The+Nature+of+Grades

**The Nature of Grades**
Place your comments in the space below in __**alphabetical order (last name first)**__ following the format used in the 'What is Pseudoscience?' post.. Feel free to comment on other people's comments but just be sure to use a different color font and sign your name after your comment(s).

Questions: //a)// What do you believe to be the purpose of grades in educational settings? //b)// In your opinion, how well do grades measure what you stated in your answer above. //c)// Suppose you calculated your GPA using a +/- system. How would it affect your GPA? What does this tell you about the nature of grades.

Christopher, Zach a) The purpose of grades is to determine ones understanding in a particular topic. It may not be the best way but it is the most common measurement of ones knowledge. b) I think grades measure ones understanding poorly because it lacks to determine ones creativity. It is a rough measurement of how much a person really knows by giving the person a certain amount of questions and telling them to answer the questions and then give a number that measures their knowledge. c) Using a +/- system my grades would drop. It would make kids more worried about their grade and have to study hard for all finals. However I also believe a kid who gets an 89 deserves more credit than a kid who gets and 80.

DiBartolo, Nick a) The purpose of grades is used for other people to understand how well you understand what you're learning in a class. b) I think grades measure this poorly because it shows how well you prepared yourself for the grades the night before a big test, not how much you actually learned on the topic and how much you'll know in the future. c) If we used a +/- system my grades would drop a lot. This would affect my GPA in a bad way because I know all I need for an A is 89.5, so if I'm above that I'm not worried for the final. However, I think the +/- system is better because someone with a 99 in a class is clearly better than someone with an 89.5

Godnik, Olivia a) I believe that grades are used to determine how well one understands a topic in a class. b) I think grades measure how much one understands on a topic very poorly. Extra credit, curves, and cramming the night before a test, don’t show how much knowledge of a subject one has. c) If GPA’s were calculated using a +/- system, mine would drop. This +/- system would motivate students to work and study harder. This tells you that students only do enough to get a certain grade in a class, not to actually understand the topics.

Harriet Han

A) Grades, especially these days, predict your acceptance to a specific college. To do well in life, we new good grades. B) I think grades should be based on students effort. For example, a student could be trying really hard in class but receive a poor grade. Also, teachers should not have favorites! Many teachers include participation in part of their grading, and I have noticed last year, that some teachers base participation on favorites and for others, it affects their grade greatly. C) It would probably affect my GPA but I wouldn't know how much. It tells us us grades are deceiving and doesn't really know how well we understand the concept. Also, I believe the +/- system would motivate me to study harder. Also it would be a fair grading system because a student who receives a 89 or an 80 obviously has a different level of comprehension on a specific topic and the +/- system would justify that statement.

Hensel, Danny a) I believe the purpose of grades is to arbitrarily quantify what one has learned in a particular subject material. b) I do not believe that grades measure the above goal, and I don't believe that we should quantify knowledge. If there is consensus for some sort of analysis on a student's performance in class, then there should be some sort of written description of the student beyond "performs well in class." c) A +/- system shows how without it, there isn't a difference between a 100 and an 89.45, and how there is a large difference between 89.44 and 89.45. This shows that grades are very dumb because they have to be precise. If a student turns in 79% of his or her work, and another turns in 79.5%, there isn't much of a difference, but according to grades, there is a large difference.

Hirshman, Rachel a) The purpose of grades is to assess one's understanding of concepts within a certain subject. They are also used to measure progress. b) I think grades do not accurately measure ones understanding because grades are primarily based on tests and someone people are not good at test taking. Although that person may know the material better, they receive a lower grade because they struggle at tests. Some people also just cram for tests and get a good grade but they do not maintain that knowledge for a long period of time. Grades are more accurate when they are based on pop quizzes or tests because someone who is knowledgeable in the certain subject should be able to do well on that assessment while others that just memorize right before a test would not. c) With a +/- system, my GPA would drop because an 89.5 is considered the same value as a 100. This shows that with our current system there is not a discrepancy between average students and very intelligent students because their grades look very similar on a transcript. If grades were in a +/- system, the difference would be evident.

Kim, Yery a) I think grades show you how much you really understand and "get" a certain subject. But it also gives a student unneeded stress, and either gives them motivation to try harder or to not try at all.. Because that's what colleges look at. And it sucks. b) I don't think grades are that of an importance. Just because you get a certain grade in a class doesn't mean that they aren't trying hard enough or that they are stupid. There are so many other factors in grades that it really isn't something you (colleges) should look at a person by. c) At the moment, I think the +/- system would affect my GPA in a better way because I have many high Bs. But then again, most people, including me, only try for a 90, just to get the A. As long as they get an A, the percentage doesn't really matter because they don't need to try as hard and focus on other classes that need more work. This shows us that grades are too vague and shouldn't be too seriously at, because a student can have an A, but that A could either be an 89.5 or a 100. You wouldn't know any details.

