TRADITIONAL GRADING: Worth Saving or Time for a Change?

Kathryne McCann

Doodles by Cameron Fisher

You spend long nights hunched over textbooks, suffering through headaches as you stare blankly at an eye-straining computer screen. Your hand begins to cramp as you feverishly scribble down an essay as the time ticks away during an exam. These are all situations students of today are all too familiar with.

The stress, anticipation and instant gratification or shame that comes as a result of traditional grading systems has been a staple of education in America for generations. In recent years, however, it has been noted that high school and college students are more stressed than ever before. Could grades have anything to do with it?

In a study published by BMC Public Health, researchers found that among a sample of students ranging from elementary through high school, self reported levels of anxiety increased with age and was negatively associated with school performance.

This trend not only starts young with elementary schoolers but continues on into college. According to the 2019 National College Health Assessment, just within two weeks, about 53% of students reported feeling overwhelmed by all they had to do and felt exhausted (not from physical activity). The study also reported that during any time within a 12 month period about 66% and 45% of students

felt overwhelming anxiety and so depressed that it was difficult to function, respectively.

When asked if he feels stressed out about grades, third-year American University student Matthew Ollendorf, who is double majoring in secondary education and history, provides a simple answer: “Yes, for sure.”

Especially amidst the pandemic, stress levels related to academic performance are riding high.

“I don’t think I am at my peak productivity with the pandemic, so that results in increased anxiety a bit about grades and how I’m doing in classes,” said Ollendorf.

Denise Clark Pope, a lecturer at the Stanford School of Education and author of “Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic and Miseducated Students,” told Stanford News that stress levels among students created by the pressure to achieve top scores are so high that some educators regard it as a health epidemic. In order to learn more about how high-achieving students function, Pope shadowed five high school students for a year and found most of their time was spent cheating the system in order to get the grades. In the end, all that matters is the grade. Or, at least, that’s how it can sometimes feel.

This is where Roshan Abraham, a first year advisor, AUx instructor and adjunct professor of philosophy and religion, finds that education should be put into the hands of the student. Once a very traditional grader, through reading more about grading he has become an advocate for new methods that places an emphasis on learning rather than just achieving a desired grade.

“I’m not even sure if grades are a good measurement of learning, it is a measurement of performance,” said Abraham. “Students need more ownership of their learning.” Through this ownership he argues that students are more motivated and will hold themselves accountable.

Not only does providing students with ownership over their learning result in them getting more out of their academic experience, but it creates a more equitable environment.

Traditional grading often involves a level of implicit bias based on race, class and gender. Disportionately, schools use disciplinary actions to punish Black, Latino, low-income and special needs students, and these biases do not go away when it comes to the gradebook.

“Any grading rubric you make, you have, whether you acknowledge it or not, an ideal student is in mind,” said Abraham. “Because of the society we live in, and especially how academics are trained, it is hard for that ideal student not to be a privileged student.”

Many times students are punished for things outside of their control. Differences in incomes, resources, access to the internet or even a space where students can complete work safely and quietly can all be factors that impact a students performance.

Perhaps to understand why the vast majority of schools rely on traditional grading systems, we should look at a brief history of grades.

The letter grades we are all too familiar with did not gain popularity until the 1940’s, and even in 1971 only about 67% of primary and secondary schools in the United States used letter grades. Grading does, however, have a much longer history.

As mentioned in the article “Teaching More by Grading Less (or Differently)” by Jeffery Schinske and Kimberly Tanner, the earliest forms of grading were exit exams taken in order to receive a degree. Harvard, as early as 1646, had some kind of exit exam for students to take. By the 18th century universities such as Yale and Harvard used exams to select valedictorians and salutatorians, however the first official record of assigning grades came from Yale where seniors were graded using four categories. This four-point scale consisted of Optimi, second Optimi, Inferiores, and Perjores, however, these marks were hidden from students.

The late 19th century and 20th century saw an emergence of coordination between schools, which began to implement grades on the hundred point scale and a grading system that involved “A”-“E” letter grades, the notorious “F” having been added later and the “E” disappearing by the 1930’s. By the early 1900’s 100-point scales were very common and the “A”-“F” system was dominant by the 1940’s.

One of the purposes of grading and why its use has increased drastically over the years is in response to students desire to receive feedback. As mentioned in Schinske and Tanner’s article, “Because college students express a desire for feedback, faculty members may feel pressured to grade more (rather than facilitating ungraded activities) and to provide more written feedback while grading.”

Around the same time grades began to become popularized, standardized testing also solidified its place in education. According to TIME, by World War I standardized testing was a common practice, often conducted to assign U.S. servicemen jobs during the war effort. One of the most famous exams, if not the most famous, the SAT, or Scholastic Aptitude Test, first emerged in 1926 and was created by the nonprofit College Board. In 1959, University of Iowa professor Everret Franklin Lindquist developed the American College Testing, or the ACT to compete with the SAT. Today, both of these exams are hurdles students need to clear before applying to college.

People in favor of standardized tests often argue that they are the most objective way to measure students’ academic mastery. Since students are given a similar set of questions, under similar testing situations, which are graded by a machine or blind reviewer, it is fair across the board. Grading practices vary significantly from classroom to classroom, school to school, district to district and even state to state. These assessments hold both students and schools accountable through an even comparison across the board.

“Frankly, education has gotten out of control in the States,” Abraham said when speaking about the testing and stress his daughter, who is currently in elementary school, experiences. “There is this messaging that students receive, apparently now at a really young age, that if you mess up this is going to ruin your life.”

Jordyn Habib

In an attempt to introduce new kinds of grading, Abraham along with other AUx instructors that are part of the AUx Working Group, have proposed a new opt-in program to be offered for AUx2 in the spring in which instructors interested will implement self assessment grading.

AUx is a full year course part of the AU Core Curriculum designed for first year students as they transition into college. AUx1 takes place in the fall while Aux2 is completed in their second semester.

What self assessment grading looks like for instructors who do opt into the program is that students will complete an assignment and receive qualitative feedback. Using this feedback, students will then write a reflection responding to any questions raised and discuss how the assignment went. After this reflection students will assign themselves a grade.

While Abraham acknowledges that this is a radical change to grading, he says that instructors will not be left in the dark if they choose to participate. There will be training provided on how to implement this grading method in the classroom.

As for other professors and instructors, Abraham would encourage them to step away from assumptions about what traditional grading should be and look like. He hopes that more people will try new options and try and see what the results are.

For many, grades continue to pile stress onto the backs of already stressed-out students and be used to uphold outdated standards. What traditional grading systems seems to forget is that behind every test, paper and homework assignment is a student, and each student has their own set of circumstances. Today, school is more associated with anxiety, stress and grades that will ultimately decide your future rather than learning. Perhaps it is time to look at the research and begin finding a new way to measure one’s education.