While working at Midwest Abacus and Learning Center, I have experienced being a student and a teacher at the same time. I am now a full-time undergraduate student, and I teach as the lead math instructor. I have always viewed education as it pertains to myself or my class. As I interact with my students, however, I realize that some issues are affecting elementary and high school students alike. The modern grading system and the mentality that it creates bring me the most concern. I believe that it is doing a disservice to students in many respects. I have seen many educators speak on the issue, but it also needs to be addressed by the individuals who are directly experiencing its repercussions. 

First, it is important to define what it means to be a good student. I believe that a good student is someone who values their education, puts in the necessary effort to receive that education, and can apply that knowledge. I hope that educators hold a similar standard to distinguish a good student from a bad student. If a student meets all of these expectations and still receives a D on a test, does that make them a bad student? The short answer is no. However, this question is still a difficult one to answer because of how elevated our standards have become. 

It is common for teachers, parents, and students to call someone a straight-A student. While getting an A should be celebrated, we have created this culture where it is unsatisfactory to get anything other than an A. Getting a B, which is sometimes only 0.01% away from being an A, does not nearly receive the same response as getting an A. Why is that? It is because of the mindset that we have developed. Students believe that to be a good student, they need to get all A’s. When a straight-A student doesn’t get an A, they feel like they have failed. However, understanding 80% of the material or even 60% of the material is far from failing. When we disjoint the percentage from the letter grade, it’s easy to see how high of a standard we have set for children, and it seems to only be increasing in difficulty. When I asked my students how they would feel if they received a bad grade on an assignment, “failure”, “mad”, and “scared” were some common words that circulated the conversation. This system is fostering a discouraging attitude which drives children to be less invested in their education. 

The education system is also doing a disservice to students in the way that grades are weighted. Throughout high school, my math classes were set up so that our homework counted towards 10% of our grade and test/quizzes counted towards 90% of our grade. Now the question becomes, why aren’t students being rewarded appropriately for the long hours that they put into understanding and interacting with the material? In my opinion, those hours are what truly separates a good student from a bad student, and even makes the learning process more purposeful and impactful for students.   

The discrepancy between the emphasis placed on testing vs. learning creates another phenomenon which I like to call the “learn-it and lose-it effect”. There are some classes where a student’s entire grade is based on tests and quizzes. In these classes, there is no impetus for students to do their homework, and they are passively absorbing information during class. A few days before the test/quiz, they put in hours of work to learn the material, and they receive an A on the assessment. At this point, you are probably wondering what the problem is because the student still received an A. I have been in similar situations before, and here’s the issue. That A might reflect a students temporary understanding, but it has no accuracy in measuring a students’ retention of the material. If you asked that student to take the same test a week later, without studying beforehand, they most likely would not be able to get the same grade. They learn the material and lose the knowledge just as fast. Keep in mind that this is only one outcome in a class such as this. Most student’s will not be receiving an A, regardless of the effort that they put in the day before learning takes time. 

Many people try to push the blame onto the student for not putting in the effort to learn. Well, if a student has five to six other classes in which they have assignments directly affecting their grade, this test is not going to become a priority until a few days before. It is not wrong for a student to adjust their priorities because it is often forgotten that students are trying to succeed in six to seven classes simultaneously. Furthermore, there is no incentive to actively learn in a class like this. This is an instance where I believe grades have the potential of motivating children. For example, if the instructor made frequent yet brief homework assignments, and made them 50% of a students’ grade, I would guarantee that students would store higher in that class while taking on less stress. Grades should reflect the effort a student puts into learning as well as their ability to demonstrate their knowledge. When this balance is found, grades have the potential of driving kids forward instead of holding them back.

Let’s call this class A, and I would like to compare it to another type of class that I have taken, class B. In class B, me and my peers read the short lesson outside of class, and in class, we would interact with the material with the aid of our teacher. Yes, we had homework, but it never took hours to complete. Whenever I had a test, I already felt comfortable with 90% of the material and didn’t spend too long studying. If you asked me which class I spent the most time studying for, I would say class A. However, if you asked me which class made me retain the information, I would say class B. A well-structured class can aid a student in the process of learning, while a poorly structured class can make a student work harder than they need to. We should not make it harder for kids to receive a good grade by structuring classes against them .

I want to emphasize that I am not against the grading system by any means. In fact, I strongly believe that grades are vital in measuring a student’s growth and learning and to even encourage them. I asked some of my students if they wanted schools to get rid of grades, and the universal answer was no. One of my students emphasizes that without grades, “there’s no way to set goals for myself,” (Harsha Sridhar, 6th Grade). Students value getting feedback. These letters hold a lot of power, and they can aid students when used correctly. They need to be designed to reward students for their learning and to encourage their continual effort, not just the five days they spend taking tests in a semester. We run into problems when students feel cornered in a class because they aren’t able to reach a certain letter grade, and when they feel like they have no way of succeeding. My question to educators is, how is a student supposed to show growth when they are pressured to get an A every time? How is a student supposed to feel comfortable making a mistake when it could result in their grade dropping a whole letter grade? There needs to be more emphasis placed on growth rather than perfection, and this change needs to occur beyond the classroom. 

I feel that we are making it harder and harder for a student to maintain good grades. A student’s education is important, but it is not all that defines them. If we ease the difficulty, a student could be faced with so many great opportunities, such as playing a sport, learning an instrument, or whatever their heart desires, without compromising their education. It’s common for students to think that their grades might suffer if they play a sport, but it shouldn’t have to be that way. If that is true, then we are doing students a disservice by disconnecting them from their interests or not allowing them the time to find their interests. Students spend about seven hours at school every day, how much more of their time needs to be sacrificed? Yes, students may be required to complete assignments outside of class. However, if they are consistently spending hours and hours of their time for the same class, something needs to be said about the efficiency of that class.

One of the many reasons why I started working at Midwest Abacuses and Learning Center is because of the management and their approach to education. Here, we never define a student by a letter or a number, and we never desire perfection. In fact, we grade students’ work for the sole purpose of identifying their strengths and weaknesses, not generalizing their efforts with a letter. We encourage students to make mistakes so that we have a better time helping them through difficult concepts. Our students are never passively learning the material, and they are interacting with the lesson in multiple ways. Yes, we assess our students’ progress, but we only use it as a measure of learning. It allows students to set goals for themselves, and it keeps them invested in their learning. I believe that all students require this safe space to learn, to feel comfortable with their abilities, and to take chances. If the grades that we assign to students are preventing this from happening, we need to fix our approach.