Are Grades Necessary???

The problem with grades is that they have become the point.

This is the statement that struck me best.  I can honestly admit that when I do work I am looking to get the best grade possible.  I’m not concerned about what I learned or what skills I developed, I’m only concerned about the letter I see on the paper when I get it back.    

Now, as an educator my goal is to be a great teacher.  Can being a great teacher be identified with a letter?  Since there are no grades for me to strive for, the best way for me to figure out if I am a great teacher is through peer and personal review.  If this is the case for professionals like teachers, why is it not for students?

Maybe we should just work with checklists that provide benchmarks for learning goals for each unit and the entire year.  As students progress toward the learning goals, each benchmark will be checked off as a sign of progress.  I think this would serve as a good formative assessment as well as an incentive for students as they see how far they have progressed academically. 

Now if we were to take grades out of the equation now, I think students would assume that there is no point to education.  We need to show students in other creative ways that they are learning.  I like the idea of having students work on a final unit project to share with the rest of the world on the web.  Sharing their work with other students and peers around the world will give learners a sense of accomplishment that no grade can provide.  As a new teacher looking to make my little disruptive innovations in the class, I will try to incorporate such projects to demonstrate to my students that there is more to learning than just a letter on a piece of paper.