Talk:Foundations of Education and Instructional Assessment/Grading/Purpose

Your article on grades is reasonable except for the history of grades based on the Thom Hartmann article. I have read Hartmann’s entire article. In addition I've actually spent the time to investigate Hartmann's claims regarding Farish. Except for the reasonable evidence that Farish started using a numerical grading system in Cambridge in 1792, the rest of the article from a historical basis is fabrication by Hartmann to try and assert his point of view regarding grades. Farish the real person was one of the most respected professors and lecturers at Cambridge during his more than 60 years at the institution. The reason Farish instituted the use of numerical grades was to provide better equity to an oral examination system that was filled with favoritism and bias. That fact is well documented by not only source documents of the time (1740s to 1800) but scholars looking back at the period. Farish would not have improved his financial picture a bit by instituting numerical grades since students were not graded in relationship to lectures. There was only one exam at the end of a three year study at the university. And that exam was not open to all students, only those determined by the university heads to be possible honors students. Yes, Farish did use a didactic lecture process, but he was one of the first to provide visual demonstrations of the topics he was talking about including small working models of all the machines currently being used in the early industrial revolution in England. Lazy? - then how do you account for the FACT that he was instrumental in promoting a petition for the abolition of slavery 1780s, instrumental in working with students to organize the Cambridge Auxiliary Bible Society, instrumental in the development Cambridge Missionary Society. Being a leading evangelical of the time, he was not only a contemporary of William Wilberforce (the primary voice in Parliament leading to the abolishment of slavery in the British Empire) but functioned regularly in the same social and faith circles. In Cambridge he was vicar of the third largest church, but also the poorest, which lead to his involvement in starting schools for the poor children in his parish. I've just touched on a few of his accomplishments. If you are really interested in the FACTS try investigating Farish’s name through Google Books rather than a radio commentator who hasn't bothered to check his sources. Unfortunately you aren't the only one who continues to spread the unfounded rumor regarding Farish. Regarding grades in general - they existed way before Farish - going back to Roman times when students would compete with each other for prizes of rhetoric. It is not grades that are the problem but man's consistent history of always looking for some means of demonstrating we are better than another. Paul Worfel pworfel@huntington.edu Associate Professor of Education Huntington University

Unsupported Claim
The author makes a claim at the beginning of the section "How Do Grades Benefit Students" that "Grades benefit students in many ways." One would expect the author to go on to support that claim by stating the "many ways" that students benefit from receiving grades. However, the author doesn't do this. Her next sentence merely states that students are given expectations and grading criteria when grades are a part of a class. The author then implies that students benefit from knowing "upfront what is expected of them." This may be true, but this doesn't mean that grades are beneficial to students. All this means is that clear expectations made upfront may be beneficial to students. Expectations and standards can be communicated to students without a grading framework, so it is not the grades that are possibly beneficial in this case.

Next the author discusses how behavioral expectations can be handled in the same way as academic expectations. Behavioral expectations are given to students upfront and students are able to make better choices with regard to their behavior because they can see how their behavior will affect their grade. Again, behavior standards can be communicated to students without a grading framework, so the grades themselves are not the issue here. However, the author implies that the grade can be affected by a student's behavior and, therefore, a student's behavior will be better managed because that student wants to earn a better grade. We will throw aside for now the weak implication that grades can be a motivator for behavioral change and just concentrate on the fact that grades here are used as a "consequence" in order to control behavior. Again, we see that the grade is not necessary here either. Any system of consequences could be used, not just grades (unless the author is able to show that grades somehow are a superior form of consequence than, say, a note home to the student's parents), which means that while a system of consequences with regard to behavior may help students (it won't unless one cares more for short-term benefits over long-term gains), grades themselves are not necessarily a beneficial thing.

The author's penultimate sentence merely states that grades are used for the duration of a student's school life. However, merely stating that the grades exist is in no way supporting the claim that the grades "benefit students in many ways."

Unless grades on only certain types of assessments can be shown to benefit students, the author's final sentence isn't even relevant to her discussion.

Unfortunately, after stating that "grades benefit students in many ways," the author has not shown even one way that students benefit by being given grades.