It's About the Learning - Not the Letter

As the semester draws to a close, many students are focused on a final push to get the grade they want.  Teachers are, in some cases, overwhelmed with stacks of final papers and exams that need to be graded and entered before the deadline for first semester grade reports.  What does this 'grade push' at the end of a semester reveal about our educational beliefs?  I think it points toward a misguided approach in our education system - the grade is the most important value in our system.

As a society and education profession, we place an inordinate amount of validity on a single letter representing a student's achievement in a specific course.  When in reality, many times that letter is a better indication of how well that student 'plays' school than it is of achievement.  Many students, teachers, and parents - when asked about school - immediately begin to talk about their GPA (students), average class grades (teachers), and their child's grade card (parents).  Are these really the most important indicators of success in school?  Is the student's A in a course that comes naturally for him/her inherently more valuable than a student's C in a course where he/she had to work hard?  Does a grade indicate that a student has the material committed to permanent memory?  Or is it more likely that the student learned the material for a brief time, regurgitated it on some assessment, and then forgot it because it lacked relevance?  No matter how a grade is derived, there is a flaw in assigning a single letter to a semester's-worth of work and learning.  Every system, including standards-based grading, can be 'gamed' by students in order to get the best possible letter next that course on their transcript.

Further, I would argue that grades are no longer a motivator for a majority of our students.  Certainly for the top 20-25% they are, but in many cases these are the students that 'play' school well anyway.  Are we really preparing them for their future by encouraging them to play a game and focus so much on a letter and what it represents.

I don't have all the answers on this, but I certainly believe that as an education system and society we have to change our focus from the letter definition of a grade to the learning that needs to occur.  How can we do this?  How do we overcome the need for a GPA to send to colleges and put on scholarship applications?  How can we ensure that students are retaining knowledge and skills and not just learning them for the test?  I believe that a large part of this lies in creating a school experience that is full of relevance and context for the student.  This can be accomplished by allowing students more choice in what they learn.  Students need more ability to explore potential careers and post-graduation options and less mandates on how many credits are needed in each subject area.  And, we need to start this exploration much earlier than grade 11 or 12.

If we truly want to make it about the learning and not the letter, student passion must be part of the equation.  I know I'm motivated to learn when I'm interested and passionate about a topic.  I believe students are too!