by Jayden Harlow

Created on: April 13, 2008

Grading is a vital part of student evaluation and should not be abolished in college and university courses. There are two main arguments commonly presented in opposition to standard grading: that grading is so arbitrary and biased as to be meaningless and that anxiety over grades forces students into a form of tunnel vision and actually inhibits their ability to develop as intellectuals. I will address each of these arguments in turn.

First, it is certainly true that biased or otherwise unfair grading exists in academia and that students are harmed by this kind of behavior. Every university should have an equitable system in place to identify and rectify unfair grading practices, and, whenever possible, course evaluation procedures should be established across sections of a particular class so that all students are graded based on the same criteria. Grading procedures should also be made as transparent as possible, so that a student can see how a particular score was arrived at. That said, throwing out the baby with the bathwater and abolishing grades is a simplistic and ineffective solution to a complex problem.

Consider, for example, two students in a course. One student is highly intelligent, studies the course material diligently, and submits exemplary assignments that show an unusually astute grasp of the subject matter. The second student is of standard intelligence, and his/her assignments demonstrate only a cursory understanding of the general principles of the course. S/He is doing passable, but not superior, work. Flash forward several years when both students are applying for spots in the same graduate program. Based on their transcripts for the course, both students passed; beyond that, they are indistinguishable on paper. Certainly the superior student could submit a letter of recommendation in support of his/her work, but, after four years of ungraded work, which professor's letter should s/he choose?

Grading, if implemented well, provides a system for objectively evaluating a student's performance and capabilities in relation to his/her peers, and offers a means for determining the most suitable candidates for advanced degrees and certain kinds of employment. Without grades, schools and employers would be left with the unmanageable task of contacting an unruly number of professors in order to gage their personal opinions of the students in their courses. Alternatively, students might be left with the need to preserve all of their university work

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>