Joshua R. Eyler gives the U.S. grading system an “F” in his new book amazon.com/Failing-Our-Future-Grades-Students/dp/1421449935″ referrerpolicy=”no-referrer-when-downgrade” rel=”sponsored noopener” data-hl-processed=”hawklinks” data-placeholder-url=”https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=69931&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2FFailing-Our-Future-Grades-Students%2Fdp%2F1421449935%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-20″ data-google-interstitial=”false” data-merchant-name=”amazon US” data-merchant-id=”1471″ data-merchant-url=”amazon.com” data-merchant-network=”amazon“>The future is failing: How grades hurt students and what we can do about itIn the article, which will be published on August 27, Eyler argues that grades undermine academic success and contribute to the current mental health crisis among young people.
Eyler is director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and a professor of education at the University of Mississippi. I recently spoke with him about how he came to these conclusions and about the alternative grading systems he has studied that are already being used by thousands of schools.
Is it true that grades are not linked to academic success?
One of the main arguments in favor of grading is that it inspires students to work and without it, students would have no motivation.
Research doesn't really support this claim, Eyler says. In his book, he notes that A 2021 meta-analysis of many previous studies that looked at the impact of overall ratingThe study compared three groups of students: one that received grades, a second group that received feedback but no grades, and a third group that received neither grades nor feedback. The study authors note: “The overall results indicated that grades positively influenced performance, but negatively influenced motivation, compared to no feedback.”
Perhaps most significantly, students who received feedback without grades experienced higher performance. and “Compared to those who received feedback, students who received grades had poorer performance and less optimal motivation,” the study’s authors conclude.
And this research is not an isolated case. “This work really confirms research that has been done for decades showing the (negative) effect of grades on learning and motivation,” says Eyler. “It’s a common thread that we see throughout this research.”
Why do grades seem to lower academic performance?
Educational scientists often talk about intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. Most agree that grades are extrinsic motivators. “They are the prize, the candy, the reward that students get for following the rules and moving through the system,” Eyler says. “What we know about extrinsic motivators is that they are good for compliance. They work to get people to do things they don’t want to do. And so, yes, they can work to get students to sit down, to get them to turn things in on time, to get them to participate.”
There is a problem, though. “An extrinsic motivator can never guarantee that someone will learn just because they are forced to be in a classroom,” says Eyler. “Learning depends on intrinsic motivation, which is quite negatively affected by grades.”
Plus, grades can interfere with fundamental patterns of learning. “The natural way we learn something from a scientific perspective is by trying things out. We make a mistake. We get feedback on it and then we try again,” Eyler says. “This is a cycle that our brains are designed to go through as we learn new things and grades stop that process before it can take place. So we get to the trying things out part and then we get a stamp of how well we tried them out without the opportunity to benefit from feedback and trying again.”
Beyond academics, grades are consistently linked to stress and negative mental health in students, Eyler says.
But isn't it impossible to remove grades?
Grades seem so ingrained in our education system that even talking about a grade-free school seems radical. But there are plenty of them. More than 3,000 Montessori schools, including 500 public schools, have no grades. In addition to these, many K-12 districts and colleges across the United States have adopted nontraditional grading systems, Eyler says.
“There are certainly some great models and examples of schools that don’t have grades, both at the K-12 and college level,” Eyler says. But she’s not advocating that schools across the country curb all grading. “I think a lot of this conversation is about moving from the traditional grading schemes that we’re in now to reorienting students’ relationship with grades by trying some of the alternative grading models that people are using.”
Many school districts are adopting standards-based grading, also known as proficiency grading or mastery grading. Other grading methods include portfolio grading, collaborative grading, and specification grading.
“There are a lot of different ways that people are experimenting with the types of assessments they’re using to release the pressure valve and put the emphasis back on learning and less on the grading itself,” Eyler says.
<h2 id="what-role-can-technology-play-in-this-conversation-3″>What role can technology play in this conversation?
technology isn’t required to move from traditional grading to another grading method, but it can make it easier by allowing educators to create multiple opportunities for success through their LMS or other tools.
Elyer points to a colleague at the University of Mississippi who offers an unlimited retake system for chemistry classes. To do this, the professor created a large set of questions. “You have every possible problem in the LMS, and the LMS generates new tests randomly, pulling from that database. So it saves time and helps automate the process,” he says.
In addition, new software is being developed to translate advanced-level transcripts into their traditional degree equivalents. Eyler says these latest tools can be helpful, but are not necessary because universities can already evaluate nontraditional transcripts.
What are the biggest misconceptions about grading?
Many proponents of traditional grading say that without them there’s no way to know whether students have learned or not, but that’s not true, Eyler says. “There’s nothing inherent in a grade that’s intrinsically related to whether a student is learning something or not. We can give that information to students through written or oral feedback just as easily — in fact, better than simply giving a 92 or a B- on something.”
He adds that this idea is linked to another common misconception: that grades are necessary to maintain academic rigor and standards. “That’s not true either, for many of the same reasons,” he says.
