Two recent features in the New York Times and on Mind/Shift spotlight schools which have done away with grades in their attempts to ignite the pursuit of learning for its own sake and thus enhance both learning and appreciation of what is learned. The benefits for New Trier High School outside of Chicago and Flushing International High School in Queens as well as Brooklyn Middle School 442 seem clear. Without concerns about—or fear of—bad grades, students display greater agency and engagement.
For some, though, eschewing the grading of students is a bridge too far because grades can serve important pedagogical functions and have the potential to direct student effort toward valued goals. Others will object because grade transcripts serve additional, societal purposes. In principle grades provide a means by which to compare students within institutions and between them. They may provide information for admissions at subsequent institutions, for academic awards (financial and otherwise), employers making hiring and internship decisions. For these educators, the benefits to removing the attraction (and distraction) of grades would appear to be unrealistic and thus unattainable, whatever its benefits.
But, what if there were a resolution to this dilemma? What if schools and teachers (or other educators) could encourage what psychologists call intrinsic motivation for learning while meeting the institutional and societal expectations fulfilled by assigning grades and creating a creating a transcript of attainment? Could these twin imperatives be realized simultaneously in the same classrooms and schools?
While it appears to be true, according to a recent Psychology Today article, that contemporary college students are, in general, more achievement (read “grade”) focused than in past generations, that doesn’t mean they don’t also want to strengthen their knowledge and skills for a multitude of other reasons that contribute to intrinsic engagement with learning. Educators simply must creatively address in their course design both the pressure for grades as well as students powerful, yet often fragile, intrinsic motives to learn. Focusing on curriculum without giving equal consideration to assessment and grading and their impact on student motivation is inadequate.
Our recent book argues for designing courses which incorporate research-validated practices in order to address the legitimate and sometimes overpowering concerns and fears students have about grades and other markers of attainment. Indeed, by understanding the meaning of grades not just for societal stakeholders, but students themselves, and the motivational dynamics that ensue from these meanings, instructors can design curricula and grading systems to promote engagement with academic tasks for the purpose of learning/that minimize the fears that so often obstruct deep task engagement, an essential element of meaningful, durable learning.
Life Beyond Grades 