The Tyranny of Letter Grades

Our present grading system is usually a approach for teenagers to show themselves, win faculty scholarships, or achieve admission to extremely selective faculties. It can also flip right into a sport that encourages comparability to fictional “averages.”

Some say the entire system of grading focuses on rating and sorting college students reasonably than truly serving to them be taught. And it seems, that’s by design. Much of the drive to standardize grading programs was based mostly on the work of psychologists from the 1800s who noticed the aim as discovering above-average college students to focus instructing on reasonably than seeking to assist all college students, argues Todd Rose, a developmental psychologist who research improvement, intelligence and studying and creator of “The End of Average.”

“Human beings are more like patterns, and patterns can’t be ranked,” says Rose.

Which raises the query: Is there a greater strategy to measure educational achievement?

On this week’s EdSurge Podcast, we discover how we acquired to right this moment’s grading programs and we think about a world the place letter grades don’t have a lot energy. And I share my private obsession with grades as a scholar—and request a replica of my very own faculty admissions file to strive to determine simply how vital all my grade-chasing was to my very own academic path.

The episode is an element of our ongoing Bootstraps sequence, exploring America’s longstanding custom of prizing “merit” in deciding which college students get entry to the “best” academic alternatives. We’re co-producing the sequence with the journalism nonprofit Open Campus.