage when competing for limited positions at the best universities.

There are other unanswered questions and challenges to be worked out, too. Will college admissions counselors have enough time, especially at large public colleges, to look meaningfully at dense digital portfolios of student work? Will the new transcripts create too much work and new training for K-12 teachers, as they struggle to measure hard-to-define categories of learning? Perhaps most importantly, will parents buy in?

“There’s still plenty of work ahead and some pretty radical changes taking place,” explained Mike Martin, director of curriculum and technology at Montpelier Public Schools in Vermont, whose district starting transitioning to a competency-based model in 2013.

Many public and private schools, like Martin’s, are still years away from full implementation, and others are grappling with the nuts and bolts of how to implement dramatically new systems for student learning and assessment. Those on the forefront of these changes, though, remain hopeful that the new system will push all students to develop the skills they need to succeed in college and careers.

“Our learning structures have to be much more nimble to allow today’s learners to navigate through opportunities where they can see themselves as the authors of their education,” said Martin. “Proficiency-based education is about getting every single student up to a certain skill level and ensuring every student can succeed.”

Should Schools Change the Grading System and Drop Letter Grades?

Schools’ traditional grading system using letter grades goes back more than 100 years. From their very earliest days, colleges and universities experimented with systems to differentiate students’ academic accomplishments. There are records showing that in 1785, a Yale professor made what may be the first attempt to assign categories when he divided students into four groups: Optimi, Second Optimi, Inferiores, and Pejores.

It wasn’t until 1897 that Mount Holyoke introduced letter grades from A–E. Though the system has been tweaked in the years since, the modern A–F grades closely resemble this early evaluation method. Today, letter grading is nearly universal in U.S. elementary and secondary schools, and it continues to be the most common system used in institutions of higher learning.

The Benefits of Rethinking Letter Grades

Changes in understanding of motivation, learning differences, and engagement—along with the development of flaws in the system as it has evolved—have inspired some administrators, educators, and families to examine alternative evaluation solutions. They make strong arguments for dropping traditional A–F grades in favor of models that focus on the whole learner.

One of the biggest arguments against the letter grading system is that a low grade doesn’t necessarily reflect students’ comprehension of the subject matter. Because end-of-term grades are based on the average score of multiple assignments, an incomplete project or a missed exam can dramatically impact the final grade . Students who have fully mastered the material can still get a failing grade with a single zero.

If the incident occurs early enough in the course, students quickly realize no amount of effort will solve the problem , and they may fully disengage from the class. Alternative grading methods address this problem with a focus on measuring students’ ability to demonstrate mastery of skills, with a separate category or comments section for issues with organization, on-time completion of assignments, and others.

Another argument against the A–F system is lack of precision. While the traditional method of grading shows students’ progress compared to peers, it doesn’t offer insight into specific strengths and weaknesses. Some schools have determined that students, particularly at the elementary school level, are better served with a numerical system that evaluates a range of knowledge, skills, and abilities. This is referred to as a standards-based approach.

In one example, elementary schools in Fairfax County, Virginia , replaced the A–F grading system with a four-level numerical system that measures a wide range of skills. Instead of a single letter grade for “math,” students receive a numerical score for seven sub-categories under this heading, including computation and measuring. Proponents of the change believe students, teachers, and families are better able to focus on resolving skills gaps when this level of detail is available.

The Downside of Changing the Current Grading System

Of course, there are many that prefer to keep the current A–F system in place with some adjustments. Some parents are concerned that exceptional students won’t be recognized for their consistently outstanding work under an alternative grading method. Others find alternative grading methods too complex and confusing . They prefer a familiar grade on a simple report card to understand at-a-glance how their student is progressing. Finally, many express concern that colleges won’t recognize alternative and standards-based evaluation systems, putting students at a disadvantage when they apply.

A Compromise

As researchers continue to gather data suggesting that the letter grades system is obsolete, advocates of alternative grading methods may find success by focusing on effective change management. After all, dismantling a system that has been trusted for more than a century is sure to make many students and families uncomfortable. Collecting and incorporating feedback from all involved into new evaluation systems, as well as providing meaningful opportunities for communication and education, may be effective in gaining the support of teachers, students, and families who are not quite ready to see the A–F system retired.

What do you think of alternative evaluation systems? Should schools keep tried-and-true letter grading in place, or is it time to try something new? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

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Can ditching letter grades improve student learning and engagement?

Dive brief:.

• Eliminating letter grades is an appealing idea to many educators and gaining momentum among those who advocate for standards-based grading, competency-based grading or other alternative models. Ditching traditional letter grades reduces stress levels and competition among students, levels the playing field for less advantaged students, and encourages them to explore knowledge and take ownership of their own learning, Education Week reports.
• However, many critics — including a large percentage of parents — fear that eliminating letter grades lessens accountability and personal responsibility for students and does not adequately prepare them for the reality of college or future careers. A switch to non-traditional grading methods also requires strategic planning, careful implementation and great deal of support from all stakeholders involved.
• Another approach to grading —  the “no-zero” policy  — advocates for making a 50% the lowest score a student can receive on an assignment. But among educators, the practice is the most controversial when a student turns in no work at all.

Dive Insight:

At a time when many states issue letter or number grades to schools , some educators are advocating the abolishment of such practices when it comes to students. Letter grades, they say, cause undue stress in students who become too competitive and miss the joy of education altogether. In fact, some school districts have redefined or abolished the practice of naming a valedictorian and salutatorian for this very reason.

Grades can sometimes stand in the way of learning, and some educators are questioning the need for grades at all. For instance, scientific inquiry and innovation can be stifled if students feel the need to stay on safe ground in order to earn a grade. And to some extent, grades are a subjective measure based on the priorities of the teacher. Some teachers, who value punctuality, may dock points for late work, even if the student performs well on tests. This approach can also cause equity issues for students who have trouble meeting deadlines because of situations at home. Other teachers value creative efforts at writing over strict adherence to form, while others take the opposite approach. Students often discover that grades are as much about learning the psychology of the teacher as it is about learning the material.

