Pros And Cons Of The Standard Grading System

Have you noticed that everyone’s child is an Honor Student? Honor Students are supposed to be the best of the best, cream of the crop, but it seems you always see these “My Child is a Honor Student” bumper stickers. The standard grading system began as grading students for what they did, for example work in class, homework, and tests. The “standard” for most teachers now is to grade on effort put into an assignment not necessarily what they achieved. Both of these versions of the standard grading system have flaws and can be problematic to all students. The standard grading system as we know it needs to go because of grade inflation, test scores sinking, and stress rising all occurring because of this. The standard grading system has caused grades to rise but for no apparent reason. The grading system grades students on completion of assignments, not for what a student has actually learned in their classes. Rampell writes “About 43 percent of all letter grades given were A’s, an increase of 28 percentage points since 1960 and 12 percentage points since 1988” (Rampell). This may seem like an excellent thing, grades are raising, however students are doing better on their tests, it is simply because they do their assignments and …show more content…
Grade inflation is a giant problem with the current grading system, causing students who deserve an A to be grouped with people who actually deserve a B. The drop in test scores can be paired with the fact that students who get an A, but deserve a B believe they will do well on these college tests because they passed high school with a 3.5 GPA. The stress that the grading system can cause could affect the grades of the students causing a horrible merry-go-round of lower and lower grades. Grades are a thing if the past, we need to move on and make our students ready for