5 Common Reasons why majority of school prefer the letter grading system

Given the wide variety of assessment possibilities today, why do so many educational institutions
remain committed to using letter grades? The majority of responses fit into five responses.
People refer to other reasons as well, but it seems as if most of the conversations end up
focusing upon one of these five.

1) Letter grades motivate students.

Yes, letter grades motivate many students. The goal of earning an A or avoiding an F is often
enough to help students study and prepare for that next exam. Such goals are not enough to
help students develop a growing and persistent interest in the subject, one that will empower
them to continue learning beyond the tests, or even to use or remember what they learned.
While letter grades motivate, they also demotivate students, some of the same students that
they motivate. In Drive, Daniel Pink points out the danger of using carrot and stick tactics to
keep people motivated. He points out that this works, sometimes quite well, in the short-term,
but not as well in the long-term. In the long-term, he argues that they can:

0 extinguish intrinsic motivation

1 diminish performance
2 crush creativity
3 crowd out good behavior
4 encourage cheating shortcuts and unethical behavior
5 become addictive
6 foster short? term thinking

Letters grades dont have to be carrot and stick motivators. Ive seen many educators cultivate
an environment that minimizes the role of grades as motivators while still using them.
Ultimately, a teacher that depends upon letter grades as the sole or primary motivator risks
missing out on the experience of cultivating a high-impact learning community of purpose and
possibility. It is one thing to learn alongside a group that wants to get a good grade. It is a
completely different experience to learn with a group of people who develop a drive to learn for
other reasons (maybe because of the possibilities that it opens for them, to meet a larger goal in
life, because of a love of the subject, because of curiosity, etc.). I have participated in far too
many learning communities without grades to think that they are necessary to motivate
students. There are many and better ways to help students stay engaged. Of course, the best
teachers may still use grades, but they dont use them as the primary motivator. That is a recipe
for a culture of drudgery and compliance.

2) The next level of education uses them. Unless they change, we cant.
This is hard to ignore. Educators in elementary school prepare students for high school. College
prep high schools prepare students for higher education. This argument comes in a couple of
forms. One is the idea that students need to experience letter grades so that they are better
prepared for grades on the next level. The other angle to this is that students coming from a
school without letter grades may be at a disadvantage in the admission process at the next level
(this is usually in reference to going from high school to college).

Interestingly, when we look at the University level, most individual classes typically have far
fewer grades. It is rare to have a college class with more than ten graded assignments, although
there are exceptions depending upon the content area. In fact, in the United States, there are
still a good number of college courses where ones grade is based largely or entirely upon a
couple of tests and a couple of major papers or projects. With this in mind, a key to success in
college courses is for students to learn to stay motivated in the short-term by something other
than the next grade, as poor performance on the first grade in the class may be enough to
prevent any chance of the highest letter grade. If preparing students for the next level is the
main reason for maintaining the use of letter grades, then it might be worthwhile to gradually
work toward students having fewer grades in each class. By the way, Im not arguing that fewer
opportunities for feedback is necessarily good instructional design. From a pure teaching and
learning perspective, we know that providing frequent and meaningful feedback (which doesnt
need to be in the form of a grade) is a key to improved student learning.

Are students coming from schools without letter grades at a disadvantage when they apply to
the next level of education? Grade point average is only one of many factors that are considered
when a student applies to a University. If we review the admissions processes at some of the
elite Universities in the United States, we see that SAT/ACT, an essay, an interview, and letters of
recommendation are more significant. This is largely because GPA does not tell us much. At
best, it is simply a comparison of ones performance with other students at the same school.
These other parts of the application play a much more important role in admissions. One group
that conducts a great deal of research on this topic is the Home School Legal Defense
Association. Their pages on admission to college should offer plenty of assurance that students
are not at a disadvantage if they come from a school without letter grades (or even traditional
transcripts).

3) Moving away from letter grades is a sign of decreasing academic rigor.

A response to this concern requires that we better understand what is meant by academic rigor.
Is this about holding students to a high standard of academic performance? If so, do letter
grades do this better than alternative documentation? Other forms of documentation often
provide much more detail about what students learned in a given lesson, unit, or entire course
of study. This fact certainly makes it possible to maintain high standards. Ultimately, it is up to
the teacher to maintain academic rigor, and this can happen regardless of whether or not one
uses letter grades.