Grades, however, do provide an efficient and effective way of measuring progress in most cases and are a time-tested tradition. Despite attempts to rethink grades by converting to competency-based or standards-based models , or other more creative practices , grades still hold sway in most schools. And most college and scholarship agencies still expect a transcript in a form they can understand. For these reasons, most parent are resistant to the idea of change when it comes to grades, which poses a significant hurdle to new models for many districts.

The reality is that no one model works for all students. Highly-motived students who are pursuing college and scholarships generally work harder when grades are in place because they see a long-term benefit. Other students respond better to guidance and direction and grades simply stand between them and a love of learning . So far, no easy solutions have emerged.Traditional grading methods still miss some of the non-cognitive skills that research shows contribute to long-term success. There may come a day when student assessment tools can be as personalized as student learning experiences. But any change will require school leaders, teachers, staff members, students, and parents to adapt — a road that's not easy travel in a world consumed with letters, numbers and big data.

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It’s time to stop assigning letter and number grades

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Schools should move away from assigning letter and numeric grades during the pandemic and beyond. It’s time to eliminate both the way we grade and the grades we have assigned in the past. No student should be told that he or she is failing — particularly during or after the pandemic.

The pandemic forced school systems across the world to move to virtual platforms for teaching and learning. And ever since, students, parents and families have expressed concerns about grading.

High school seniors have worried about how virtual learning will impact their grade-point averages as they apply for college; students working full time — because their families need the additional financial support during the pandemic — or caring for ill family members have struggled to stay focused on school at all.

Families and communities have all worried about how they will support their children’s education and development while they learn at home. Parents of children who learn in diverse ways have been especially concerned.

One Nashville parent was told that her daughter with a disability was failing all her classes as a virtual learner. She was not alone: A December report revealed that nearly one in five Nashville public school students was failing at least one class. And Nashville is not the only city reporting an alarming number of students receiving failing grades.

I believe this is wrong. How can we fail young people during a pandemic? Moreover, why are students being told they are failing during a pandemic? How can we maintain the same or a similar grading metric during times of unprecedented challenge?

Why we must reimagine our evaluation system

As educators, we have a responsibility to reimagine our habitual mindsets about how to evaluate student progress.

Part of that reimagining must include the elimination of numeric and letter grades as we have known them in the past.

Here are some reasons I believe it is time to stop assigning such grades:

• Grades are too often used as weapons that can create psychological and emotional harm to young people whose experiences, cultural practices and behaviors are incompatible with their schools and educators.
• Grades perpetuate an unnecessary and relentless ethos of competition between and among students.
• Grades force educators (especially teachers) to place a number and/or letter value on developing students that fails to capture the complexity and diverse range of their learning, development, knowledge, understanding and growth. Indeed, students know and understand much more than we as educators will ever realize. Why attempt to reduce that knowledge and understanding to a numeric number?
• Grades send messages about worth and value that can contribute to students’ lack of self-confidence and self-esteem. Students may start to see themselves as a “B” student in math or a “D” student in history.

In some of the 16,800 school districts across the U.S., there is already talk about changing grading policies. Proposals include allowing pass-fail options and not having grades at all.

Still, educators tend to be preconditioned to assign grades — not necessarily because we believe they best reflect our assessments of student learning and development but because our grading practices are what we are used to.

Once students are physically back in schools, they will still be working through deep and broad levels of grief and trauma. Grades, particularly for our most vulnerable students, will likely only exacerbate the anxieties and challenges that they, and their families, face. The residual effects of the pandemic will likely linger for decades.

Students know and understand much more than we as educators will ever realize. Why attempt to reduce that knowledge and understanding to a numeric number?

Ongoing feedback

Rather than continue traditional grading practices, I recommend that school leaders re-center the goal of assessment: to provide feedback that propels teaching and learning — and consequently our young people — forward.

We should build better ways for educators not only to determine how students are doing but to report those determinations. One method is ongoing feedback.

[cms_ad:x104] Ongoing feedback involves both written and oral feedback and conversation. It can include portfolio assessments that provide narrative feedback rather than one-dimensional grades. To make these assessments, teachers need time to provide written, narrative feedback to students, and schools need to build tools that capture the diverse ways students learn and develop.

Helping students assess their own work

Reimagining grading also means helping students assess and evaluate their own work, which can be essential in an evaluation and assessment cycle. In addition, students and families need to be able to speak with educators in nonjudgmental and nonpunitive contexts and find ways to support educators and students alike.

We now have a real chance to disrupt traditional grading practices in schools, districts and even higher education. Such fundamental change can happen: I recall a time when people said colleges and universities would never stop using the SAT and GRE for admissions. Yet today, for instance, many institutions are rethinking their reliance on the SAT as the main criterion for college admissions.

So, as we live through this pandemic and beyond, let’s place a permanent moratorium on traditional grades for the sake of the humanity in P-12 schools and higher education.

H. Richard Milner IV is Cornelius Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor of Education at Vanderbilt University and president-elect of the American Educational Research Association. He is the author or editor of several books, including “Start Where You Are, But Don’t Stay There.” He can be reached at [email protected] .

This commentary is republished from T he Hechinger Report , a national nonprofit newsroom that reports on education.

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25 Comments

This might be the worst thing I have ever read.

Well, it seems that college aptitude tests are also out of favor and on their way out.

And if we do the same for GPA results, things are getting a little thinner to make judgements about where students may find success in their post secondary education pursuits. What’s left? A lottery?

Congratulations, you are on your way to Harvard!

And this is why America is falling far behind other 1st world countries in education. We don’t take it seriously enough and let failing students graduate when they shouldn’t and don’t push them when they need help. Graduating should be a significant achievement, not a participation trophy.

When you go to the doctor, you get a diagnosis specific to you and a treatment plan. Let’s say a kid is stuck in poverty, doesn’t have what he or she needs to succeed, and is experiencing a family trauma. That child needs help, not lectures. Grading without a workable plan to address the issue is less than useless.

And don’t expect a teacher with 30 high need students to handle it. Virtual learning was terribly challenging for the homeless, families with more kids than devices and poor internet access. Last summer my AP son lined up technology for every kid at his school who didn’t have it – with financial support. Guess what – performance didn’t massively slip as a result.

