In a couple of my CI classes, we have discussed the issue of grades in schools. Too often society and schools put so much emphasis on getting an "A" or "being the best" that students are simply doing only what is necessary to get by. Because they are only focusing on beating their classmates and getting the best grades, they completely forget about actually learning the material. I know in my experiences, I am guilty of "learning for the test," where I completely forget everything I learned and studied as soon as the test is over. I know that grades are very important to many students because they do require a lot of hard work and time. However, just because a student works hard and feels the satisfaction from getting a high grade, does that mean grades are the most important thing in school? Of course not!

How can students retain any information in school if all they are concerned about is getting the best grade on a test? How can teachers help to take the focus off of grades so students can focus more on actually enjoying school and learning the material?

I know that I'm guilty of learning for the test as well, and I see where you are coming from with thinking that teachers put to much emphasis on the grade. But you also have to look at it from the other side. Without grades, how would the teacher see a students performance and record it so that if it comes down to whether or not they need to go through remediation, that teacher can step forward and say, look this student has improved, remediation isn't necessary.

I belive that grades are good to measure whether or not the student has improved. Yet teachers should not be focused on all of their studenst getting an "A", because I belive that a D student that progessed up to a B student has learn more than the standard A student.

I agree with the fact that grades are important, but I think they shouldn't be the focal point of school. Even now, I take some classes just to boost my GPA. It works! If there were not as much emphasis on grades, I think students would try less, do less work, etc. There has got to be a happy medium, we just haven't found it yet.

i think that grades are very important for students. This allows the students who work hard to get the better grades. Without grades, the students will know that what they are doing would not count "for them" or "against them" and they more than likely wont try hard. I feel relying on a standardized test (SAT, ACT) shouldn't determine whether or not you go to college though. But that is a different story.

As has been stated, grades are a measuring device that teachers need. A teacher needs to know how a student is progressing so that remediation can be suggested. A teacher can also use grades to see how the class in general is learning a set of material. For example, if all but one or two students fail a test on factoring (I'm a math ed major, what can I say) then this is an indication that the teacher needs to go back and reteach the material using a different approach since so many did not understand it. Grades also help students compare themselves against others. I know that teachers can not reveal grades of one student to another student, but students talk. If a student knows that they are always way above others they can get a better guess on what type of schools they want to apply to. If a student knows that they are middle of their class, they will know that they need to consider applying to schools that may be a little less competitive with applications. This could save a student from just applying to the very high end schools only to have all their hopes crushed by every school. I know this sounds a little bad, because I'm saying that some students should not apply to Harvard or Yale because they are not smart, but students need to be realistic. Grades are the way that as teachers we can talk to the student and say "Yes you can apply there, but make sure you have a fall back school that you will be happy with".

I believe that grades are a necessary part of public education, it helps us as teachers know where are students are in accordance with the average of the class. It also helps us know if the material that we are teaching actually sticks with them more than one day. There is one aspect about the way in which we grade them that I do not believe is the best. Testing is great but we have all had that class where we just don’t care as much as we should and cram for the test just to get the grade. I think that we need to be more creative in our “waysâ€

When I lived in France I experienced holistic grading. At first it was very frustrating, because I was concerned about bringing my grades home to the US, but I actually find it a really interesting alternative to percentage and point-based grading.
They had a scale of 1-20, but everyone got grades all along that scale. 10 is average, 12 pretty good, and 16 really well done. 20 is practically unattainable except in a completely quantitative subject like math. 10 is not the same as 50%; it's not dishonorable or disappointing to consistently get 11s. It's based on overall effort and accomplishment, but also compared to how the rest of the class achieved.
I'm not sure you could really bring this into US public schools but I guess it's kind of similar to AP scoring.

I agree with the majority that grades are a necessity however their is too much emphasis on that A. Take a look at no child left behind- we shouldn't be focusing on teaching to the test because students will never properly learn. Not just learn the material but also critical thinking and analytical skills. This is what we should mainly be focusing on, not the test of facts. This is the 21st century and we are falling far behind the rest of the world because of this fact.

I've taken several english classes that are now teaching us to hold off on grading student writing. I think that writing is a skill, and some people are good writers and some people are bad writers, but I think that students won't learn how to improve their work unless they get some feedback on it. I think grades in general are important because students like to measure their progress and the only way they know how to do that is by grades. I guess I'm torn on this issue, because yes, I want to grade my students papers (and other work) but, I guess there's a way to be less strict about it and encourage critical thinking instead of feeding them a formula on how to write a good paper and expect gold. We've talked about this in my block classes and I think it's an unresolvable issue.

I personally feel that grades are a good way to measure students. Granted, many people do cram in the night before a test and forget the material shortly thereafter which does not show a good representation of the student's mastery of the material, but rather the student's ability to perform. In some instances people do study over long periods of time and retain the information in their long term memory. Whatever the case, colleges and employers don't always care about the means by which goals are achieved (provided they are not unethical, but today ethics seem to be going to the wayside), they only care about the results and how we perform. An example of this would be an individual who is working for a company who knows everything there is to know about what they do and the products and services they sell, but yet when it comes time for them to perform, they are not able to put their knowledge into words or perform the tasks required. Obviously, an employer really does not want this employee regardless of how much they may know, because they cannot produce results.