This is a continuation of a hijack from “Grading on a Curve” thread.
I would like to talk about whether or not grades are a good thing in higher eduacation. For the record, I go to UC Santa Cruz, a school which currently runs on a pass/no record system with narrative evaluations and the option of grades. This system (very rare in a public university) has been under attack lately, much to my distress. It is not only that I feel that learning without grades is a better way, but I feel that people should at least have the option of a school that operates that way.
Here is why I think that a pass/no pass system with narrative evals is a superior system.
When you are in a graded system, the most important goal of the class is to earn a certain grade or percentage. You are striving to get an “A” or a “97%”. Actually learning something may be a bi-product of that, but it is not the focus. When grades are there, they are the end instead of the means. I believe that when you take away grades, the focus shifts to actually learning.
People say that not having grades allows people to slack off. I disagree. I think that not having grades leads people to seek a higher understanding. The threat of wasted time and money is enough of a threat to keep people from sliding the whole way through college. I work hard in school because I am there to learn, and I am spending a huge amount of money and a lot of my life to do that. Any slacking on my part comes with the consequence of wasteing that time and money and not learning. I don’t need the additional artificial threat of a low GPA or a big fat D to keep me on track.
But it is not all subjective fluffiness, either. The narrative evaluations I recieve are usually very detailed and very helpful. They have helped me realize what I am strong in, and where I need more work. When people mess up, their evals show it. For example, an eval may say that your work was up to par, but did not show much origional thought. Or they may say that your tests did well, but your attendance was spotty. They also often mention what your papers and projects were about and what the class tried to focus on. This provides a far more complete picture of you than a GPA to anyone interested in how you spent your college years and what you learned. In essence, every eval read like a letter of recomendation, for better of for worse.
I acknowlage that some people cannot suceed without something to measure themselves against. There are some who cannot run a mile without a stopwatch, and some that cannot diet without a scale. For them, there is any number of schools that offer grades. For those of us that wish to be free of those artificial constructs which hold us back, there are evals.