Balancing grades

Dear classmates,

            The reason behind Alfie Kohn’s article “From Degrading to De-Grading” is to promote awareness of how grades can negatively affect students’ learning. Kohn gave numerous of examples of how grades cannot identify student’s skills and cannot be used to evaluate their potential and understanding. Some of the examples mentioned in the article were: grades encourage cheating, grades spoil teachers’ relationships with students, and grades waste a lot of time that could be spent on learning. It is true that these things can happen, but teachers can be proactive about grading and create a way for students to agree upon so that grades can be a goal to achieve instead of a negative perspective. One of the ways that I would grade students is to balance every aspect of the curriculum with rubrics and standards. I will make sure students understand what is being graded on and why it is that way. For example, I will put emphasis on participation, open-ended test questions, and reflective assignments/projects so that students can have a choice and be responsible with the results of their actions.

            The author ended the article by giving examples of what he did with his students to ease their concerns with grades. He said by doing so students are more focus on learning the material without worrying about what grade they will earn. The author also stated that teachers who gave up control and work with their students to develop a different system of grading will reduce the harm that traditional grading affect on those students.

This article does not fit fully into any of NETS standard because it did not mention about technology tools or online sources in learning. It did however, mentioned about the ability to not give grades to students by focusing on what needed to be learned so that they can expand their interests and creativeness.

            I believe there is purpose and value in a grade because without it there are no goals to set for students for them to work hard towards reaching them. Grades are a way to assess student’s potential and ability. When students know that they don’t need to work hard to get an A, they would all be doing the bare minimum to go on to the next level. Grades should not be seen as something negative or a barrier to students learning. It should however, be a measurement/rubric for evaluating students’ progress. Teachers use grades to see what he or she needs to further emphasize on so that students understand the materials before going on to the next level. For example, students will not be able to understand Trigonometry without know basic Geometry. There should be a balance in grading. Teachers should not put too much emphasis on tests/projects because not everyone will do well on them. I believe by assessing many aspects of students’ effort will be far more effective than their ability to get the right answer. When teachers focus more on creating a learning environment where students are eager to learn and are curious about what they are learning, they will be more successful at what they are teaching. 

Nhu Y

APA Citation:

Kohn, A. (1999). From Degrading to De-Grading. High School Magazine, March 1999,