New Athenian Academy

Grades for the third quarter were due today… I must say this, I hate letter grades! No I love them!  No I hate them!  I cannot decide!

I get like this at the end of every quarter.  I have a love/hate relationship with our letter grade system.  At times I think it’s an accurate representation of student work and accomplishments and other times it’s a pain in the neck that doesn’t reflect students at all.  So for all you that feel the same way as me, here’s a list of pros and cons to the letter grade system:

Pros:

• Easy to compare: I can see the entire scope of the course and the relative standing of students within that course.  At least within my class, it seems to be fairly accurate.
• Easy to translate across curriculum: We have a standard system to put on report cards.  I can look at a student’s transcript and just read letter grades, no dissertations from teachers and the like.
• Look pretty on papers: There’s nothing like a pretty A+ on a paper to make a student feel good about their accomplishments.
• Students relate to the system well: I don’t even know of a time when we didn’t use letter grades.  They are familiar, easy to recognize, work across time and space.  There’s something to be said for tradition’s sake.

Cons:

• Not an accurate whole picture: Many things go into a student’s performance and letter grades don’t necessarily give you the whole picture.  Have students truly learned whatever was being taught, or just memorized the information for the test.  In that case, was the assessment process valid and reliable, or not?
• Doesn’t include attitude: I have many a student that I would love to fail on principle.  Their attitude of disrespect toward the class and me make me very angry.  Unfortunately letter grades don’t show those types of activities, only the written/oral work. 
• Doesn’t necessarily show improvement: Not all students come to my class on the same pages.  Some already know my subject, others have taken it before, some are naturally interested.  And then they are others who are deficient in some way.  With an end grade, we cannot tell where the student began and then where the student ended.  Different scales would be a more accurate representation.
• Pain in the butt to finalize: As evidenced by today, I had translating every assignment into a standardized letter grade.  I have to pay attention to categories of assignments, weighting assignments, and the overall picture.  It gets complicated, confusing, and downright tedious. 

So, does anyone have a easier and more accurate depiction of accomplishments of students?  If yes, please tell me.  It would definitely help days like today go better and not give me a headache.

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Education Process by Tobe