Mackenzie Thomas
Staff Writer
There should be an alternative for grade point averages. The grade point average (GPA) is commonly used to measure undergraduate students performance within the United States educational system. However, a students’ GPA is not a measurement of what they have learned in their classes.
This is not to say that GPA should be abolished so students can slack off in class and get bad grades; this is saying there needs to be a better way to measure what a student learns in a class as opposed to labeling their intelligence with a number.
For some students, getting a good letter grade is very easy. Either they are naturally good test takers and do well in classes by putting in some effort, or they are apathetic slackers who are really good at passing a class by sliding under the radar.
However, there are some students who put in hours upon hours of hardwork and effort into learning the material for a class and still end up with a poor grade. These students have learned copious amounts of knowledge in class and yet still struggle with an exam. Maybe they struggle with test anxiety or, like myself, they are just naturally terrible test takers.
Regardless of why they struggle on exams, this type of student still studies hard and wants to learn, but a ‘C’ in a class can tank their GPA and create obstacles in continuing their education.
Grades are detrimental because they are not effective. Grades do not accurately measure what a student has learned. A student can learn a lot, but still fail a test because they are not naturally gifted in test taking.
In a study done by Life Sciences Education, grades are proven to be an unreliable measurement of student learning. The same study also showed that grading can be inconsistent based upon what kind of test or assignment the student undergoes.
Multiple choice exams can be graded consistently, but not all students interpret certain questions the same way. Tests or assignments that are based on short answer questions or essays can be graded inconsistently because each student writes differently.
Another detriment of grades is that it puts a barrier between the student and the professor. When a student works hard, yet still gets a bad grade, they can take that anger out on their professor by saying they are a horrible teacher or by telling others not to take classes from that professor.
Grades also encourage students to be competitive over helping others out. When grades become the only measurement of a student’s performance, they typically only focus on getting the grade, not helping a struggling student with an assignment or collaborating on a group project.
Overall, grades do more harm than good. However, because school is a critical point of every student’s life, there must be a better solution for measuring student performance in class.
One of the more accepted ways to measure student performance is by using “ungrading”. Ungrading is the practice of minimizing the use of letter grades and point systems and instead give encouraging and constructive feedback to students.
Though many institutions frown upon this idea, it is a popular solution as an alternative to GPA. Instead of discussing the point breakdown for each class, ungrading focuses on student oriented goals and how a student can progress within their class.
A study done by Alfie Kohn showed that ungrading helps students focus on what they are learning in class, not how well they are doing in the class.
Ungrading also allows students and professors to strengthen their relationships by allowing a conversation about progress to take place. This will make interactions between students’ and their teachers more positive and uplifting, which will help influence positivity within the learning environment.
By providing feedback to the student as opposed to just slapping a number grade on the paper, ungrading allows the student to take control of their own learning. With constructive feedback and a discussion based on their test performance, students are allowed to see which areas of learning they could improve upon.
The switch from a GPA-based grading system to an ungrading based system is a gradual change, and it has been successfully done in many elementary, middle and high schools, meaning it is not impossible to do it in a college setting.
Though many college classes are significantly larger than the 24 or less students in high school classes, ungrading can still be implemented in multiple ways. One example of this is iClicker questions, commonly used for attendance and participation grading within 1000 and 2000 level classes at the University of Wyoming.
Many professors use iClicker questions, or the mobile equivalent Poll Everywhere, as participation grades. Using this technology, they grade a student based on if they responded, not what their response is. Alongside this, in large lectures, professors often give time before and after the iClicker questions to have students discuss why they chose their answer.
Though this is a small portion of the students’ overall grades in that class, it is a small step towards the principle of ungrading. Like anything else, ungrading will take time to implement in college settings, but it is not impossible.
