Importance of Grades

Importance of Grades Grading and inform atomic number 18 relatively recent phenomena in education. In fact, prior to 1850, grading and publishing were virtually unknown in schools in the United States. The teacher describe schoolchilds learning progress orally to parents, usually during visits to bookmans homes. As the number of students attachd in the late 1800s, schools began to group students in roam levels according to their age, and untested ideas about curriculum and teaching methods were tried.One of these new ideas was the use of formal progress evaluations of students work, in which teachers wrote down the skills each student had mastered and those on which additional work was needed. This was done primarily for the students benefit, since they were non permitted to move on to the next level until they demonstrated their mastery of the live one. It was also the earliest example of a narrative report card. In essence, grading is an exercise in professional judgment on the set off of teachers.It involves the collection and evaluation of evidence on students achievement or surgical procedure over a specified period of time, such as ennead weeks, an pedantic semester, or entire school year. Through this process, various types of descriptive information and measures of students performance are converted into crops or marks that summarize students accomplishments. Although few educators distinguish amongst grades and marks, most have these terms synonymous.Both imply a set of symbols, speech, or add up that are used to designate different levels of achievement or performance. They dexterity be letter grades such as A, B, C, D, and F Descriptive words such as Exemplary, Satisfactory, and Needs Improvement or numerals such as 4, 3, 2, and 1. Reporting is the process by which these judgments are communicated to parents, students, or early(a)s. However, grades do non come easy to some students. College is really a students last chance to ge t good grades and the noteworthy chance for a person to prove himself to the world.Having said that, grades are very important because they meet the length of time you spend acquire your degree, the physical body of job you receive, and the victuals of your future. Continuing to get good grades is a sure way of getting your degree in a timely the working world. Maintaining a 3. 0 GPA is characteristic in being considered for the top jobs in today s world. Many companies are and looking for the top scholars in their academic field. You will be compensated for the amount of experience that you have. severe grades act as the prerequisites of your future. Therefore, it is up to you to expand with hard work, discipline, and the ability to excel. duty is the key to success in the 21st Century. patronage such embarrassingies in understanding the exact meanings of grades and the GPA, they remain important social metrics and sometimes yield heated discussions over issues such as gra de inflation. Although grade inflation has many different meanings, it usually is defined by an increase in the absolute number of As and Bs over some period of years.The tacit assumption here seems to be that any move increase in the overall percentage of good grades or in the overall GPA implies a corresponding decline in academic standards. Although historically there have been periods in which the number of good grades decrease significantly. Social concerns usually only accompany the grade inflation pattern. As discussed in essay As for Everyone. By Alicia C. Shepard, James Mooney give tongue to Certainly there are students who are victims of grade inflation in secondary school, said Mooney. They come to college, and the grading system is oft much rigorous.Thats one of the most difficult things to convey to the students. If youre getting a B, youre doing swell up in a course. When college instructors are asked about the reasons for their emphasis on grades, they report that student behaviors such as arguing over the scoring of a single question stigma it necessary for them to maintain strict and clean grading standards in their classrooms. What seems missing in this context is a buy the farm recognition by both the instructor and the student that grades are silk hat construed as a type of communication.When grades are thought about in this way, they can be used to improve learning. Only when grades are integrate into a coherent teaching and learning strategy do they dole out the purpose of providing useful and textbookmark-start meaningful textbookmark-end feedback not only to the larger culture but to the individual student as well. few issues have created more controversy among educators than those associated with grading and reporting student learning. Despite the many debates and multitudes of studies, however, prescriptions for best practice remain elusive.Although teachers generally try to violate grading policies that are honest and fair, strong evidence shows that their practices vary widely, flat among those who teach at the kindred grade level within the same school. Letter grades, for example, offer parents and others a brief description of students achievement and the adequacy of their performance. But using letter grades requires the abstraction of a great deal of information into a single symbol. In addition, the cut-offs between grades are always arbitrary and difficult to justify.Letter grades also omit the richness of other, more detailed reporting methods such as narratives or standards-based reports. Parents often are left wondering if their childs achievement is comparable with that of other children or in line with the teachers expectations. Nowadays Parents are more interested with the grades as mentioned by Alicia Shepard in the essay, Theres a term for the legions of parents like me. The parents who make sure to get the teachers e-mail and home phone number on Back to School Night. The kind who e-mail teachers when their child fails a quiz.The kind who apply the same determination to making sure their child excels academically that they apply to the professional world. We are called helicopter parents because we hover over everything our kids do like Secret Service agents guarding the president. Most students view high grades as positive recognition of their success, and some work hard to avoid the consequences of busted grades. Although educators would undoubtedly prefer that motivation to learn be entirely intrinsic, the human beings of grades and other reporting methods are important factors in determining how much effort students put forth.No single grading method adequately serves all purposes, schools must first identify their primary purpose for grading, and indeed select or develop the most appropriate approach. This process involves the difficult task of seeking consensus among diverse groups of stakeholders. The issues of grading and reporting on student learning continue to challenge educators. However, more is known at the descent of the twenty-first century than ever before about the complexities involved and how legitimate practices can influence teaching and learning.To develop grading and reporting practices that provides shade information about student learning requires clear thinking, careful planning, delicate communication skills, and an overriding concern for the well-being of students. Combining these skills with current knowledge on effective practice will surely result in more efficient and more effective grading and reporting practices. Shepard, Alicia. As for Everyone. The Contemporary Reader. 9th ed. Ed. Gary Gosggarian. New York Pearson, 2008. 417-422.