We cannot do away with the grade, but need to try help struggling students get their grades in better shape. Conservatives who don’t understand how poverty works really need to educate themselves, rather than shaming kids. You do it, and your kids will follow your poor example.

“We cannot do away with the grade, but need to try help struggling students get their grades in better shape.”

I agree with that 100 percent. Lets help struggling students. But getting rid of grades is nonsense. Its actually just abandoning the struggling students because no one will track that they aren’t doing well.

Exactly this. I don’t think grades are inherently bad–the abuses and problems associated with grades listed in the article are not about grades and will remain without them; abusive teachers and administrators will find another proxy, students still need emotional support. And I don’t think that grades should be done away with, especially since I don’t believe it will solve anything.

But we do need to be way more invested in making sure that every student succeeds to their potential by ensuring they have, at least, the resources to learn and the support to determine where they need to continue to improve. That may mean that we have to pay more teachers and teachers’ aides. That may mean that we need to build in peer-to-peer and adult-student mentorships as a formal part of the education process. That may mean that we need to build in more vocation training opportunities for some students. That may mean that we emphasize that going beyond high school isn’t a binary choice of college or not-college, or worse, college or failure (for what it’s worth, I think this is something that the business world needs to adjust too…but that’s a whole other conversation).

We DO need to give a bunch of kids a mulligan on this year, but that doesn’t mean that this year should be the model for years to come. While I am on board with removing the SAT and ACT as gateways to further education, grades (not SAT or ACT scores) remain the most predictive factor for whether a student is likely to succeed in college. And despite my caution on teaching kids that it’s college or failure is wrong, college is still important for many careers. We still need to ensure that students have a way to predict their own future with respect to it.

And how would you handle the situation of students who just don’t care, won’t work to improve or achieve, won’t take advantage of tutoring or special programs to help them improve, are intent on creating problems in school, are truant, etc.? Those are the ones who typically fail. I think our schools do a very good job of offering willing students a chance to succeed. Unfortunately, some do not take the opportunity.

Also, I want to thank your son for being so proactive about helping his fellow students. Bravo!

Does everyone get a trophy too? Children are not learning the basics in public schools and we are afraid they may feel badly if they get a D or F in a class. C’s, D’s and F’s mean you need more work in that particular discipline. The problem we currently are having is a 2nd grader going to 3rd without the ability to read, Once you miss out on the basics, school becomes impossible. Not sure how giving a grade or not solves the main issue.

I agree with thesis. Often, and especially when done poorly, grading fits education researcher Paul Dressel’s definition of a grade as “an inadequate report of an inaccurate judgment by a biased and variable judge of the extent to which a learner has attained an undefined level of mastery of an unknown proportion of an indefinite material.” Feedback is key and learning outcomes are important. Ideas like “levels of mastery” is a possibile alternative to numeric or letter grades.

Levels of mastery? Isn’t that exactly what a letter grade is?

“Paul Dressel’s definition of a grade as “an inadequate report of an inaccurate judgment by a biased and variable judge of the extent to which a learner has attained an undefined level of mastery of an unknown proportion of an indefinite material.””

I suspect the Mr. Dressel has a title longer than this too many word for too little a concept quote. If I shortened the quote to “grades are bullshit because I say so” or “grades are bullshit” I believe that I would be saying the same thing. Wrongly.

I do see the value of an instructor writing out a several page opinion of the student’s learning, every quarter, on every subject, in detail so as to further the education of every student. I suggest that this idea be presented to the various teacher’s unions and school boards so that this idea can be implemented no later than this fall.

Or, a parent can simply call and ask a teacher how their son/daughter is doing in class … or show up for parent/teacher conferences. I know that many teacher initiate a call such as that if there are problems.

Some good ideas here to help children, problem is still, advancing 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders without the basics of learning. Once you can’t read as a 4th grader, they stop teaching reading basics. When you don’t understand basic math, 6×6=36 and 7×6=42, you are lost in any math class moving forward.

When the tax paying public understands kids are being pushed thru k-12 for the money attached to that child, things may change. As long as we have “school deniers”, nothing will change and this 40 year slide in educating the children will continue.

If an athlete fails to make a team or fails to win a contest do we blame someone else? (Well … some people probably do). If a business fails do we blame someone else? If a minister fails to keep all parishioners sinless do we blame the minister? If a counselor/psychologist fails to make someone mentally healthy do we blame that caregiver? If a doctor fails to save a life do we blame that doctor? Kids fail …. so blame the teacher and the schools. Doesn’t make sense. Let’s ensure that there is a system to help those who need help (and in schools there is that to an extreme degree) and then put the onus on the one who chose to fail.

If grades mattered, employers would ask applicants about them. But despite years or hectoring by educators, employers still do not care about grades.

Einstein is reputed to have said, “Not everything that can be counted counts. Not everything that counts can be counted.” How does one grade the bedside manner of a doctor? Can that be boiled down to a single number or grade? Of course not. Have you ever had to deal will a customer service representative whose performance is judged by his or her average call time? It leads to what Clark Howard refers to as “customer no-service”.

And what of educators themselves? Why don’t we boil down their performance to one number or letter? They don’t put up with nonsense like that. Quite rightly they would tell us that any such metric would never catch all of the small but very important things they do to reach students.

That’s really not true at all. Employers may not be looking at high school grades, but the steps in between rely on grades. You can’t get into med school without good grades. As a patient, I want a doctor who was smart and studied hard, as opposed to one who didn’t. Or a situation where no one knows.

Grades can be an imperfect measurement, but still have value.

Let us reimagine education.

Why not let parents choose the type (public or private) of school they want their kids to attend? They could choose a “non-grading school – union trickle down school” or a school the uses grades to asses progress and promote excellence.

Of course – this would involve being able to choose a school that is private. The taxpayers already fund students who attend religious colleges and universities, along with private colleges and universities.

Let us reimagine education in the real world.

Several years ago, as our kids approached high school, we did shop around a little. One of them being a very well funded, expensive, private religious high school with a great curriculum and fine teachers. And it was about twice the price of the local public school’s “per pupil unit” funding, despite a large endowment and strong annual giving.

They clearly told us they are not the place for turnarounds or special needs students: they don’t have the resources to accommodate them. Those types of students would be better off in a public school.

