Grading in education

Yale University historian George W. Pierson writes: "According to tradition the first grades issued at Yale (and possibly the first in the country) were given out in the year 1785, when President Ezra Stiles, after examining 58 Seniors, recorded in his diary that there were 'Twenty Optimi, sixteen second Optimi, twelve Inferiores (Boni), ten Pejores.'"[3] Bob Marlin argues that the concept of grading students' work quantitatively was developed by a tutor named William Farish and first implemented by the University of Cambridge in 1792.[4] That assertion has been questioned by Christopher Stray, who finds the evidence for Farish as the inventor of the numerical mark to be unpersuasive.[5] Stray's article also explains the complex relationship between the mode of examination (oral or written) and the varying philosophies of education these modes imply to both the teacher and the student.[5] As a technology, grading both shapes and reflects many fundamental areas of educational theory and practice.

It is criticized that grades are only short-term snapshots of how much a student has learned in a given period of time, which only partially reflect the actual performance and does not take sufficient account of the individual development of students.[6] Likewise, poor grades over a longer period of time would give students the impression that they would learn very little or nothing, which jeopardizes the innate intrinsic motivation of every child to learn.[6][7] Children who have already lost their desire to learn and only study for their grades have no reason to continue learning after they have achieved the best possible grade.[7] In addition, poor grades represent destructive feedback for students, since they do not provide any constructive assistance, but only absolute key figures.[6] It is also criticized that the way of thinking, which can often be traced back to the grading system, that bad grades lead to poor future prospects, leads to perplexity, pressure and stress among parents and children.[6][7]

It is criticized that students often do not learn for their future life or out of interest in the material, but only for the grades and the associated status, which promotes bulimic learning.[7][8]

German philosopher and publicist Richard David Precht criticizes the system of school grades in his book Anna, die Schule und der liebe Gott: Der Verrat des Bildungssystems an unseren Kindern. He believes that numbers from 1 to 6 do not do justice to the personalities of the children.[9] In his opinion, grades are neither meaningful nor differentiated and therefore not helpful.[9] For example, the questions whether a student has become more motivated, is more interested in a topic, has learned to deal better with failure and whether he has developed new ideas cannot be answered with grades.[9] Instead, Precht suggests a differentiated written assessment of the students' learning and development path.[9] In his opinion, the grading system comes from a psychologically and pedagogically uninformed era and does not belong in the 21st century.[9]

German educational innovator Margret Rasfeld criticizes the system of grades and, in her opinion, the resulting competitive thinking in schools and says: „Schule ist dazu da, das Gelingen zu organisieren und nicht das Misslingen zu dokumentieren“ ("School is there to organize success and not to document failure").[10]

German neuroscientist Gerald Hüther criticizes grades for being responsible for ensuring that students cannot specialize in any topic that they are enthusiastic about and have a talent for, since otherwise their grades in other areas would deteriorate.[11] He also believes that „[...] sich unsere Gesellschaft nicht weiter [entwickele]“, „[...] Wenn wir alle Kinder [dazu] zwingen, sich an dieselben Bewertungsmaßstäbe anzupassen [...]“ ("[...] our society will not [develop] further", "[...] if we force all children [to] conform to the same evaluation standards [...]").[11]

Grading may also reflect the bias of the instructor thereby reinforcing systematic bias.[12] For example, girls doing less well in the sciences.

Most nations have their own grading system, and different institutions in a single nation can vary in their grading systems as well. However, several international standards for grading have arisen recently, such as the European Baccalaureate.

• Grading on a curve
• Sudbury school, a school model for ages 4 through 18 with schools internationally with no grading or grade levels
• Competency-based learning, an alternative to the traditional letter grade system
• Mastery Transcript Consortium, a group working to create alternatives to the traditional grading system in secondary schools