Grading in education

{{Short description|Standardized measurement of academic performance}} {{About|the measuring of academic achievement|grade levels|Educational stage|other uses|Grade (disambiguation)|and|GPA (disambiguation)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2026}} {{grading}} Grading in education is the application of standardized measurements to evaluate different levels of student achievement in a course. Grades can be expressed as letters (usually A to F), as a range (for example, 1 to 6), percentages, or as numbers out of a possible total (often out of 100). The exact system that is used varies worldwide.

==Significance== In some countries, grades are averaged to create a '''grade point average''' ('''GPA''').<ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of Grade Point Average |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grade%20point%20average |access-date=2024-10-31 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}}</ref> GPA is calculated by using the number of grade points a student earns in a given period of time. A GPA is often calculated for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students. A '''cumulative grade point average''' ('''CGPA''') is the average of all the GPAs a student has achieved during their time at the institution. Students are sometimes required to maintain a certain GPA in order to be admitted to a certain academic program or to remain in that program. Grades are also used in decisions to provide a student with financial aid or a scholarship.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |date=2023-06-07 |title=What is GPA? |url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/advice/what-gpa |access-date=2024-10-31 |website=Student |language=en}}</ref>

Grades are seen as an indicator for academic success and ability, and GPA is thought to indicate future job effectiveness and success. In addition, research has shown a correlation between GPA and future job satisfaction.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last1=Al-Asmar |first1=Ayah A. |last2=Oweis |first2=Yara |last3=Ismail |first3=Noor H. |last4=Sabrah |first4=Alaa H. A. |last5=Abd-Raheam |first5=Islam M. |date=December 2021 |title=The predictive value of high school grade point average to academic achievement and career satisfaction of dental graduates |journal=BMC Oral Health |language=en |volume=21 |issue=1 |page=300 |doi=10.1186/s12903-021-01662-5 |issn=1472-6831 |pmc=8196503 |pmid=34118913 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Studies have also shown that a higher GPA leads to a higher income.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zou |first1=Tao |last2=Zhang |first2=Yue |last3=Zhou |first3=Bo |date=2022-04-12 |title=Does GPA matter for university graduates' wages? New evidence revisited |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=17 |issue=4 |article-number=e0266981 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0266981 |doi-access=free |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=9004755 |pmid=35413073|bibcode=2022PLoSO..1766981Z }}</ref>

==History== Students have been assessed since at least 500 B.C., initially through oral and qualitative methods. While early Western education lacked structured measurement, formal methods to track subject mastery were pioneered early on, notably by the Chinese Imperial examination system, which was deeply integrated with the state school system during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368{{snd}}1644 and {{circa|1636}}{{snd}}1912, respectively).<ref>{{cite book |last=Elman |first=Benjamin A. |title=A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China (1400–1900) |year=2000 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=978-0-520-21509-2}}</ref>

In Europe, the University of Louvain established a formal, four-tier grading scale to evaluate student performance by the mid-1400s.<ref>Rait, Robert S. ''Life in the Medieval University''. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1918; orig. pub. 1912). Available at [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20958.epub.noimages Project Gutenberg].</ref> Formal assessment in the United States evolved later; Harvard University began requiring oral exit exams in the mid-1600s. And, while there is indirect evidence of grading at Harvard beforehand<ref name=":4" />, the first official record of a grading scale in American higher education was documented at Yale University in 1785.<ref name=":4" />[[File:Arlington College progress report (report card) for Miss Fannie Watson (10013167).jpg|thumb|An 1890s report card for a student of Arlington College, with grades being scored out of 100]]Yale University historian George Wilson Pierson writes: "According to tradition the first grades issued at Yale (and possibly the first in the country) were given out in the year 1785, when President Ezra Stiles, after examining 58 Seniors, recorded in his diary that there were 'Twenty ''Optimi'', sixteen second ''Optimi'', twelve ''Inferiores'' (''Boni''), ten ''Pejores''.'"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pierson |first=George W. |date=1983 |title=Yale Book of Numbers 1701–1976 | url=https://oir.yale.edu/sites/default/files/pierson_1701-1976.pdf}}</ref> By 1837, Yale had converted these adjectives into numbers on a 4-point scale, and some historians say this is the origin of the standard modern American GPA scale.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last1=Schinske |first1=Jeffrey |last2=Tanner |first2=Kimberly |date=2014 |title=Teaching More by Grading Less (or Differently) |journal=CBE: Life Sciences Education |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=159–166 |doi=10.1187/cbe.cbe-14-03-0054 |issn=1931-7913 |pmc=4041495 |pmid=26086649}}</ref><ref name=":8">{{Cite web |title=History of the letter grading system |url=https://stacker.com/education/history-letter-grading-system |access-date=2024-10-31 |website=Stacker |language=en}}</ref>