So your “reimagining” tells parents: Take your “per pupil unit” dollars and cart them off to private schools and leave the public schools with the most difficult and challenging and expensive kids to educate.

And then when these “turnarounds and/or special needs students” do not stack up against the recruited and “standardized” kids at the private school on testing and other measures you will use it as proof of your “reimagining” success.

Private schools can certainly do as they desire, but a well funded and quality K-12 public education system is critical to our success. And there are certainly things that need changing and fixing, but vouchers and other schemes like them are simply dishonest and evil.

I would be fine with ending taxpayer subsidies to religious colleges and redirecting the money to lower tuition at public universities. Good idea!

Been on that band wagon for many years. Freedom from Religion, why do my tax $ subsidize religion? And then they smart mouth me about religion and politics, Want freedom of religion, get out of my pocket book!

When will conservatives get it through their skulls? We will NEVER let you force your god on our children.

but it is OK to force your BS on others children

It seems to me that many conservatives are just trying to keep their God from being taken from them, and their children. Happy Holidays!

The alternative I was trying to describe, mastery, is described very well in a recent Washington Post Magazine article – https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/10/20/crusade-end-grading-high-schools/?mc_cid=931133c3fb&mc_eid=0154f31c1e

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Pros and cons of the letter grading system

In an attempt at easing the high school-to-college transition, some U.S. universities have begun implementing unorthodox student assessment methods, reigniting a debate over whether the traditional letter grading system still works. The new trend, called "un-grading," is a part of "a growing movement to stop assigning conventional A through F letter grades to first-year college students and, sometimes, upperclassmen," NPR reports. Though it existed before the pandemic, un-grading has "taken on new urgency" as of late, "as educators around the country think twice about assigning those judgmental letters A-F to students whose schooling has been disrupted for two years," The Washington Post wrote last year. Teachers and faculty at Texas Christian University, the University of New Hampshire, and Florida Gulf Coast University, for example, are among the growing group experimenting with some form of un-grading, which might involve allowing students to pick between written and verbal exams and letting them choose how their homework impacts their final score.

To help make better sense of the debate, we've outlined a few of the pros and cons of traditional letter grading below:

Pro: Letter grades hold students accountable

Advocates for the conventional grading system say it helps students easily identify "their improvements, mistakes, and areas they can work on," per  Harlem World Magazine . Indeed, a precise scale for performance feedback allows students to discover their strengths and weaknesses and "build self-analytical skills."

"Things like grades and clear assignments can be enormously useful handrails to help you make your way," Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, told NPR. Assuming that students are "too fragile" to receive feedback from the teachers "strikes me as missing a pretty significant element of the purpose of higher education," he added.

Con: Letter grades de-emphasize learning

Critics of the letter grading system say that "students have become so preoccupied with grades, they aren't actually learning," NPR summarizes. "Grades are not a representation of student learning, as hard as it is for us to break the mindset that if the student got an A, it means they learned," said Jody Greene, special adviser to the provost for educational equity and academic success at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In fact, Greene added, letter grades "are terrible motivators for doing sustained and deep learning."

The use of "letter grades as a currency" has "negatively distorted student motivation for generations," Jack Schneider, professor of education at the University of Massachusetts, wrote for  The New York Times. "Regardless of their inclination to learn, many students strive first and foremost to get good grades."

Pro: Letter grades are universally understood

"Grading systems are universal in nature,"  Harlem World explained, and using a system that is understood across institutions makes it easier for students to "analyze and figure out where they stand in the world on the basis of their grades."

Indeed, that the letter grading system is easy to understand is "one clear advantage over other models," Evan Thompson wrote in a blog for The Best Schools , an education resource website . "Everyone knows what grades mean," making it "easy for students to understand where they stand in a class or on a particular subject."

Con: Letter grades perpetuate an unfair system

Champions of un-grading say it addresses "the unfairness of a system in which some students are better ready for college than others," NPR summarizes. For instance, UCSC's Greene told NPR, lower-income students are most likely to feel anxiety about grades. "Let's say they get a slightly failing grade on the first quiz. They are not likely to go and seek help. They're likely to try and disappear," Greene said.

Letter grades have been used to "justify and to provide unequal educational opportunities based on a student's race or class," Alison Yoshimoto-Towery, chief academic officer of the Los Angeles Unified School District, and Pedro A. Garcia, senior executive director of the division of instruction,  said in a 2021 letter to principals. In continuing to use the old system, educators "inadvertently perpetuate achievement and opportunity gaps, rewarding our most privileged students and punishing those who are not."

Pro: Letter grades encourage competition

Letter grades incentivize students to perform well by encouraging them to compete with each other, wrote educator Patricia Willis in a blog for Study.com , an online learning platform. Competitive students "are willing to work hard because they want to be first among their peers." A pass/fail system, on the other hand, leaves "little incentive for students to work hard." This can be especially true if students "feel that extra effort makes no difference in the end."

Con: Letter grades fail to provide room for improvement

"The A-F letter-grading scale offers little room for improvement once the assignment, assessment, or course has concluded," said Jon Alfuth, senior director of state policy at the education nonprofit KnowledgeWorks, in a letter to the editor at  Education Week .

"Just because I did not answer a test question correctly today doesn't mean I don't have the capacity to learn it tomorrow and retake a test," Yoshimoto-Towery told the Los Angeles Times . "Equitable grading practices align with the understanding that as people we learn at different rates and in different ways and we need multiple opportunities to do so."

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Why we stopped grading our students on their writing

• Marisa Milanese
• Gwen Kordonowy

In our many years as college writing instructors, we’ve graded thousands of student essays. This year, motivated by students' trauma during the pandemic, we stopped.

Don’t get us wrong: We still carefully read and comment on our students’ work. But we no longer place a letter or number on anything they write. No As and Bs. No 82s or 94s.

Their writing has never been better.

The pedagogical approach we’re using is called "contract grading," which is spreading across universities, particularly in writing programs like  ours  at Boston University. Although there are  numerous   ways  to  structure  it, contract grading typically involves minimum expectations for students to earn a final course grade. These expectations are unrelated to performance: Attend class and participate, meet due dates, fulfill the criteria of every assignment, make substantive revisions and so on — the kinds of “activities and behaviors that will lead to learning,” as composition scholar Peter Elbow put it . In other words, do the work, earn the grade.

