Consider New Grading Systems!
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Students should always be at the center of our teaching! Teachers who put the students at the center of education and learning should provide them with a fair grading system. During my previous experiences, I can say that I have dealt with several very unfair grading systems as they mainly relied on standardized multiple choice tests and the passing grade was 80/100. Anything below that is failing. Of course, that wasn’t fair, especially that students had only 3 trials at getting it “right” which meant achieving an 80% whether on a formative or a summative assessment after only 3 trials otherwise their grade will be considered as FAILED. I can’t imagine how depressed and incompetent this grading policy had made the students feel!
Having the best interests of the students in my mind and heart, as their learning coach, I had to communicate with the head of the department in the US to allow an extension for the “failed” student to have a retry for a 4th time. The students seemed under pressure to perform well and receive 80% to pass the assessment and avoid the consequences of having to deal with either their parents or the school.
To add to that all, those grades are represented by a grade point average scale (GPA) aggregated in one number on a scale out of 4 was a different story. It was unjust and doesn’t do the students any good in the sense of having self-esteem or motivation. I am so pro the dis-aggregated grading that Wormeli mentioned in his video.
Having an achievement, effort and behavior grade or GPA would definitely be better to fairly justify the grades that students receive and present them with some evident documentation which would probably make it an easier task for teachers to communicate them to parents and report them to the administration as well. Wait up, students themselves should receive enough feedback for each section of the grade to sink it in as they can be in charge to have it in them to change. However, if we have to provide them with a push, a reminder that we are there to help and support them no matter what, it’s our job to give them hope to succeed and thrive to do so. It is our duty to make the change in their mindset, in their lives, to lure them to want to learn for the sake of learning and not because it is tied to a grade, to a number that will do them harm than any good.If anything, it will limit their abilities to exceed and go beyond what the norms can do, because simply they would be FREE of the consequences of a just a number! I think building this kind of growth mentality in our youngsters. This will probably affect them for the rest of their lives.
I was one of those students back in high school where I only cared about receiving As because my community looked at and treated those with honor and respect unlike the Bs or the Cs students. There is nothing wrong with being a B student but apparently my math teacher back then interpreted it as “dumb”, “inadequate”, “non-functional” population and the list goes on. I was never naturally good at numbers but I was smart enough to show real understanding in various subjects. I was able to understand them well to reach critical thinking stages because I was simply motivated and encouraged by those teachers. Most importantly, I was not underrated or limited for that matter so I went to learn stuff even beyond what the grade measured. What I am trying to say is that the psychological consequences that those aggregated grades or life-changing numbers have on youngsters is profound and should be reevaluated and looked deep into further and further till we master what we preach as educators.
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