Bob Marlin argues that the concept of grading students' work quantitatively was developed by a tutor named William Farish and first implemented by the University of Cambridge in 1792. That assertion has been questioned by Christopher Stray, who finds the evidence for Farish as the inventor of the numerical mark to be unpersuasive. Stray's article also explains the complex relationship between the mode of examination (oral or written) and the varying philosophies of education these modes imply to both the teacher and the student.<ref name="chris">Christopher Stray, "From Oral to Written Examinations: Cambridge, Oxford and Dublin 1700–1914", History of Universities 20:2 (2005), 94–95.https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199289288.003.0004</ref>

The A-D/F system was first adopted by Mount Holyoke College in 1897. However, this system did not become widespread until the 1940s, and was still only used by 67% of primary and secondary schools in the United States in 1971.<ref name=":4" />

==Short-term effect== {{See also|Forgetting curve}} Working to earn higher grades can cause students to prioritize short-term learning over life-long learning. These kinds of grades are only short-term snapshots of how much a student has learned in a given period of time and only partially reflect the actual performance. They do not take sufficient account of the individual development of students.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Stress blockiert Kinder: Warum Noten in der Schule nicht zukunftsfähig sind|url=https://www.focus.de/familie/eltern/nicht-nur-totaler-quatsch-sondern-wirklich-fatal-warum-noten-in-der-schule-nicht-zukunftsfaehig-sind_id_9311398.html|access-date=2020-12-17|website=FOCUS Online|language=de|archive-date=31 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221031130937/https://www.focus.de/familie/eltern/nicht-nur-totaler-quatsch-sondern-wirklich-fatal-warum-noten-in-der-schule-nicht-zukunftsfaehig-sind_id_9311398.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Students often do not learn for their future life or out of interest in the material, but only for the grades and the associated status, which promotes bulimic learning.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Ammel|first=Rainer|title=Gute Noten ohne Stress: Ein Lehrer verrät die besten Tipps und Tricks, um das Gymnasium erfolgreich zu bestehen|publisher=Heyne Verlag|year=2017|isbn=978-3-641-19728-5}}</ref>

==Grade validity== {{See also|Test validity}} Questions about grade validity ask how closely grades match student learning. Grades can be inaccurate and may also reflect the bias of the instructor thereby reinforcing systematic bias.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Snell|first1=Martin|last2=Thorpe|first2=Andy|last3=Hoskins|first3=Sherria|last4=Chevalier|first4=Arnaud|date=August 2008|title=Teachers' perceptions and A-level performance: is there any evidence of systematic bias?|url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03054980701682140|journal=Oxford Review of Education|language=en|volume=34|issue=4|pages=403–423|doi=10.1080/03054980701682140|s2cid=144851201|issn=0305-4985|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Richard David Precht criticizes the system of school grades in his book ''Anna, die Schule und der liebe Gott: Der Verrat des Bildungssystems an unseren Kindern''. He believes that numbers from 1 to 6 (the school grading system used in Germany) do not do justice to the personalities of the children. In his opinion, grades are neither meaningful nor differentiated and therefore not helpful. For example, the questions whether a student has become more motivated, is more interested in a topic, has learned to deal better with failure and whether he has developed new ideas cannot be answered with grades. Instead, Precht suggests a differentiated written assessment of the students' learning and development path. In his opinion, the grading system comes from a psychologically and pedagogically uninformed era and does not belong in the 21st century.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Precht |first=Richard |title=Prinzipien für eine Bildungsreform: Der Besuch des Kindergartens sollte Pflicht sein. |publisher=Die Zeit |year=2013}}</ref> Alternative grading methods, including competency-based assessment, specifications grading, and "ungrading" can be used.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Clark |first1=David |title=Specifications Grading |date=2023-06-27 |work=Grading for Growth |pages=65–81 |place=New York |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-003-44504-3 |last2=Talbert |first2=Robert|doi=10.4324/9781003445043-8 }}</ref>