A politically conservative student said that she finally felt comfortable writing about her beliefs without getting dinged.

Contract grading is part of the larger “ungrading” movement, the subject of a recent  anthology  edited by anthropologist Susan D. Blum. The book’s subtitle — “Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead)” —summarizes the premise at its core. Letter grades often play the role of motivational tool. But external motivations squash internal ones like curiosity and interest, the mindsets that motivate actual learning. Ungrading inspires — and enables — risk-taking. It encourages students to focus on process over product, inculcating habits of mind that matter beyond the classroom. Of the 100 or so instructors in my program, nearly half employed contract grading in some form this semester.

In the form we’re using, students who fulfill the contract earn a B+. Those who seek something in the A range — and many do — choose from a menu of extra opportunities that reinforce our course goals, earning bonus points for each: form a semester-long writing group, share a piece they’ve read on their own with the class, design and lead a peer workshop. Such activities encourage collaboration and community-building inside and outside the classroom. Students’ investment in the course (and each other) has never been more evident to us. Could this be because they no longer see themselves as competitors for the scarce resource of the A?

The approach can be used in any class. But it makes particular sense in a writing course, where assessment is highly unreliable, even by the same reader. Who hasn’t heard a student complain that they did poorly on a paper because their teacher disagreed with their opinion? Who hasn’t felt different about something we’ve read after a good night’s sleep and a cup of coffee? There is no single formula for good writing. Instructors feel this in their bones every time they grade an essay, agonizing over how to reduce competing variables to a single score. Now, the comments that we leave for students aren’t written to justify a particular grade. They instead capture a real reader’s response to their writing, and students attend more closely to these comments to gauge their success. One benefit that we hadn’t foreseen: A politically conservative student said that she finally felt comfortable writing about her beliefs without getting dinged.

[C]ourse grades now reflect the work students put in, not the property values of their school district.

There’s a crucial equity piece here, too. Typically, the students who tend to get the highest grades on their writing are native English speakers with highly educated parents — those students who attended the best high schools, the kinds with smaller classes, teachers who have more time to give feedback and even private tutoring on the side. But as universities diversify their student populations, more of our students arrive from under-resourced schools. The architect of the kind of grading contract that many of us employ, Asao Inoue,  has argued  that all forms of assessment “exist within systems that uphold singular, dominant standards” should be dismantled. We’re still assessing student writing in our comments. But course grades now reflect the work students put in, not the property values of their school district.

We can relate to the naysayers because we were skeptical, too: Doesn’t this incentivize students to turn in mediocre work? Maybe, but a handful of students have always done so and gotten away with it. What’s striking is what such a concern says about us: Ranking and sorting are ingrained in our notions of education. It’s hard to shake, especially for our students, because focusing on the grade is what got them into these classrooms in the first place. We want to give them the opportunity to feel what it’s like to step outside that system and to learn for its own sake — to pursue their curiosity, experiment and fail without hurting their GPA.

Take one student, who, towards the end of her project, reached out to the artist she was writing about to get his take on the critique she was making of his public installations. She knew this late-game development could endanger the argument she’d carefully constructed; who knew what he would say, how his perspective might alter hers? We saw this time and again as our students tried new approaches with open minds, letting go of that fear of not getting the assignment “right.” And there’s something in it for us educators, too: All the practices we’re using resulted from collaborations with our colleagues at a moment when we needed to rethink our pedagogy.

Could there be a better time to institute contract grading in colleges? The current university model is in question. Undergraduates are increasingly skeptical of the institutions that burden them with years of debt and fail to fulfill their promises. Confronting an uncertain future, students’ anxiety and depression rates are soaring. Now is the time to return to one of life’s most fundamental joys: learning.

Follow Cognoscenti on Facebook and Twitter .

• Ellen H. O'Donnell Kids Are Returning To School. But Let’s Avoid A Return To Academic Pressure
• Rich Barlow: Robots May Be Grading Your Kid’s Essays, With Bias
• Julie Wittes Schlack: The danger of 'safe spaces'

Marisa Milanese Cognoscenti contributor Marisa Milanese is a master lecturer in the writing program at Boston University.

Gwen Kordonowy Cognoscenti contributor Gwen Kordonowy teaches courses on migration, culture and public writing in the College of Arts and Sciences writing program at Boston University.

More from WBUR

Can Ditching Letter Grades Improve Student Learning and Engagement?

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Giving Compass' Take:

• Education Dive reports on research showing that ditching traditional letter grades reduces stress levels and competition among students, levels the playing field for less advantaged students, and encourages them to take ownership of their own learning.

• How does eliminating letter grades benefit schools, not just students? What are the challenges with implementing a new type of grading system? 

• Here's an article on why grades are not paramount to achievement in schools. 

At a time when many states issue letter or number grades to schools, some educators are advocating the abolishment of such practices when it comes to students. Letter grades, they say, cause undue stress in students who become too competitive and miss the joy of education altogether. In fact, some school districts have redefined or abolished the practice of naming a valedictorian and salutatorian for this very reason.

Grades can sometimes stand in the way of learning, and some educators are questioning the need for grades at all. For instance, scientific inquiry and innovation can be stifled if students feel the need to stay on safe ground in order to earn a grade. And to some extent, grades are a subjective measure based on the priorities of the teacher.

Read the full article about getting rid of letter grades in schools by Amelia Harper at Education Dive

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Converting to a standards-based grading model needs planning, education dive, aug 27, 2018, using mastery-based education to bridge the equity gaps, education dive, mar 16, 2019.

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Read opposing viewpoints and take a side; evaluate the effectiveness of letter grades in motivating students; demonstrate awareness of one’s own motivation type.

HEALTH ED STANDARDS

NHES 2: Evaluate how the school and community can affect personal health practices and behaviors.

CASEL COMPETENCY: Social awareness; self-awareness

comprehensive, equitable, repercussions, extrinsic, intrinsic, incentive

Lesson Plan: Should Schools Ditch Letter Grades? 

