Should schools rethink meritocracy? Are Grades necassary part of education?

Question

if grades are not necessary, how would you determine the student aptitude or capability? should we keep the system as is or make some change?

Answer 1

Schools are rethinking meritocracy, but maybe not in ways you think. This is an interesting time to be an educator in the US because there are at least two different paradigm shifts happening in education right now. Those two changes are happening in opposite directions, which leave teachers twisted into impossible contortions.

In the universities, teachers are being trained to understand that each student is an individual with different strengths and weaknesses. They are being taught to recognize the different multiple intelligences (interpersonal, intrapersonal, bodily/kinesthetic, musical/rhythmic, naturalistic, visual/spatial, verbal, mathematical/logical) and learning styles of children. Teachers are learning to honor and make use of cultural differences as well in the learning experiences and opportunities to demonstrate knowledge they create in their classroom.

New educators are learning how important hands-on experiences are for young learners preparing to make the jump from concrete to abstract thinking. They are encouraged to let students run parent-teacher conferences by choosing samples of work to go in a portfolio and explaining to the parent exactly what each piece of the portfolio shows that they have learned. This will help students take ownership of the processes of learning and demonstrating their knowledge, and they will become self-directed learners.

Teacher are working to create a learning community where students feel free to be take risks, be wrong, and tell each other what can make their projects better. Students are learning critical thinking skills by evaluating their own and each others' work.

All of this is happening along with a growing recognition that students have to build their own knowledge by connecting new facts and ideas to what they already know and what they are interested in. More and more teachers are seeing the value of individual projects that let a student make some creative decisions on their own and lead to a finished product that they themselves judge to be of good quality.

At the same time, politicians have gotten involved in education. There is a growing movement some call the Cult of Accountabilism. This means that politicians want to hold schools accountable for what they are teaching. The methods of accountability states have devised are not very creative--chiefly fill-in-the-bubble tests of verbal and mathematical skills.

There are severe punishments for schools that fail to raise test scores under the federal No Child Left Behind law. I've seen reductions in funding and many extra meetings with consultants who are hired to raise test scores. I've also seen a district gradually choke off funding and then fire the principal and all the teachers at schools that fail to perform. The district leadership hires a new staff and pumps extra money into the school, taking credit when test scores go up.

Those pressures mean grades will be around at most schools for a long time to come. At the same time, many states in the US are changing report cards to something that parents will need to learn to understand. It's called a standards-based report card.

Used to be, you got grades that reflected some kind of weighted percentage of the assignments, questions, problems you successfully completed. Those that were given to you reflected a teacher's idea of what students in that grade and that subject should be able to do. There might be a very complicated letter sent home with the formula that showed how the grades for homework, tests, and other assignments were combined.

Now states have lists of content standards and benchmarks that represent what students in different grades and different subjects should be able to do.

"Students will be able to correctly add numbers of three digits, with regrouping."
"Students will be able to write a persuasive essay with three supporting arguments."
"Students will demonstrate a knowledge of the structure of a plant cell."

In standards-based grading, the teacher starts out the grading period with a list of benchmarks like those above, and keeps records of the benchmarks each student has demonstrated over the weeks. If they fail to demonstrate a benchmark on the test or in a project, the teacher might just ask them about it later to see if they've got the concept down. When the report card comes out, it may look like this:

Language Arts: Meets standard
Science: Exceeds standard
Math: Approaches standard
Physical Education: Well below standard

In the above example, the student met all the required benchmarks in language arts. She also met all those required for science, and she had an outstanding science fair project. She met most of the benchmarks in math, but she didn't meet most of the benchmarks in physical education (I suspect she refused to participate, but you'd best talk to her teacher).

I've done both grading methods, and I find a standards-based method more justifiable as a teacher. It is much easier for me to believe in the difference between an "Approaches" and a "Well below" than it is for me to believe in the difference between a 69 (D) and a 70 (C).

Once they get used to it, it's also easier for students to understand what they need to do to pass or get a "Meets". You end up with the vast majority of students getting "Meets" or "Approaches", and a very small percentage of students in the "Exceeds" or "Well below" categories.

Moving to this system is a big adjustment for kids who are used to doing everything they're asked to do and getting the highest grade. They want to know exactly what they need to do in order to go above and beyond! Their parents also tend to be the ones teachers hear from most when the switch is made.

Answer 2

Failing?

Answer 3

yes, grades are nessicary, it determines the amount of info a student has retained and demonstrated capability of. would you want you brain surgeon to tell you he doesn't know what his GPA was b/c 'grades shouldn't matter'? the grading system was formed to determine the student aptitude. and life is a test, so i don't like to hear someone saying that grades arent fair b/c some aren't a good test taker. when my surgeon comes into the OR s/he is about to take a test on me! and they'd better pass! because that's a life or death grade, not pass or fail.

Answer 4

Who said they are not necessary?

No two people are the same, grades will be different and learning that doesn't come from books will be different. However, grades are concrete information. How else will an employer separate the wheat from the chaff?

If anything, grades are a strong indicator of dedication, work ethic, tenacity, inclination toward responsibility...

If grades no longer existed, how would one know who had out-preformed his/her peers?