Lee, Becky a) I think grades are there because there needs to be some way to tell your understanding of a subject in a class, it doesn't mean grades do that correctly, but that was it's purpose. b) I don't think it measures understanding well, there could be extra credit, or someone could be a bad test taker, there could be a curve, people could cram, all these things can affect your grade but it doesn't mean you understand something more or less. c) with a plus minus system, I think my GPA would be worse because most people try for a 89.5 for a final just to get an A so they only study as necessary on the final, this shows that people just do whatever they need to get the grades they want, which doesn't help people learn at all.

Nediyakalayil, Shane a) I think grades were created to see how well a student is doing in class, but I do not believe they do that very well. b) In my opinion, grades rarely measure our performance accurately. Especially in our school, one test could drop or bring up our grade significantly. They aren't reliable in explaining how well we comprehend the material. c) If grades had a +/- system, that wouldn't help, but hurt, most people, including me. This shows how students try for the bare minimum, and nothing more. It still doesn't help grades be way more accurate, but it does make students try harder.

Ott, Tommy a) The purpose of grades is to measure a person's comprehension of a certain topic. b) I think grades do measure one's comprehension of a certain topic to an extent, but not fully. Especially in the case of multiple choice tests / standardized tests -- grades do not do a great job. Somebody that is successful on a standardized test is somebody who knows the best answer for a specific question. To study for a standardized test, you don't always have to understand concepts, you can really just mindlessly memorize answers / patterns that will help you answer questions on that specific test. There's a difference between understanding atomic orbitals and knowing the shape of a p-orbital. c) Using a +/- system would require people to try harder, including me. If my percentage at the end of this semester is 79.5, for example, I would receive the same final grade than if my percentage was 89.4. This forces us to try to achieve a wide-ranged letter grade as opposed to a specific percentage. What we should really try to achieve is understanding / learning (which isn't the true goal of most students in our current education system, the ultimate goal is an A, whether or not we learn along the way).

Pozin, Jake


 * 1) I find the purpose of grades to be a way to measure how much a student knows on one subject.
 * 2) I find that most of the time grades measure academics well but there are two examples that I feel do not measure the understanding of a class well. The first is when a whole class or most of a class does poorly on something and the class still receives the poor, not rounded, grade. I feel that if almost everyone did poorly, something must have been skipped over or not taught. The other problem with grades is the weighting of graes. In my english class, my teacher weighted 2 separate homework asssignments in different categories and because of this, the 2 homework assignments turned out to be 40 % of my grade. This is also ridiculous as the tests are on 20% of my quarter grade. I feel that the way grades are set up changes the grade so it looks like the student understands less than he does only if it was one small assignment. I feel as if this should be changed and that the grades should be on a point system or at least a weight system where all of the weighting should be weighted based on the importance of the assignment.
 * 3) If I did a plus minus GPA my GPA would drop tremendously. I am on the border of grades in a lot of my classes and this scale would ruing the gpa that i have.

Qiao, Victor A) I think grades are supposed to be used to determine how well you're doing in a class. B) I think my grade is terribly inaccurate in determining my performance. C) if things were done with that system I don't think it would make my GPA look any better. It tells me the grades have an adverse impact on the GPA. Becky- I agree that grades don't measure performance but I don't think it's supposed to be how well you're doing in a class, because a C is a passing grade. I think that it could be more subjective too, some teachers just give random grades depending on favorites and some just on tests, you can be doing well in a class and still get a bad grade.

Ring, Philip A) Schools use grades as a way to assess a student's learning and adeptness of a subject in the most accurate way that I can. B) Unfortunately, grade cannot not assess a student with complete accuracy. The way that grades are determined can be subjective based on the teacher that is assigning those grades. Different students perform at different levels in different aspects of school whether that be tests or homework or participation. It isn't fair to assess these aspects and having them put different impacts on our final grades. C) If there was a +/- system my GPA would most certainly drop. Many students, including myself, try to reach a certain letter grade but do not try to do any better than that. For example, if I were to only try to reach and 80% instead of trying for 87% that I could achieve because in our current grading system, both percentages reflect equal assessments of a student. This tells us that students don't have to work as hard to be assessed a certain way, which is why I believe a +/- system should be implemented. Ruben, Ali
 * 1) I believe the purpose that grades have is to summarize how well a student did in a particular class which reflects the effort put in as well as the understanding of the material.
 * 2) I do not think grades measure this very well at all. I know for a fact there are classes where I did not deserve the grade I received, whether it be lower or higher than it should have been. I think that many times students learn the material by learning from what they did wrong //after// they did not do so well on a big test. Unfortunately, even though the knowledge was learned even better after the failure, this will not change the grade and with most cases the test can affect your overall grade immensely.
 * 3) I would definitely be impacted, because the majority of my grades are borderline and on the lower side. I don’t think this would be a bad idea however, because I think there is a large difference between getting a 79.5 in a class and an 89. The person with the 89 most likely understands the material better than the 79.5 person and to have the same letter show up on their report card is not necessarily fair.