Should schools stick with letter grades, or is pass/fail the way to go? Two Choices advisers weigh in.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

Are letter grades effective in motivating students to achieve, or should schools consider alternative evaluation systems? 

 CLOSE-READING QUESTIONS

• In Daniel’s opinion, how do grades impede students’ curiosity? Daniel says that students may not want to try a new subject because they fear it will affect their GPA. 
• How does Gauri say her approach to schoolwork was affected after her school adopted a pass-fail grading system? Why does she say her approach changed? After Gauri’s school changed to a pass-fail grading system, she started spending less time on schoolwork because she knew she would pass by doing the minimum.
• What is one reason that Gauri believes grades prepare students for real life? Accept either of the following : Most colleges have grades; many companies award raises and promotions based on employee reviews.

 CRITICAL-THINKING QUESTIONS

• Are traditional letter grades an example of an intrinsic or extrinsic motivator? Why.   Possible answer : Letter grades are considered extrinsic motivators because they motivate the student to work for a reward.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of each student’s argument. Which argument did you find more persuasive, Daniel’s or Gauri’s? Explain . Answers will vary. 
• Are you more extrinsically motivated, intrinsically motivated, or are you a mix of both? Based on what you read, in what specific ways can you use your motivation style to achieve your goals? List at least three ways below. Answers will vary . 

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

DIGGING DEEPER

CASEL Competency: Social awareness; self-awareness

In the article, students heard both sides of the debate about letter grades. In this activity, have them research ALTERNATIVES TO A-B-C , or which types of unique evaluation systems (other than pass/fail) are already being used in schools. Have them identify and describe pros and cons of those alternatives. Then have them pick a side in the debate. ( Click here to find this Skill Builder .)

EXTENSION ACTIVITY

CASEL Competency: Social awareness; relationship skills 

Once students have picked a side, begin a class-wide VIDEO DEBATE . First, have students write a persuasive essay arguing for traditional letter grades or alternative evaluation systems. Remind them to stay solutions-focused! To encourage debate, have students use Flipgrid to make a video of themselves reading their essays. Then, have them respond to one another’s videos. ( Click here to find this Skill Builder .)

Print This Issue's Teacher's Guide

• Newsletters

IE 11 Not Supported

Opinion: letter grades are failing students and schools, many educators argue that it’s time to retire the letter-grade system once and for all, because it’s inessential, subjective, needlessly competitive and a distraction from actual learning, among other things..

• Grading and reporting aren’t essential to instruction.
• No one method of grading and reporting serves all purposes well.
• Regardless of the method used, grading and reporting remain inherently subjective.
• Grades have some value as rewards, but no value as punishments.
• Grading and reporting should always be done in reference to learning criteria, never on the curve.

Exploring Ways to Say So Long to Traditional Letter Grades

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High school junior Jadyn Sullivan tends to get stressed about schoolwork. Like many of her peers, she worries about her grades.

But in her physics class, there is no traditional A-F grading scale to worry about. That’s because David Frangiosa, Jadyn’s teacher at Pascack Hills High School in Montvale, N.J., uses standards-based grading instead.

In that system, students don’t get grades on their assignments. Instead, Frangiosa gives them detailed feedback, and their performance is measured against specific course standards for mastery of the content.

Jadyn will only see a reported grade twice during the year: a midyear progress report and the final grade on her report card, which is based on a month-long final project. In many ways, she said, that is freeing.

“I feel like I’m learning a lot more than I would” if there was a grade attached to each assignment, she said. “I’m trying to actually find the answer rather than worrying about if it’s right or wrong.”

Jadyn’s experience is not the norm in schools, but it’s part of a growing trend of educators rethinking grading.

“In my opinion, it’s probably the biggest elephant in the room in regards to school reform,” Dan Kelley, the principal of Smithfield High School in Rhode Island, said of traditional grading. “We start [grading] at a young age, and it becomes all about accumulating points, and it’s not about the learning anymore.”

There are a few different strands of grading reform. Some schools have “no zero” policies that say the lowest score a student can receive on an assignment is a 50, at times even when a student fails to turn anything in. In addition to standards-based grading systems like Frangiosa’s, there is competency-based learning , which allows students to progress in their learning at different rates based on how well they’ve mastered a set of standards or competencies.

The most radical approach of all is ditching the grade book altogether —in favor of giving students detailed feedback on their performance throughout the year and working with students to jointly assign a final report card grade, when the school requires it. (It’s a small but passionate movement: About 10,000 educators are in a Facebook group devoted to throwing out grades.)

While these approaches vary, the educators who experiment with grades have a common rationale: The traditional A-F system doesn’t inspire students to learn for the sake of learning. Grades are too heavily based on nonacademic factors, like punctuality and compliance. They stress some students out and cause others—particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds—to give up.

“Are students in school to get a grade and graduate or are they in school to get better at something, to improve themselves, and to actually learn something?” said Mike Stein, an English teacher at Coffee County Central High School in Manchester, Tenn., who has gotten rid of grades in his classroom. “Sometimes, the answer can be both. Unfortunately, all too often, students get so focused on the number that it’s literally all they care about. It’s my job to do whatever I can to help them learn, even if that means taking away the numbers at the top of the page.”

But the traditional grading system is entrenched in America’s schools, and educators who experiment with grades have faced pushback from administrators, teachers, parents, and students themselves. And many school districts are not logistically set up for making radical grading changes, educators say.

“Grades aren’t the best way to communicate learning; it’s the easiest way, it’s the most efficient way,” said Starr Sackstein, the director of humanities for the West Hempstead, N.Y., school district and an edweek.org opinion blogger , who has written books about rethinking assessment.

“When we start ... understanding that kids aren’t numbers or letters, they’re complex people who often require a lot more than that—it’s not that we don’t want to give it to them, but I think we sometimes feel burdened by the extra responsibilities [and requirements] in the school system.”

Shifting Students’ Mindsets

A body of research has found that grades tend to reduce students’ interest in learning. Anecdotally, teachers who shifted away from the traditional A-F grading system say that after some implementation bumps, their students seem more engaged in the subject material. They take more ownership of their learning. And they stop asking the dreaded question: “What do I need to do to get an A?”

