Why Grades Don't Matter

About a year ago, I read a blog post by a college student who wrote, “I want ‘grades don't matter’ tattooed on my forehead.” The student went on to say that too much focus on grades can distract a willing learner from the real purpose of education, which should be about one’s willingness to grow as a contributor to society and not about how society measures one’s mastery of facts and abilities.

In response to this college student’s very fine observation, I would like to add that college professors and high school teachers like me are also guilty of placing too much emphasis on grades, not because we want to, but because we are asked to by those who are currently in positions of leadership in our high schools, colleges and universities.

What good does it do to attend workshops on the value of teaching as a formative experience when the tools used to measure student growth and the value added from a semester or year in a class is measured in summative ways? What does it mean that L. got a 93 on her semester exam, while J. made a 65? How does one measure the value added when classes are taught in such a way that each student is allowed to explore in her or his own way?

Imagine a school where students discuss ideas and problem-solving approaches with peers every day, a school where students interview adults in the working world to ask about their jobs, create music videos connecting mathematical concepts like sinusoidal functions to the chromatic scale, write history papers about what the world would have been like had Archduke Ferdinand of Austria not been assassinated on June 28, 1914. In short, imagine a school where students are expected to grow in mind and spirit.

More and more these days, teachers are plagued with accusations of grade inflation, and in many cases it is a true criticism; but I wonder if the criticism isn’t unfair, or, at least, misplaced? Perhaps teachers inflate grades because, as my young college student noted, grades really don’t matter. Teachers know it. Students know it too. In a perfect world, students would seek to know more about everything. They would want to go to class. They would want to achieve at the highest levels.

So why are we still basing success in college and "life in the real world" (whatever that means) on grades?

Maybe it is time to come up with something better.

But what? How?

While searching through the college decision website cappex.com, I came across some interesting alternatives to grading by letters or numbers.

At Goddard College in Vermont, each student has a file full of narrative evaluations documenting student learning and growth. These evaluations are written by individual advisors and students. When students request a transcript, these records are compiled into a document that tells the reader far more than a list of courses and grades ever could. A Goddard transcript tells the reader something about who the student is as a learner and as a person, what the student’s academic interests and passions are, what they learned, and even how they learn best.

Antioch University offers narrative assessments, which, they claim, provide far better understanding of a student’s strengths as a learner and those areas that might need improvement.

At the completion of each course at New College of Florida, students receive an evaluation written by the instructor critiquing their performance and course work, along with a satisfactory, unsatisfactory, or incomplete designation. No letter grades. No grade point averages.

And, finally, for first-year students in their first semester of residence at Harvey Mudd College, all courses numbered below 50 are graded on the High Pass, Pass and No Credit scale. All courses numbered 50 and above are graded on the letter grade scale, except when noted. First-year courses are those numbered below 50. Lower division courses are those numbered 50 to 99. Upper division courses are those numbered 100 and above. Unlike the colleges listed above, at Harvey Mudd this only applies to first-year students.

Aside from wanting to take some pressure off myself as a teacher, I maintain that grades really aren't that important because the goal is to help students succeed in whatever their chosen passion or field of study. I agree with the young blogger who wrote: “I think that education is about better knowing yourself, better knowing the world around you, and attempting to figure out your place in the world. Understanding reality and your role in it (‘Knowing thyself,’ as the ancient Greeks said), is infinitely more valuable than any material consequences of a diploma. Education is about self-improvement, not about the number of zeros on the end of a paycheck.”

At St. Andrew’s, a coeducational residential school in Delaware, I teach mathematics classes, am one of two school chaplains, and, among other duties, I coach baseball. I have been teaching for 35 years. Over time I have come to appreciate how a new wave of young teachers has come to favor narrative assessments over number grades. While my colleagues and I still work hard to satisfy those who need and want number grades, we also strive to capture each student’s individual gifts, passions, and creative effort through the use of narrative assessments. These are written several times during the year, and they really do capture some amazing student achievement and growth.

