Teaching Without Grades?
I genuinely loved reading and researching about this topic. The article "Teaching Without Grades: a year of lessons from a no grades classroom" written by Dea Auray discusses this new shift in education. Teachers are starting a movement in which they are no longer using a traditional grading system, instead, they are emphasizing the learning process. Focusing strictly on the learning process rather than grades.
On a personal note; I have always loved to learn/ I loved school. However, from a very young age, I quickly developed debilitating anxiety and stress. This push to a gradeless system instantly made me recall and reflect on a moment in my life that I will never forget. I don't recall the test I was stressing over but I can distinctly remember the feeling it caused. At one point, I was in my parent's bedroom sobbing because I was so anxious about taking a test. I was so upset that I couldn't catch my breath, my heart felt like it was beating out of my chest and it was entirely rooted in the need for me to perform well enough to receive the best grade. As I have grown older, I now recognize that moment in time as my first panic attack; I was distraught over an exam and a number grade. It is unsettling and traumatizing that I was defining myself by a grade I saw on my tests and exams.
As I progressed through the education system, high school, college and now graduate school, I developed strategies and ways to help cope with this stress and anxiety that is associated with testing and grades. However, as I continue through the education system, learning to become a teacher, I can't help but understand and approve of this idea of a gradeless system. As a future teacher, I will encounter a variety of students and you cant simply quantify their strengths. Grades require more than intelligence. They are a result of a number of factors, and hard work and commitment are far more important than any surface-level evaluation. The only real limitation is how much time and effort you are willing to invest and most time the students in our classroom do not have much control over how much time they can invest outside of the classroom. Instead, through a gradeless system:
- We can seek to increase educational challenges while decreasing student stress and anxiety
- We can seek to change the orientation of school from only preparing students, for the indefinite future to also valuing learning and living in the present
- We can seek to provide experiences designed around learning and GROWTH rather than giving assignments and testing for competencies
- A gradeless system can end the tyranny of grades and replace them with self-assessment and reflection!
In an ideal society, this would be the best-case scenario, however, as much as I would love to implement a gradeless system I feel the need to acknowledge the fact that we live in a society that places a lot of weight on grades. Schools, institutions, and employers are heavily focused and dependent on quantitative data. Individuals are still being identified and defined by numbers and letters. I know a number cannot define a person, we know a number cannot define a person, yet, we are required to prove our competencies and capabilities through grades.
We live in a system that is dependent on traditional grading. For instance, this very graduate program requires students to receive a B or higher in order to stay in the program. Students and I too have been trained to care more about the grade than whatever it is we are getting graded on. Which is a huge downfall to the traditional grading system!
With that being said, it becomes difficult to understand and embrace a gradeless system when the stakes of receiving a certain grade are extremely high. And I completely agree with Auray that grading affects the learning process. The idea of being in a class that is committed to student learning instead of numbers is very inspiring and hopeful. I think a gradeless system will help provide students will the tools and capabilities to think critically and reflect, all skills that are necessary for today's 21st century. But growing up and living in a system that is heavily dependent on numbers or letter grades makes it very difficult to assimilate into this type of system.
I like this quote from the article: "learning (is) difficult or impossible to measure and traditional grading systems hinder learning by putting the emphasis on symbols like letters, numbers, and percentages instead of meaningful feedback loops."
Gradeless would be best, but a universal system that follows that approach must be created before we can implement a system like that and expect every learner to thrive. The stress and stigma of receiving a specific grade to be successful needs to be removed before learners become comfortable with a gradeless system.
“If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
"Teachers Throwing Out Grades"
This article reminded me of an article I read from the Teaching Tolerance magazine titled, "The Thinking is the Work," written by Cory Collins. Although the article's subject matter does not address assessment or grading, Collins does discuss Wilkerson and Mann's use of qualitative data over quantitative data to confront implicit bias and systematic racism in schools. These teachers focused on qualitative data which provided insights and stories that drove the narrative which ignited genuine equity within their schools. For more information on this article, check out my blog post here, which discusses Mann and Wilkerson's experience with spearheading an initiative that internally audited their school.
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