“My classroom has never been more enjoyable to me since I started this,” said Frangiosa, who volunteered to switch to standards-based grading four years ago when his assistant principal was looking for someone to develop and pilot the model.

“I’m a science teacher. The nature of my class is to investigate,” he said. But before he made the switch, “any time I gave students feedback, ... it would all go back to the grade.”

Now, students receive one letter grade at the end of the year—and it’s not based on their understanding of the content, but rather the skills baked into the course standards. While students take (and must pass) periodic content quizzes, their final grade is based on skills used in their final assignment and assessment, because that should be their best work, Frangiosa said.

This year, about 10 percent of teachers in his school are using alternate assessments, although not all are standards-based, he said.

The standards-based model, he said, gives students “the opportunity to try things out of their comfort zones and not be afraid to fail, because these mistakes and failures are really where we learn.”

Stein, the Tennessee teacher who went gradeless after presenting a plan to his principal, said his students have appreciated the “mindset shift” that comes with not having a grade. Other teachers in his school have expressed interest after seeing how engaged his students are, Stein said, but no one else has taken the plunge.

Still, he does have to give his students a final grade to put on their report card due to school policy. His workaround: letting students pitch him what grade they think they’ve earned.

Typically, about two-thirds of Stein’s students give themselves the grade that he would have given them. A handful of the remaining students will try to inflate their grades, but it’s more typical for students to low-ball themselves, he said.

That’s common, grading experts say.

Without grades, “students became better advocates for their own learning; they were able to speak to what they know in terms of the standards. They were able to ask for help more succinctly and know what they needed help with,” Sackstein said. “I think they also became more confident learners.”

A Lightning Rod Issue

Still, it’s hard work to rethink grades, educators say. They can face resistance at every corner, including from students, who are used to “playing the game of school,” Sackstein said.

And without all parties on board, the reform can fail. Five years ago, Kelley, the Rhode Island high school principal, had to walk back a few grade-related changes he made. He had preceded the changes with three years of conversations about grading practices with staff members.

The changes called, for example, for teachers to allow revisions on summative assessments and stop giving zeroes. Teachers were also asked to consider how and why they were grading homework.

Kelley thought that it was a good first step toward lessening the focus on grades, but the rollout went poorly.

“I’ve never had so much anger, hostility, frustration,” Kelley said. “Here I was thinking as a leader, we took our time with the conversation, but grading practices are so ingrained [that] it is really, really, really hard to break some of these practices that I think are toxic.”

Most of the pushback came from parents, he said.

A common critique of grading reforms is that they don’t teach students personal responsibility or work ethic.

Laura Fuchs, a high school history teacher in the District of Columbia, said she understands the arguments for getting rid of traditional grades. But grades help hold her students accountable. Learning that responsibility, she said, is important as students prepare for the workforce.

“No job is going to pay you if you don’t do what your boss tells you to do,” she said.

Perhaps no area of grade-related reform has been as hotly criticized as the no-zero policy . But for Michael Megyesi, the principal of Chesterton Middle School in Indiana, switching to that policy for homework and classwork was a game changer for his students. Before, many students were failing classes, even though they were passing the tests.

“The zero was more indicative of their behavior than their academic performance,” he said. “This eliminates all behaviors from the grade.” Now, if a student is failing a class, teachers know it’s because he or she doesn’t know the material and can deliver early interventions, Megyesi said.

Equitable Grading

Megyesi said the no-zero policy also puts students on a “level playing field.” Some students, he said, don’t have support at home, and it’s not fair to punish them if they are unable to complete their homework.

Indeed, Joe Feldman, an education consultant and author based in Oakland, Calif., said traditional grading “thwarts efforts to make schools more-equitable places.”

The practice, he said, is vulnerable to teacher bias and favors students with privilege while harming those from low-income backgrounds or with special needs. Instead of motivating students to work harder, Feldman, a former teacher, said low grades often cause students to withdraw from school out of discouragement.

After all, A, B, C, and so on are labels that educators are putting on students, said Mark Barnes, the creator of the Hack Learning book series and an advocate for getting rid of grades entirely .

“The more you work to get kids to believe in learning for the sake of learning, the better they become as learners for the rest of their lives,” Barnes said. “When you put a grade on something, learning stops. That’s the worst thing about grades. And as teachers, we should want learning to go on forever.”

A version of this article appeared in the February 06, 2019 edition of Education Week as Exploring Ways to Say So Long to Traditional Letter Grades

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OSU Center for Teaching and Learning

Alternative grading: A framework for emphasizing learning and de-emphasizing grades

By Funmi Amobi, OSU Center for Teaching and Learning

What does an A, B, C, or D really mean in terms of student learning? Grades are overly emphasized in the assessment of student learning. Instructors give agonizing attention to decisions about how many points or how much partial credit to allocate to students’ work. Students stress about the points they get and oftentimes engage instructors in uncomfortable conversations about how to get more points. The fixation on grades at the expense of deep learning has generated widespread criticism of the traditional points- and letter-grade system.

Critics note that grades tend to diminish students’ intrinsic interest in learning, take the focus off feedback, produce anxiety, cause learning to stop, promote cheating, and perpetuate a fixed rather a growth mindset (Kohn, 2011; Stommel, 2020). The perception that the traditional grading system is broken (Nilson, 2016) has fueled the emergence of an ungrading movement that calls for replacing the traditional points- and letter-grade system with narrative assessments and having students give themselves a grade (Blum, 2020).

To grade or not to grade? Getting rid of grades is not the immediate or only answer. Instructors teach in graded systems. Grades will continue to be the currency of the evaluation of formal student learning in most higher education settings for the foreseeable future (Schinske & Tanner, 2014). Besides, ungrading (as the movement is often called) may inadvertently contribute to equity gaps (Talbert, 2022). There is a better approach to grading.

Alternative grading is the umbrella name for criterion-referenced grading practices that engage students in striving to achieve mastery of course learning outcomes. It is an all or nothing approach with multiple feedback and revision opportunities to help students address their mistakes and correct them. It is a significant departure from traditional grading practices where students usually have a single opportunity to show proficiency (Townsley & Schmid, 2020). Variations of alternative grading include mastery-based testing, standards-based grading, and specifications grading (Elsinger & Lewis, 2020; Kelly, 2020; Nilson, 2015).

