Standards Replace Letter Grades: Promoting Clarity or Confusion?

Work Cited:

Stegmeir, Mary. "A New Way to Grade: Standards Replace Letters in Waukee." Des Moines Register: E-Edition. Des Moines Register, 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 7 Feb. 2011. <http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110207/NEWS02/102070310/A-new-way-to-grade-Standards-replace-letters-in-Waukee>.

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The news article "A New Way to Grade: Standards Replace Letters in Waukee" describes a trend that is emerging for secondary schools to assess students with standards instead of letters.  For example, teachers at Waukee Middle School (Iowa) give "scores" of beginning, developing, secure, or exceeds to their students instead of A, B, C, D, or F.  Why did this article catch my eye?  Because it could affect colleges someday.  First of all, how will college admissions view these categories?  The school board president of the district acknowledges that grades play an important role in college admissions and scholarship programs (Stegmeir).  I wonder, if this trend catches on, will colleges eventually embrace this trend?  I see it as a far-fetched idea, but a possibility.

Why are more and more schools turning to standards-based grades?  They are hoping to improve student performance, according to Doug Reeves, founder of the Leadership and Learning Center in Colorado (Stegmeir).  According to Stegmeir's article, many parents worry that this will leave students unprepared for high school and even take away a motivator for succeeding (as letter grades tend to create an atmosphere of competition).

What do I think?  I think, what's the difference?  Doesn't "A" mean "exceeds" anyway?  And isn't "developing" a nice way of saying, "You got a D."?  Good teachers will indicate to students how they can do better, and I find the categories an attempt for schools to get parents and teachers thinking about what letter grades mean.  The same goal can be reached if there were a key on top of the report card explaining what each grade means.  This way, students can still be considered for scholarships at the college and university level.  If some colleges adopt the standards system in place of a letter system, then it would pose a problem for students who apply  to graduate programs at schools that use the letter grade system.

Therefore, while I see that the intentions are good--standards would spell out more clearly where a student is lacking--it needs to be supplemented with a letter grade or at least points from the GPA scale so that transferring to other schools and applying for scholarships or admission to colleges and universities would be feasible.  I do believe, however, that there is a problem with the subjective nature of grading (whether students are assigned with a letter, phrase, or symbol!) because some teachers grade differently than others.  This is why, when I am an instructor, I will lay out my expectations clearly so that there is no confusion as to how a student can earn an A, B, C, D, F.  I want students to know what each grade means to me (since it seems to mean different things to different teachers).  This is where grading rubrics come in (or at least grading guidelines).  They can help students to see where they fall short when the grade fails to convey this information to them.

Link to Online Article