We accept grades because most of us grew up with them, but what if we imagine that those letters and numbers disappeared?
Grading has been used for over a hundred years to create a standard system to measure students based on merit. But while industries, governments, and society have rapidly evolved and changed in the past centennial, grades remain a fixed relic of the past.
We accept grades because most of us grew up with them, but what if we imagine that those letters and numbers disappeared?
A growing body of research shows that traditional grading systems decrease motivation, limit critical thinking, and discourage risk taking while increasing anxiety and competition. Dubbed, the grading paradox, grades which are meant to act as a motivator, can end up decreasing intrinsic motivation.
A study conducted by Dartmouth College tested first-year university students who had received the highest score on their AP exam. These students were given a final exam to see what they had retained and 90 per cent failed. Grades can create a very surface level approach to learning. We’ve come to place value on something that prioritizes the outcome instead of the process.
Maggie Cavazos, a Competency-based Instructional Coach and a member of the team responsible for implementing evidence-based learning in Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union, was a straight-A student. Despite this, she said she would not be able to cite a single piece of information she learned from geometry or biology in high school.
That’s why she advocates for something called evidence-based learning (EBL). Cavazos said she was drawn to evidence-based learning from the learning she felt she missed out on. She said schools and teachers cannot rely on a grade to say, “yeah they got it well enough, enough times that it’s fine.”
EBL works by defining key competencies that students should have after graduating high school that align with the skills needed in the workforce.
The key component is that students must prove their mastery of these skills to the teachers, using evidence. This evidence can be gathered from content in the class or from outside experiences such as work, volunteering, and extracurriculars.
Under a gradeless system, students were more engaged in their learning, a theme brought up by Cavazos. Motivations which used to revolve around a grade developed to be more genuine and thoughtful as Cavazos says EBL requires deeper and more nuanced reflections than a graded system. This increased autonomy has been shown to strengthen intrinsic motivation and interest in students’ learning.
Without the fear of failing at a test or an assignment, students were more motivated to explore new subjects and interests that they wouldn’t have explored otherwise. As Professor Nadia Abu Zahra, an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa in the School of International Development and Global Studies told me, “you can study how to ride a bike but you only learn how to do it by riding one and falling. Gradeless learning gives students the space to fall which shifts the motivation from fear of failure to excitement to explore.”
Cavazos said she saw students light up once they began to realize the opportunities available to them under this system saying ‘wait so I can do x?’
Grades, Cavazos believes, have become an opt-out for students and teachers actually having conversations about expectations and how they can grow pedagogically.
“‘Please do it again.’ That’s a harder conversation to have than simply giving a C and handing a paper back.”
Having deeper feedback mechanisms, Cavazos says, is more likely to provide a picture of the students’ long-term abilities which allows space for students to improve and grow.
Additionally, EBL trains people to succeed in the actual workforce, “[students are] not going to get A’s at work, you’re going to get paid, or you’re not going to get paid.” Cavazos’ said.
In the workforce, completing projects and presenting your work to supervisors demonstrates you are capable of doing a job, rather than crunching for an exam. Employers don’t assign grades, but they do evaluate the work someone has completed. This type of learning not only produces better quality work, but also work that is more applicable to the skills that will be used in the workforce.
University administrators should take a look at ways to make learning more student owned and for teachers to realize, “that you have the power to set the expectation for student success and learning in your classroom, and that is not actually tied to the grades you give them. That’s tied to the relationships you build with them.” Grades may have originally determined what success looks like, but the core foundation of education comes from learning. Evidence-based grading helps facilitate this learning in a way that is more profound.
For students, this means pushing for these practices and deciding what they want their learning to look like. At the end of the day, education should serve students, not the other way around, and it is the learner’s voices which should be prioritized. The world is ever evolving and must meet students’ needs to support them in entering it.
This type of change requires work and effort and won’t come easily. Having used grades for decades, the replacement of this system can be difficult for both faculty and teachers, therefore, all stakeholders need to be involved in taking action.
As Cavazos aptly puts it “this type of change is always going to be messy and feel a little bit uncomfortable, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing.”
It is time schools move beyond letter grades and create a space that encourages students to explore their interests and abilities, cultivating lifelong learners.
