Every year over 1.2 million kids drop out of high school in the United States. One fourth of kids will fail high school in their life. Nobody seems to question why these students are failing, other than that they are not trying hard enough. America 's grading system is flawed compared to the rest of the world, and there is many ways this problem could be fixed.
Getting a zero and an assignment drops the final grade on a subject massively, and getting an F means the same score. (Syrie) After the decrease from fifty-nine percent, there is still the other forty-one percent a student could fail at. To solve the problem of report cards being filled with zeros, an F should no longer count as a zero on assignments. A zero on an assignment is only for
…show more content…
This is a high requirement, with very little room for students to make errors. If a student is average at a subject with a C grade, this subject for them is not too easy and not too hard, and should be able to pass. The passing point in grades is so high to keep students from making mistakes. Therefore, forming the required grade to pass a class from a B to a C would increase the rate of classes passed successfully in schools. This will work well for students who are average at subjects are not failing in them, nor excelling the expectations, and are simply in the middle. Often, a student is not given a chance to correct their grade or make up missing work. When grades are low, it is most likely because of a small error, work that isn’t turned in, or they forgot to answer a question. Adjusting retakes for all major grades would help lift grades and increase graduation rates in schools across America by a small amount.
Although the American grading system is strict, it is not the worst, and could only use minor adjustments. If a student is truly struggling in school, they can receive extra help from a tutor outside of classes. The American grading system helps keeps students in line, and pushes them to put in their best effort in
Staples offers the solution that “To staunch inflation [of grades] is to change the way the grade point average is calculated” (Staples 937). He suggests that different classes should be calculated into a GPA at different levels. For example, harder science and math courses that many people steer clear of due to their difficulty, should have more opportunity to boost a student’s GPA than an easy general education class would (937). This idea might sound good on paper, but that would require every university to completely change their grading policy which not only would be time-consuming, but nearly impossible since there is virtually no way that leaders and the student body of a university would all agree on a completely new grading system. Plus, it might hinder students from being able to take classes that they actually enjoy and get a degree in a field they want to be in, not that they are forced to be in because of GPA factors.
Grade inflation is a reality throughout the United States. This means that students are being awarded with higher grades than they deserve or worked for. This phenomenon is affecting the quality of education throughout the country. Students insist on getting ‘’their money's worth’’ when it comes to receiving grades. Teachers don’t want to be nagged by students and administration for low grades.
The Failure of Grading in Public High Schools Most people in life that go on to be publicly known or have a successful business after escaping the jail that is high school, are actually the students that didn’t make such good grades. The school grading system trains you students to reach for an unattainable goal, has untruthful promises, has many flaws, causes mental issues in students, leads to cheating, and makes students not even comprehend what they are learning. The grades we get are supposedly the only thing that tracks how a student is doing in school. With that, a student has the mind set that if they do, everything right and good like they’re supposed to they’ll get rewarded with an A grade. Sadly however, the real world hits hard
Schools are giving out too many standardized tests. It’s not only robbing them of their time, but it’s also causing stress and anxiety and going into far levels. Students need to be focusing on their learning academics and preparing for their future. Taking unuseful tests are not only pointless, but they put too many kids/teens into anxiety and even depression.
In Carl Singleton’s article, “What Our Education System Needs is More F’s,” he argues that students aren’t receiving the failing grades they deserve. School systems are to blame for the lack of quality in America’s education. No other recommendation for improvement will succeed. The only way to fix the American education system is to fail more students. According to Singleton, the real root of the issue is with the parents.
As students start their senior year of high school there are many changes in their life. This is the time of a student’s life when they decide what they want to do after they graduate high school. Students can decide to join the military, work, or continue their education at a college or university. For the students who continue their education they have many things to do before they finally get accepted. A common step they take is taking the The American College Test (ACT) and the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT).
Standardized testing has not improved education in America. Standardized tests have been issued in schools all across the nation for years now. Some people like them and some people don’t. They do not help the student learn more information than they would without the tests. The U.S. has dropped from 18th highest scores in schools in the world to be in the 30’s on almost all of the subjects on the test.
Getting rid of grades would ruin the school systems and nobody would learn at
Elona Kalaja Professor Eleni Saltourides ENG 101 Critical Analysis Paper February 21, 2018 Flunking vs Students In the article, “In Praise of the F Word” Mary Sherry argues that flunking students is a method that has been effective in the past and is still effective todays day, and anyone needs to see is as a positive teaching tool. Sherry indicates that flunking students is a method that motivates students to study more and to be more responsible for what is their responsibility. Students challenge is not to get an A or B, but to succeed or to fail.
In Kurt Wiesenfeld’s article “Making the Grade”, he address the issue that students want a higher grade than they deserve. He goes on to prove this be by giving examples of previous students that he has had and what can happen when students get the grades that they want and not what they deserve. In Wiesenfeld’s article he states that about ten percent of students that take his class do not care about their grades until final grades are over. “You might groan and moan, but you accepted it as the outcome of your efforts or lack thereof,” Wiesenfeld stated.
Many students are smart and understand the content, but it doesn't show on test scores (Gregory J. Cizek, 2001). In essence, testing brings out stress in even the brightest of students, messing with their heads come test day. The facts show that from the 50 states, 700 school districts claim that standardardized tests are causing greater anxiety than the average everyday assessments (Joseph Spector, 2015). In conclusion, student achievement
Unfortunately, standardized testing only gives a rough estimate of what a student can do or knows. It is impossible to tell if a student will improve, or even tell if the student just guessed on all of their answers for the test. This explains how standardized tests do not measure the correct information that school’s are actually searching
This can sometimes be blamed on the student and how much they want out of a class but many times this is just way students are taught to learn and how they have always gotten through school. College’s need to take note of this problem and find a way to change it. Today’s education system and colleges are too focused on letter grades and not the betterment of students and expanding their knowledge. Getting good grades is the main focus of today’s student. Because of this, unfortunately, they
Essay One: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin The extent that grades have on hindering the ability to learn is discussed in Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Dispossessed, in which Shevek a college professor is troubled by the importance placed on the grading system as a mark of understanding of a subject at the university he recently started teaching at. One of the first points to be made is that understanding what you were taught isn’t the point of schools anymore, it’s about memorizing the information for a test or assignment. Second, is that achieving high marks in school doesn’t always equate intelligence or lack of it . Lastly, it’s not how well one is able to memorize what they are taught, but how they’re able to take that information, process and apply it to real world problems that shows the extent of one’s true education.
(Co) In fact, it is also correct that grades have negative effects on students’ mental condition. Illnesses such as depression, cancer, etc, have a cause on the outcome of students’ grades due to absences. (Horton) If sickness is the cause of low grades, grades are inaccurate to measure their ability to learn. Grades can dramatically drop because 26% of Americans, 14 years old and older, experience mental disabilities such as anxiety and major depression (Ramirez).