Spitz, Jacob a) I think grades are used as universal symbols to define how well you understand a given material in a specific class. b) I don’t think grades do a great job at measuring a student’s understanding. Grades don’t take into account certain teachers with differences in their classes such as how hard a class is. Also, grades stress kids out because some kids might not like certain grades in a class. Therefore, their quiz and test scores could go down because of the stress. c) My gpa would go down if it was calculated using a +/- system. This tells me that students do the bare minimum for a class in order to get the same grade as someone who exceeds the bare minimum. For example, grades don’t show that someone gets an 89.5 and a 99. There if a huge difference between these grades, and this shows that grades don’t accurately portray someone’s understanding.

Stoehr, Ben a) I think grades should be used ans an assessment of how much a student has learned and how much they have progressed, not what the can memorize. There should be less emphasis on tests and more on classwork which shows understanding of the current material. This is why I think the analysis questions help us a lot. b) I think that grades right now are fairly close to what I think they should be except for the part about classwork being a bigger part of the curriculum. c) If we used a +/- scale my GPA would drop a bit. I think it wouldn't really matter to me as much because I know I'm not on the verge of a different letter grade that I care too much about. Also i'm a bit confused about what the GPA point would be for with a +/- scale.

Tashma, Josh a) I believe that grades are used to represent one's understanding of knowledge. The main purpose of taking courses in school is to obtain knowledge (that is taught in the classroom) to get smarter. b) I think that grades are a pretty horrible way to measure one's understanding of material. Grades have become so increasingly important to students that it doesn't really matter if they actually master whatever the class is about --- it seems now it has become easier for students to cram in knowledge the night before a test so they can get a good grade on that test and then not have to ever look at the material again, which is obviously ineffective as the goal of school is to learn, not to get good at memorizing things with a 48 hour notice. Also, the necessity of grades in classes has an adverse effect for other components of school. If someone doesn't have as much time to study or doesn't get enough sleep because they are too busy being involved and active in extracurricular activities (ex. sports, speech/debate, clubs), do they deserve to be at a loss when it comes to grades because they got involved??? They may understand the material better than most of their classmates, but not do as well in the class because they got involved in extracurriculars... It seems like there could be other ways to measure how well someone understands material that leads to students actually learning the material and has less to do with time commitment c) Personally, my GPA would probably substantially drop, due to the fact that I know I can get away with getting a 75 on a final opposed to a 95 and still get an A in the class. If a +/- system was adopted, with the varying effort I put in (depends on class) would probably be getting A-'s and B-'s written on my transcript compared to A's and B's now. This just shows how people just do whatever they need to do to get a certain grade in a class, rather than actually comprehend the material and be assessed based on that.

Volpyansky, Andrew 1.) Grades in an educational setting are used to determine the performance of a student and the knowledge that student has of the topic 2.) Grades are a useless, inaccurate way of determining the level of understanding that a student has of a certain topic. I agree with Josh on this subject. No student cares more about "the learning" than about grades, no matter what they say. Grades are the difference between going to an Ivy League and something else. A student can't apply to a college and say "oh, I got a C in the class... but I learned a lot". That isn't how things work anymore. Those school where they have no grades sound very advanced with that idea because then students actually do focus on the learning. 3.) My GPA would go down if we had a +/- system. Like most people, I just try for an A. an 89.5 will get me there so that is what i aim for. A +/- system would force me to try for a 92 or however much just for an A and a 98 for an A+. If this happens, my GPA will drop substantially.

Shapiro, Daniel (writing this while I am sick, tired, and with a headache - May not be the best response...) 1) I believe that grades are use mainly as a way to quantize your understanding of a subject in a very simple, understandable way. It is much easier for a college admissions person or simply a parent to see a grade and understand what it means. For example. Seeing a "C" on someone's transcript tells you that he/she may not really understand the material, or just is lazy and doesn't do their homework. Basically, grades save college admissions people and future employers lots of time by providing a quick alternative to reading 1000 essays about what the student/person does. Instead, they just see a letter grade and that tells them key information about that person's work habits/understanding of a subject. 2) Grades measure only the quantitative aspect of one's learning/work habits. It is true that everyone is different, and grades can be extremely subjective, but they are, in my opinion, the most time/effort effective way of showing one's learning. For a teacher to write an unique narrative for every person that he/she have taught this semester may be ideal, but it does not sound very reasonable. 3) A +/- system would drop my grades significantly, as a lot of my grades are borderline. For fear of being hypocritical I won't say that this system is bad, as I like being able to have an 89.5 and still receiving an A. This also helps support my point about how grades are just a way of quantifying learning, and are not subjective at all. Ben- QUANTIFICATION IS FOR ENERGY, NOT FOR GRADES

Westel, Emily A) Grades quantatively assess how well you're doing in a class. B) I don't think this is a good measure because a lot of the time, the assessment of how well you're doing comes down to a couple of tests. Some people don't test well, or you might be having a bad day. I feel its a bad measure of success in a class to base it off how well you can remember information for a test. C) I think that using +/- wouldn't really make a difference. You already have that letter grade, why would a plus or a minus matter? If I had a b+ in a class, I would just be really sad that I didn't get it up to the a. I'm not sure I understand how you would be able to calculate GPA using +/-, but would it even make a difference?