Here are a few examples:

A Student taking Studio Art

K. has had an excellent spring in the art major studio. For her project series, she chose to revisit the style and process she employed in her imaginative self-portrait and, in her words, "build my compositions." K. chose to juxtapose opposite thematic elements as a way to generate creative possibilities for herself, and she succeeded in making two jubilant, dynamic paintings. The first was a beautiful mash-up between the old and new, employing elements of modern, urban nightlife and old fashion sartorial style. In both this work and the one that followed, K. demonstrated what a great colorist she has become and how fearlessly she has learned to approach pictorial problem solving. She deserves to be proud of her accomplishments this year, and I encourage K. to keep this artistic spirit alive for herself in the future.

A Student taking a course in History

From our very first meeting to our final discussion this spring, J. immersed herself joyfully and rigorously in the challenging work of this course; she came to class every single day eager to wrestle with the most complex questions raised by the texts we were studying. Her leadership was absolutely essential in building a deeply collaborative and scholarly class culture – unsurprisingly, her peers consistently looked to her to set an intellectual agenda for the discussion, and to offer the synthesis that would illuminate what they had collectively discovered over the course of the conversation. Likewise, she totally embraced and took full ownership of the senior exhibition project, achieving a deep understanding of Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. We were particularly impressed with the ways in which she contextualized the novel, really considering the issues of historical memory that Díaz engages. As a result, J.'s exhibition paper was deeply interdisciplinary in ways that really embodied what we hope students can accomplish with this course. J. also did incredibly compelling work in the project that concluded our unit on Angels in America; she and Louise wrote a truly remarkable song to reflect on the romantic relationships between characters in the play. They used some of Kushner's own words, but the way in which they wove them together was new and illuminating, and the original music was both sad and beautiful – perfect for the relationships the song explored. It has been such a joy to teach J. this year; her mind is so alive, and she is so authentically passionate about the world of ideas that she absolutely lights up the classroom. We can't wait to hear about everything she does in the years to come!

A Student taking a course in Latin

A. has worked very hard in Latin Lyric this year and has made great strides in his understanding of Latin poetry. His final paper focused on Horace 2.13 and, in particular, the influence of the Greek poet Alcaeus throughout Horace's body of work. A. was at his strongest in describing Horace's manipulation of the Alcaic stanza. He has learned not only to notice, but to feel the epigrammatic precision of a deftly-turned stanza and the headlong momentum of a well-judged enjambment. He hears and feels, too, the subtle modulations of longs and shorts in Horatian metric and has a connoisseur's taste for Horace's expert integration of thought and form. In the exhibition, A. found a bit of uncharacteristic difficulty in looking closely at Horace's text, but eventually came to see the value of Horace's achievement in assimilating for a Roman audience the poetic virtues of his primary models, Alcaeus and Sappho. In his writing, A. still has room to improve as an architect of arguments. He will continue to hone his ability to build a broad claim from observations of local detail, and to scaffold his ideas with clarity and economy. I also hope A. comes in time to appreciate the rhetorical pungency and emotional openness of Catullus as much as he now enjoys Horace's philosophical gravity and witty remove. It has been a great pleasure to teach A. and I wish him all the best in his continued study of literature and the Classics, in college and beyond. Ave atque vale, and keep in touch!

A Student taking a course in Calculus

I occasionally reflect on the sheer number of people to whom R. has taught mathematics, and that number is staggering. R's hard work and willingness to share his time and mathematical passion broadly is a testament to his deep compassion and mathematical skill. During his project presentation, R's multivariable economic model of the true costs and benefits of a college education was wonderfully prepared. Forever serving his peers, R's presentation primarily focused on the concerns of his friends, who would be financing a part of their college education. I was particularly impressed by the ease with which R. employed multiple mathematical tools to create his economic model. I look forward to hearing from R. as he continues his scholarship in college next year, and I hope he will continue to study mathematics.

As my year in the classroom winds down, I am already thinking about next year and how my teaching can be improved. If you are still reading this blog, then you are probably thinking in a similar way. As we ponder what our assessments will look like this summer or what we can do to prepare for next fall, perhaps we can remember that assigning grades does not have to drive how we teach. My young college blogger thinks that valuing education for its personal return instead of its what-will-a-good–grade-do-for-me return, helps students live up to that sage wisdom, “Know thyself.”

Grades have been a necessary part of education for decades, but working to obtain good grades is not the goal of education. Knowing who you are and how you can best contribute to society, following your passion, and maintaining a steady pace along that fascinating road to discovery—these are life-long goals. How can one assign a grade or even know how to assign a grade to any student who has begun to live with such passion?