The Benefits Of Using Grades On Student Learning And...

Quinn Casey Giese 4th hour November 19. 2014 Grades â€Å"If I can’t give a child a better reason for studying than a grade on a report card, I ought to lock my desk and go home and stay there.† -Dorothy De Zouche, Missouri teacher, 1945. The practice of using grades to measure academic achievement has been used by educators for years, but there is still no consensus about the effectiveness or benefits of using grades on student learning and achievement. Do grades help students to learn or hinder them? Even though grades have been accepted a standard practice in most schools, there is little research to support their continued use. Grades can cause students to lose interest in learning, preference for challenge, and quality thinking.†¦show more content†¦In American schools place a high value on students GPA. This creates increased competition among students to graduate at the top of their class, get accepted to prestigious colleges, and set the standard for how they will live the rest of their lives. That’s an unbelievable amount of pressure. GPA is determined by taking the average of the grades that students receive in each of their classes, some occasionally having more â€Å"weight† tha n others (such as AP or accelerated courses). For now the system works fine, but it could be improved. In 2012 the PISA, Program for International Student Assessment, test was administered to students between the ages of 15 years and 2 months to 16 years and 2 months. 65 countries participated in the test, representing over 80% of the total world’s economy (â€Å"PISA 2012 Results†). America’s results were much worse than expected, showing that the U.S. scored below average in mathematics, and almost average in reading and science. America’s final rank was 27th overall (â€Å"PISA 2012 Results†). American schools are still doing better than half of the world, but barely. Only 3 countries stand between the United States and the middle, and we aren’t even close to the top ten. One of the highest scoring countries on the PISA test was Finland, which ranked 12th overall and performed nearly perfect in all 3 subjects