Exactly one year ago today I wrote a blog on letter grades. In it, I expressed mild dissatisfaction with the current report card we employ in our school system, which is a hybrid of reporting student progress based on individual learning outcomes on a performance scale and the old fashioned letter grade. Over the course of the year my thinking has continued to evolve and I believe I am on the verge of doing something about it.
To my parents and to me, letter grades were an important stamp of approval (or disapproval) that I was doing well (or not) in school. It was as though I worked and worked and waited to find out whether or not I was good enough at the end of the term. That’s not how education is viewed anymore. These days we expect (rightly) that student should be getting continuous feedback and constantly improving. Whether students are doing well or not in the view of the teacher is less important than whether or not students are setting goals, striving for their goals, learning from their mistakes, and improving themselves on a daily basis. I am not saying letter grades are necessarily incompatible with this new view, but they carry with them the weight of meaning of times gone by when approval and self-worth were determined exteriorly.
Another major problem with letter grades is that they can mask the truth of student progress and limit real improvement. Consider a student who got a “B” in Math. During that term, they had three units; fractions, long division, and word problems. There final grade in each section was 96%, 99%, and 50%. Their average comes to 82%, so their grade for the term was a “B”. How is that letter grade helpful? By stamping an entire grade with a letter, you are glossing over the students strengths and weaknesses, thus limiting the opportunity for feedback to inspire reflection and growth. 
Finally there is the problem of grade inflation. As a teacher I always found it challenging to simultaneously maintain positive learning environment and give accurate, standardized letter grades. Though a student may “deserve” a C- for the performance they have demonstrated, there are times when it is not in their best interests to see a C- on their report card. As a result, letter grades are “massaged” to meet the needs of the student to get the most out of them. This creates grade inflation and diminishes the real value of the report card.
Where do we go from here? The staff at CCS has been talking about reporting for the past several Wednesday meetings and have some good ideas moving forward. If you have any suggestions please leave a comment. Thanks for reading!
catholicprincipal 