What are the benefits of alternative grading practices?  Anecdotal reports indicated that most students appreciate the opportunity to redo tests and assignments as they work toward mastery of learning outcomes. The absence of letter grades, numerical scores, or partial credit on tests and assignments motivated students to pay close attention to instructors’ feedback and use it to revise their work. Instructors reported that alternative grading fostered greater student engagement, reduced test anxiety, and greatly decreased complaints about grades (Blackstone & Oldmixon, 2019; Pope et al., 2020). Beyond anecdotal reports, research evidence affirmed that the application of alternative grading methods improved students’ learning. Here are two examples:

• One college algebra class of 140 students used a traditional points-based grading system and a second class with 50 students utilized standards-based grading (SBG). From college algebra, students went on to trigonometry or survey of calculus. The researcher tracked students in both pathways. In trigonometry, comparison of SBG students with a lower math placement score and traditionally-graded students with a similar placement score showed a significant difference. SBG students had an average final grade of 3.0 compared to traditionally-graded students who had an average final grade of 2.03. In survey of calculus, SBG students with a lower math placement score had an average final grade of 2.22 compared to their counterparts with an average final grade of 1.88 (Zimmerman, 2020).
• Specifications grading was used in six sections of an undergraduate cell biology course in Spring 2019. Two sections used a traditional grading system. The end-of-semester survey indicated that the students enrolled in the specifications-graded sections demonstrated significantly higher knowledge and retention of the content being assessed than their peers in the traditionally-graded sections (Katzman et al., 2021).

Furthermore, the results indicated that SBG helped to close the achievement gap for disadvantaged students who entered the math sequence less prepared. Also, the use of specifications-grading fostered student understanding and retention of course content.

Finally, how do alternative grading methods work? Here are three preparation guides that instructors can adapt to implement these methods in their courses:

• Mastery-based testing: Emphasizing learning and de-emphasizing grades .
• Standards-based learning: Emphasizing learning and de-emphasizing grades.
• Specifications grading: Emphasizing learning and de-emphasizing grades .

Implementing an alternative grading method requires a significant amount of work. If a comprehensive adaptation is not feasible, faculty can start small by incorporating simple ways to take the spotlight off grades (Miller 2022). Examples include grading some assignments and tests satisfactory or unsatisfactory (S/U) and giving students opportunities to use the instructor’s feedback to learn from their mistakes and revise their work.

Blackstone, B., & Oldmixon, E. (2019). Specifications grading in political science . Journal of Political Science Education , 15 (2), 191-205.

Blum, S. D. (2020). Just one change (just kidding): Ungrading and its necessary accompaniments. In S. D. Blum (Ed.). Ungrading: Why rating students undermines learning and what you can do (pp. 53 – 73). West Virginia University Press: Morgantown.

Elsinger, J., Lewis, D. (2020). Applying a standards-based grading framework across lower level mathematics courses . P RIMUS , 30 (8-10), 885-907.

Katzman. S. D., Hurst-Kelly, J., Barrera, A., Talley, J., & Javanon, E. (2021). The effects of specifications grading on students’ learning in an undergraduate-level cell biology course . Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education , 22 (3), 1-8.

Kelly, J. S. (2020). Mastering your sales pitch: Selling mastery grading to your students and yourself . PRIMUS , 30 (8-10), 979-994.

Kohn, A. (2011). The case against grades . Educational Leadership , 69 (3), 28-33.

Miller, D. M. (2022). Ungrading light: 4 simple ways to ease the spotlight off points . Chronicle of Higher Education .

Nilson, L. B. (2015). Specifications grading: Restoring rigor, motivating students and saving faculty time. Sterling, Virginia: Stylus.

Nilson, L. B. (2016). Yes, Virginia, There is a better way to grade . Inside HigherEd .

Pope, L., Parker, H. B., & Ultsch, S. (2019). Assessment of specifications grading in an undergraduate dietetics course . Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior , 52 (4), 439-446.

Schinske, J., & Tanner, K. (2014). Teaching more by grading less (or differently ). Life Sciences Education, 13 , 159 -166.

Stommel, J. (2020). How to ungrade. In S. D. Blum (Ed.). Ungrading: Why rating students undermines learning and what you can do (pp. 25 – 41). West Virginia University Press: Morgantown.

Talbert, R. (2022). Ungrading after 11 weeks . Alternative Grading .

Townsley, M., & Schmid, D. (2020). Alternative grading practices: An entry point for faculty in competency-based education . The Journal of Competency-based Education , 5 (3), 1- 5

Zimmerman, J. K. (2020). Implementing standards-based grading in large courses across multiple sections . PRIMUS , 30(8-10), 1040-1053.

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Should Grades Be Eliminated?

September 27, 2017.

Some schools are giving letter grades an F. In their place, students will get detailed progress reports.

But not everyone likes the idea of grade-free report cards. Some parents don’t want the change. They know an A is good and an F is bad. Teacher comments are not so simple. There’s also another problem. How will students show proof of their achievements?

TFK Kid Reporters share their opinions on which system makes more sense.

Benje Choucroun, 12

Corte madera, california.

Grades are outdated. The letters and numbers on report cards send the wrong message. They turn school into a game. The goal becomes getting As and Bs. Instead, students should try to understand difficult concepts. What’s more, a bad grade can hurt your confidence. And it doesn’t help you figure out how to improve. Rather than focus on grades, students should pay close attention to the teacher’s comments. They will guide students in the steps to take to improve. Think about this: Grades have been around for more than a hundred years. Isn’t it time to try something new?

Gabrielle Hurd, 10

St. louis, missouri.

Grades let parents track their kid’s progress in school. A parent can see the improvement from a C in math on an early report card to a B on the last one. A grade of C lets parents know their child needs extra support. An A, on the other hand, shows skill. Without grades, parents would have to rely on teacher comments to determine how their child is doing. The comments might not be as easy to understand as a grade. There’s another complication. Let’s say your child wants to apply to a middle school or high school that wants top grades. Teacher comments may help. But the school may still need to see grades on a report card as an added guarantee.

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