The Meaning of Grades

The Wake County Board of Education recently considered instituting a minimum grade of 50 (out of 100) for assignments that students failed to turn in, and limiting the penalty for work turned in late to 10% of the grade. They were concerned about the practice of teachers giving zeros for missing assignments and taking significant points off of late assignments. Wake County Public Schools is the largest school district in North Carolina, so this policy change would affect a lot of students. Some of the teachers in the county didn’t like the idea of the Board dictating their grading procedures, so the Board has dropped the idea of a mandate and has switched to making these ideas their “suggestions." While I understand and sympathize with the teachers’ discomfort with such specific grading requirements from the Board, I share the Board’s concerns when it comes to grading.

I am totally opposed to giving students zeros. I am also opposed to automatically subtracting points for late work. Allow me to explain.

I believe that, as teachers, we should be concerned with helping all of our students learn what we are trying to teach them. I don’t believe we should be concerned with making sure that they all learn it at the same speed. We know that people are individuals and learn at individual rates, in individual ways, and require individual supports at times. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, we insist on assigning grades to everything and we base our education system on the assumption that all students require one year or one semester to master whatever content we decide to throw at them. Does anyone else see a disconnect there?

First of all, grades are unnecessary and dehumanizing. No, that is not an exaggeration. We can determine whether a student has learned what we wanted him to learn without assigning an A, B, C, D, or F to him. We can simply say “Yes” or “No.” Why do we insist on this obsession with categorizing people, ordering them from best to worst, over and over again? We don’t need grade point averages or class rankings, either. We can eliminate the whole idea of the high-school class valedictorian without causing any harm to the well-being of anyone. Some school districts have already done this, and their students are doing just fine. In fact, I’m guessing it would help us all much more than it would hurt us to stop grading everything. It would put the focus where it ought to be — on the learning, on the skills, on whether students can do things with what they know.

When a student gets a zero, whether because he does a very poor job on an assignment or because he doesn’t do an assignment, what purpose does it serve? If the student’s grade for the course is based on cumulative points or weighted points, which most grades are, a zero can create a situation where, no matter how well he performs on every task remaining in that course, he will be unable to earn a grade that accurately reflects his level of knowledge and skill. Teachers who use 100-point grading scales should never give grades lower than 50, logically speaking. After all, the difference between an A and a B is 10 points. The same holds true for the difference between a B and a C, and between a C and a D. It is nothing more than excessive punishment when a teacher gives a student a zero for a missed assignment. Douglas Reeves wrote an excellent explanation of this in his article The Case Against the Zero.

Regarding penalties for late work, I can only ask again, why? What is the purpose in taking points off of a grade because the student turned it in late? What does this accomplish, other than punishment? If a grade is meant to communicate something about a student’s skills and knowledge, what does it communicate when you lower the grade for tardiness? That he learned too slowly? That, no matter what his work actually showed, he only learned, at most, 90% of what he needed to learn? The most common argument I hear from teachers about this issue is that they are using the late penalties to teach students the importance of respecting deadlines and of responsibility. To which I always want to reply, “Do you meet every deadline you’re given? When you’re late turning something in to your principal, are you penalized 10% of your salary? Or, are your evaluation ratings dropped by 10%?” Just because banks and libraries charge late fees doesn’t mean we have to do it, too. As educators, we should be more reasonable than that.

If grades are supposed to communicate accurate information about how well the students mastered the content, then that’s all they should be about. And, if grades don’t actually communicate accurate information about how well the students have mastered the content, because we have lowered the grades for late or missing assignments, then we need to stop giving them at all. This is where it becomes obvious that, although most teachers are trying to educate their students, a few of them are more interested in wielding power and doling out punishments than they are in pedagogy. They cling to the ideas of the zero and late penalties because they grew up with them and because they like having that power. They will claim it’s about integrity and life lessons, but it’s really just about power and hierarchy. The way our schools are structured only reinforces these dysfunctional power relationships and it is up to us, as the adults in the room, to be the voices of reason. We need to refocus the entire endeavor on the students and their learning, not on ranking and punishing them. 

It's a Family Affair

I don’t normally do this kind of thing, but I am moved to express my gratitude for my sisters. I'm thinking about what I would say to them if I knew it wouldn't make me burst into tears. This is why I don't say these things out loud - fear of crying in front of people. Anyway, I'm going to take advantage of technology and post here things I'd like them to know.

My sisters have been one of the major influences in my life. When I think back on my childhood, I first think of my sisters, not my parents. They were always much more prominent in my life than either my father or my mother and they, in many ways, raised me. I learned more from them than from anyone else.

Annie

Annie is the sister who always took care of me, taught me to have a sense of humor, and made me love silly British humor (think Monty Python). She inspired me to think about things like politics and social policy from a very young age. She was always the epitome of "cool" to me. None of the other 5th graders in my school had t-shirts with the NORML logo on them! It was never easy to find privacy in our house and there wasn't a lot of individual attention available. But Annie would take me with her when she went out on errands so it was just us, and she would let me sit with her and her friends when they were hanging out at our house. She was such a role model for me that I never looked anywhere else for examples of how to be a woman. Annie is the voice inside my head that stokes my ambition and makes me work hard. She also taught me to have fun and to find humor, even in very trying circumstances. She's a model of forgiveness and love and hope. She showed me how to be both openly emotional and strong, and I will forever be grateful to her.

Maggie

Maggie is the sister who, in many ways, is still a mystery to me. She taught me to read, one of my greatest pleasures in life, and wore me out on long walks. She is usually the first sister I mention when people ask me about my family because I'm so impressed by the major mid-life career changes she has made. Through her example, she showed me how to engage in intellectual and personal exploration. As a child, I always thought of Maggie as perfect, the ideal. She was always being pursued by boys and seemed to just know things about life. This made her seem distant from me, since I was swimming in imperfections and, being 5 years younger, knew next to nothing about life. But, just when I would be feeling like I would never understand her, she would reach out and connect with me. I could never predict what would make her laugh, and Maggie laughing is a pleasure to see. She’s a very serious person, but her smile transforms her face. I will always be grateful for her.

Katie

Katie is the sister I played with, fought with, and stuck to throughout most of my life. I guess sharing a bed with someone for 12 years creates a bond. She's opinionated, active, and thoroughly engaged in her life. She's the person who reminded me that I should bake cookies with my kids, carve pumpkins with them, eat meals with them, take them to festivals and shows, and make sure they had the resources they needed to pursue their passions. (Yes, I needed reminding of all of that.) Katie has made me a better parent than I would have been without her influence. I haven't always appreciated her as much as I should have and we've had some wicked arguments. But I know the ways that she has shaped me. She has been the force that has pulled me out of my own head and into the world, and I will be eternally grateful for her.

My sisters are so important to me that I named my children after them. That’s about the highest praise I can offer. So, as Thanksgiving approaches, I’m stating publicly that I am grateful for my sisters.