==Effect on motivation==

{{POV section|talk=Neutrality and quality concerns with "Effect on motivation" section|date=April 2026}}

Poor grades over a longer period of time would give students the impression that they would learn very little or nothing, which jeopardizes the innate intrinsic motivation of every child to learn.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Das Dilemma mit den Schulnoten|url=https://www.n-tv.de/panorama/Das-Dilemma-mit-den-Schulnoten-article20263200.html|access-date=2020-12-17|website=n-tv.de|language=de}}</ref> Children who have already lost their desire to learn and only study for their grades have no reason to continue learning after they have achieved the best possible grade.<ref name=":1" /> In addition, poor grades represent destructive feedback for students, since they do not provide any constructive assistance, but only absolute key figures.<ref name=":0" /> Bad grades can lead to poor future prospects, perplexity, pressure, stress and depression among parents and children.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

Margret Rasfeld criticizes the system of grades as unhelpful and, in her opinion, the resulting competitive thinking in schools and says: "School is there to organize success and not to document failure."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Jebsen|first=Ken|date=2019-08-18|title=Positionen 18: "Akadämlich" – Freies Denken unerwünscht!|url=https://kenfm.de/positionen-18/|access-date=2020-12-17|website=KenFM.de|language=de-DE|quote=Schule ist dazu da, das Gelingen zu organisieren und nicht das Misslingen zu dokumentieren|archive-date=11 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210811085254/https://kenfm.de/positionen-18/}}</ref> Gerald Hüther criticizes grades for being responsible for ensuring that students cannot specialize in any topic that they are enthusiastic about and have a talent for, since otherwise their grades in other areas would deteriorate.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|last=Rinas|first=Jutta|date=2012-09-05|title=Wie wichtig sind gute Noten?|url=https://www.haz.de/Thema/Specials/HAZ-Themenwoche-Schule/Wie-wichtig-sind-gute-Noten|access-date=2020-12-17|website=HAZ – Hannoversche Allgemeine |language=de |quote=...sich unsere Gesellschaft nicht weiter [entwickele]... Wenn wir alle Kinder [dazu] zwingen, sich an dieselben Bewertungsmaßstäbe anzupassen...}}</ref> He also believes that "our society will not develop further...if we force all children to conform to the same evaluation standards".<ref name=":3" />

==Biases in grading== {{excerpt|Discrimination in education#Teacher bias in grading}} ==Grading systems by country== {{Main|Grading systems by country}} Most nations have their own grading system, and different institutions in a single nation can vary in their grading systems as well. However, several international standards for grading have arisen recently, such as the European Baccalaureate.

==See also== * Grading on a curve * Sudbury school, a school model for ages 4 through 18 with schools internationally with no grading or grade levels * Competency-based learning, an alternative to the traditional letter grade system * Mastery Transcript Consortium, a group working to create alternatives to the traditional grading system in secondary schools * Report card * Test score

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grade}} Category:Academic transfer Category:Education reform Category:Educational evaluation methods Category:Student assessment and evaluation