In some cases, others seem to define rigor by the distribution of student performance in the
class. If everyone received an A, then they might conclude that the class lacked academic rigor,
that it must have been too easy. While I do not agree with this perspective, it is worth our
attention. We all know that some teachers grade harder than others. An A in one class does
not equate the same level of effort or learning in another class, sometimes even when it is just a
different section of the same class, but with a different instructor. For such reasons, the
standards of the teacher typically determines rigor, not use of letter grades.

4) Letter grades allow us to compare student performance across different institutions or

organizations.

Unless every teacher in every school is using the same standards and assessments, letter grades
do not provide data that is comparable across schools. Letter grades are not standardized. They
allow one to compare student performance in an individual class, and sometimes across classes
in the same school. That is about the comparative limit of grades as they are currently used.

5) They work fine, so why change?

In some ways, this is the most compelling argument to me. Out of all the changes and
improvements that we can make to enhance student engagement and learning, are letter grades
the most important factor? There are many great schools and classrooms that use letter grades.
However, the most engaging classes are just thatengaging, regardless of grades or no grades.
Yet, letter grades have limitations, and for that reason, a growing number of schools are
supplementing or replacing grades on report cards and transcripts with other types of
documentation. This might be a more detailed description of student performance on individual
course goals, a rich narrative assessment about student performance, a separate report card
that focuses upon 21st century skills, student self-assessments, and/or a collection of student
products that show each students best work in the course. These efforts get to the heart of the
matter, providing quality, substantive and meaningful documentation of student learning.

What Made The Schools To Choose This Grading System?

School is a sacrosanct place and is touted to be the second home of children. Today in the rapid
life that we are living in, most of the parents are office goers and school becomes a safe haven to
leave their children behind and go. Thus, schools play an essential part in the wholesome and
the holistic development of each and every student they have got enrolled with. It does not
merely perform as an intermediate in which the children study and imbibe new things and habits
but, they also are depicted to the actual world where they get to interrelate with their landed
gentry and learn many things through understanding which nothing else can provide. They feel
that as technology is advancing , new forms of teaching, guiding and other features should also
be improved. One such feature is using grading system to judge a students capability and
knowledge. The main reason for the schools to exist in the world is to impart knowledge to the
students who are studying in it and assessing the students thereby forms a vital part of the
performance of the school which is usually carried as a two-way method.

Here, in this article, we are going to look in detail about the various dimensions of the grading
systems in the field of education and the various grading system advantages and disadvantages.

Let us now look in detail the advantages of grading system which is used as an inevitable tool of
assessing a students performance at least in the school life.

1. Takes the pressure off from the students at certain levels: In a general grading system as
considered above, a students real scores and its associated marks are not accounted on the
official transcript, which denotes that their GPA will not have an effect on either a pass or a fail
mark category. This spares the students from getting preoccupied and become fussy about
getting an elevated letter grade like that of an O, and permitting them to unwind. It still provides
the necessary educational prerequisites for them to land themselves comfortably on a good job
and also mould themselves to become more responsible citizens in the future. An even better
aspect is that they will also receive some credit for the course that they have studied for all
these years in the past.1

2. Grading Pattern description: One of the main advantage of this method is that the studious
children were clearly discriminated from the average and below average type of students but
this led to the development and mounting up of an intense pressure amidst the students. The
learning was not thought of a process that is revered to be a fun task, but rather as a hard task
which they had to properly deal with in a obedient manner. The advantages of the grading
system are that the development of pressure upon the students in terms of studying has
appreciably reduced.

Here, the students are bundled and grouped according to the types of grades they get which are
entirely based on the marks that they get in each subject that is taught in school.

A common grading scale in the United States is A- 90 to 100, B- 80 to 89, C- 70 to 79, D- 60 to 69,
E- 0 to 59.

In case of India the general pattern is as follows A1: 91 to 100, A2 : 81 to 90, B1: 71 to 80, B2: 61
to 70, C1 : 51 to 60, C2 : 41 to 50, D for 33 to 40 and lesser for Es.
(Grading pattern courtesy: The Department of Education, Government of India and Government
of United States of America)

Another advantage that this method has conveyed in the field of education is that it has
introduced the notion of measuring the students knowledge based on their internal
assignments, projects, their answering ability in class and their overall performance in all the
major examinations and is not just a solitary examination forced method.

Earlier the marks that were obtained in the exams are the only indicator of whether a child is
studying or not. But, this system analyzes whether a child understands the concept or not.

