School has changed a lot recently. But there’s something that hasn’t changed. Grades. They are an outdated and stressful system which has remained the same for hundreds of years.
We’ve had such an increase in technology, going from mainly assignments on paper and pencil and rarely ever using electronic devices, to mainly only using electronic devices for everything. But grades haven’t been modernized to keep up with this technological boom.
I’m a student, and like all other students, we have to deal with grades. Grades are a mark of how well a student is doing in classes. It’s supposed to be a measure of how much we know, and how well we do on assignments, such as homework and tests. But there are many problems with them.
The first issue, with my district specifically, is what’s known as the “formative/summative system.”
Essentially, the grade is split into two categories. Formative assessments are for assignments like homework. They’re lower effort assignments that are meant to help students practice and learn the information. Summative assessments are for tests and quizzes. These are your heavy assignments, that are meant to test your knowledge and see if you really know the material
However, this isn’t good. More weight is put on the summative assignments, typically around 70 percent of your grade. In some classes, this number gets as high as 80 percent. But that means that homework, and other likewise assignments, are only worth 20 percent of your grade.
This means you could theoretically do zero homework, and still get away with a B overall. It doesn’t encourage students to try at all on formative assignments because who cares if you get something wrong, your grade isn’t affected anyways.
Another issue is that grades don’t accurately measure how much you really know. Go back to whenever you were in 8th grade (or a previous grade, if you happen to be younger). If I gave you a quiz on any of the material, would you remember it? Probably not. You’d probably guess on most of the problems, and score really low. But back then, you could probably do well on those quizzes.
If you’re in school, try and remember a test you took two weeks ago. Could you take that test now and do well? Also, probably not.
Anyone can memorize a set of flashcards and recite them for a test. That doesn’t mean that the student actually knows what any of it means.
All of this goes to show most grades don’t even measure actual learning. Anyone can memorize a set of flashcards and recite them for a test. That doesn’t mean that the student actually knows what any of it means. And on the contrary, another student can understand what all the information means, but just not be able to recite it word for word on test day.
A study done by market research firm OnePoll in 2018 showed that adults reported only using around 37 percent of what they learned in school in their life. This means that kids are getting grades that will affect their future in classes but will not be useful in their future life. They are stressed out about grades that will not help them after they are out of school. All of us students are.
So why do we still keep grades? Essentially, we’ve kept them because it’s easy to understand and people are unwilling to change the system that’s been in place for so long. The modern grading scale was created in the 19th century. This is outdated. It should be modernized to accommodate student needs.
