What's in a Grade?

While serving as a superintendent, I've not been able to consistently teach a class. Yet, in every other administrative role I've served in, I've always been able to continue to teach. I think it is one of the most valuable things an administrator can do in their leadership service - continue to do the work that we entered education doing. That is teaching. 

The last time I was teaching regularly, I had a routine on the first day. At some point, I would ask my students, "What grade do you think I got in this class when I took it at your age?" After some pointed questions about my age, several students would inevitably articulate every letter grade possible, including an F! 

So after I called on everyone with an opinion on my previous academic prowess, I would lower my voice and say, "Do you really want to know the grade I got in this class when I took it?" I usually had all the students in the palm of my hand now, and it was typically a unanimous yes! "OK, if you really want to know the grade I got in this class when I took it...," I trailed off, "You should ask my parents! I'm sure they have every report card that came home somewhere in the attic." 

We place too much emphasis on grades. Too much. Especially because, in my opinion, grades are far too often used as a punishment and are also rewarding behavior more than actual academic acumen. But when I started teaching, my professional opinion of grades was very, very different. 

I was that teacher. I gave zeros, I used grades as a punishment, and I rewarded behavior. I had a very complicated "late homework" system, and I offered extra credit. It was unfair, and at some level, I knew that, but I was afraid to move away from it. So what changed, how did I evolve to my current professional beliefs? 

The first thing that happened to me, I've written about before in Our Words Matter. I completely overreacted when one of my students did not have his homework. The second thing that happened is that I read an article that laid out the practical implications of one zero and the numerical challenge facing a student to recover from that. The other thing that I've observed being in schools, being a friend, and growing as a dad is I've seen the emphasis that grades are having on our children's mental health. 

While being in schools, I've heard of students staying up to unreasonable hours to complete their assignments. This may sound too "Brady Bunch," but I was in bed by 10:00 PM most nights when I was in high school. I did not stay up incredibly late until I was in college, and to date, I've never "pulled an all-nighter." 

As a friend, I'm humbled when people ask my opinion about their children's workload or the pressure they're feeling. I'm even more humbled that they've asked me at times to chat with their children. In those situations, I try to be as practical as possible and remind everyone that our emphasis is really on learning. 

As a family, we've taken the approach to grades that the effort matters more than the outcome. This comes from years of having a report card myself with two columns, one for grades and one for effort. When we brought our report cards home, my father would cover the grade column and look at the effort column first. As long as the letter "E" (Excellent) or "S" (Satisfactory) was recorded, any grade in the grade column was welcome in my childhood home. The only time I was questioned about a grade was if a "U" (Unsatisfactory) was assessed for my effort. 

From my perspective, we place too much emphasis on grades, and we're rewarding behavior and not always measuring learning. I don't think grades should be eliminated, and I know we have a lot of work to do as an educational system to ensure that the grade our students see on report cards more accurately represents growth in concepts. Our students deserve better. 

And so do we. 

Photo courtesy of www.sfpsmom.com