3. Gives the students an obvious idea about their weaknesses and strengths: Knowing precisely
which subject(s) are their weak spots, students can easily decide where to toggle their focal
point on. In a grading system where the alphabets are the scales, a grade of C or grade of D is
known to speak a lot. So, when the total grades arrive these students can easily get to know
their forte.

4. Make class work easier: Yes..you have read it right. Suppose if a student knows that getting a D
is enough to scrape through the class assignments section in the marking division, he or she will
only focus on getting a D without any fuss. Of course, getting a higher grade than a D lies with
the students prerogative only. The point is that the student does not need to toil themselves to
achieve the necessary minimum.1

5. Leads to a better rendezvous of ideas: Classes or the courses that are often taught in a
classroom medium within the confined premises of a school are highly difficult and are taken in
the ultimate sense as getting a pass or a fail in a subject and this builds a sense of responsibility
in their minds to work and train hard in their weak spots.

Disadvantages of Grading System:

Also, the following points can be considered as worthy of our importance while considering the
disadvantages of grading system. They are:

1. It doesnt instil a sense of competition: When all that is required is a mere pass mark, we
would neither have the urge to outperform others nor do we want to excel with the overall
grades. The A grade speaks a lot about our calibre than a D or a F. With a D or a F, we can be only
satisfied that we are okay enough in studies, which will make us go lazy.
2. Not an accurate representation of the performance and the knowledge gained: As we have
said already, passing in an examination cannot be considered as plausible enough to declare that
the same student has gained an immense amount of knowledge by these exams. An alphabet
cannot explain the inner knowledge gained by a student and there is no easy way of gauging a
students level of performance and knowledge in the examinations.

3. It is not an exact scoring system: Suppose, let us consider that the science subject is your weak
point and with a tremendous effort, let us say that you got an A or a C for all your attempts,
which would have made a vast disparity in your sense of accomplishment. Still, the inner
knowledge you have gained via these grades can be nil, as you may have attempted for learning
without understanding the concept, with the sole perspective of getting an A or a C.

4. Lack of incentives: The traditional letter grading system considers that every alphabet is an
inducement to perform good or better or the best. Getting a B could kindle the students to put
an extra effort to get an A and is a step closer to getting the highest mark in a class. But, the
highest rank in class tag is going to do no good for the students. To get the tag, the students will
only go for rote learning rather than exploring and explaining the concepts on their own.

Other Areas of Consideration:

The fact that a student scores a centum without any mistakes and a student who scores 90
replete with several mistakes grouped together can make the centum holder to get de-
motivated. This will dampen the spirits of the hard worker to get mediocre grades itself, as he or
she will know that irrespective of the grades, they are going to be placed in the cream students
section only.

Moreover, the responsibility now lies on the subject teacher and their candid estimation of a
particular student who is sent for the overall grading rather than estimating the true merit and
calibre of that student.

Thus, these are the unfair advantages that this system poses while considering it as an able
system to motivate the students in order to perform better.

The disadvantages of grading system thus include the piece of information that the students
cannot be distinguished with respect to the fellow ones as more than two students with
different capabilities in terms of their understanding and grasping power and prowess will
automatically fall into the same group.

Thus a teacher will not be able to know which person needs more special attention than the
other.
So, is the Grading System a Better One?

Even though there are several disadvantages of grading system it has removed several
disadvantages of the marking system. As a recent survey has shown that with the advent of the
grading system in education, the number of students who give sufficient importance to
education has got drastically reduced as this notion stems from the fact that the grades are a
fleeting sort of thing and are able to fetch only in the short-term and have no use in the long run.
Especially when these students appear to college entrance examinations with these grades and a
nil amount of knowledge, these grades will not speak on behalf of them. Grades without
knowledge, is like a batsman going to a cricket field without a bat to play a cricket match. In the
same way, the schools should also come forward to implement some changes in their already
designed curriculum to insert some changes that makes the students to get proactive in order to
learn in a meaningful way so that the concept remain with them all through their life.

As long as schools carry on to allocate their grades, with non-meaningful consequences, like a
class rank or a top to down scorer method or any other name sake methods, fastened to them,
students will keep on believing that the grades are the ultimate purpose of studying and getting
a good one will only determine their life and will lead them to pursue their lives in the right way.
Hence, it lies only in the hands of the schools curriculum management division to consider all
these aspects and make sure they devise a learning pattern that takes all these factors into
account and do the needful for the student community. If we start implementing these issues
right from today, we can see a wholesome and fully knowledgeable student community within a
few years and after which there will only be a competition for soft skills and intensity of
knowledge and nothing else.