The Technology of Grading: False Messages of Competency?

In recent years, education professionals have raised questions about the efficacy of the standard numerical grading system. Historically, instruction took place in the context of a mentor-student relationship. When ancient fishermen trained their young sons in a seafaring livelihood, the instruction was individual and the expected result was proficiency (History, 2010). In the earliest methods of education, the teacher was the attentive mentor and the subject was meticulously imparted until skill was achieved (Apprenticeship, 2011). Students prior to the beginning of quantitative grading in the late 18^th century learned in an environment of mastery. Subject competency since that time declares itself not primarily in mastery but in a system of numbers.  

Some of the most valuable lessons I have nailed down never had a grade assigned them: I learned to talk by listening and observing the many talkers around me; I mastered walking by noticing everyone around me was upright and moving more effectively than me on my hands and knees; I learned to bake bread with a friend as my mentor; My proficiency in sewing is a credit to my mother; my dad taught me math facts; my love of reading is a byproduct of a home filled with books and readers. Other lessons came with painful effort, were graded, and seldom resembled mastery. Business law and macroeconomics fell into that category and are still foreboding topics. Neil Postman uses the practice of numerical grading as an illustration of how technology assigns new ideas to what is real (Postman, 1993). A grade of 90% or above is mastery--period. This tidy system comprises a “media environment” (Griffin, 2009) in which we are so acclimated that we have difficulty objectifying its effects.

The method of numerical grading began in the late 1700s at Cambridge University. William Farish, a chemistry professor, is credited with fashioning the first university examination and the first numerical method of determining how much learning takes place in the classroom. “His idea that a quantitative value should be assigned to human thought was a major step toward constructing a mathematical concept of reality” (Postman, 1993, p. 13).

Farish participated in an educational paradigm that required meticulous one-on-one work with students to assure subject mastery. He likely devised his system out of a need for speed, simplification, and convenience not foreseeing the damaging implications. As the numerical system spread, the responsibility for learning quickly fell on the student as the time-honored work of mentoring and mastery yielded to the technology of grading. What followed was a new category of student failures “providing an entire new realm of employment for adults who would diagnose, treat, and remediate these newly-discovered ‘learning disabled’ children” (Hartmann, 2005). Though education finds itself deeply rooted in this system, many educators question its effectiveness and claim that grading has harmful effects on the learning process.

Salman Khan believes mastery is possible without a grading system.  Khan is a former hedge fund analyst who started the Khan Academy as a way to help students learn by utilizing self-pacing and his unique YouTube videos. Mastery, not grading, moves the student forward. Khan takes no salary and provides the videos free of charge on his website, The Khan Academy. Student viewing has been tracked and the results demonstrate remarkable movement forward as each learner, at his own pace, finally achieves mastery. Khan expresses concern about the holes in education occurring when students are forced to move forward in a subject before mastery even though they have a passing grade (TED, 2011). Statistics from the Alliance for Education reinforce this stating:

Ninth grade serves as a bottleneck for many students who begin their freshman year only to find that their academic skills are insufficient for high school-level work. Up to 40 percent of ninth grade students in cities with the highest dropout rates repeat ninth grade; only 10 to 15 percent of those repeaters go on to graduate. (High School, 2009)

To these students, a  grade (above 60%) communicates that they are ready to move on when, in fact, they likely do not have sufficient mastery to successfully handle more complicated material. Staying with the subject(s) until it is mastered would enable them to advance confidently and, at their own pace, lay the foundation for further learning. The grade, in this case, is a false message of competency.

As I was finishing this post, my husband phoned. I was telling him about Mr. Farish, mentoring, mastery, and false messages, summarizing my discoveries. Al is an elementary school teacher daily immersed in the American educational system. He dedicates hours weekly to Farish’s quantitative grading scheme. He remarked that his school wants to move to a portfolio system that circumvents traditional grades, but the brick wall for this new direction is accreditation standards. The universities require standardized numbers attached to each child. In this instance, Farish’s creation goes unchallenged.
A brief statement from communication theorist and author, Marshall McLuhan is a fitting response to this quagmire: “We shape our tools,” he says, “and then our tools shape us" (McLuhan, 1964, p. 65). The ramifications of new technology are unpredictable. The emergence of the negative consequences of a technology is a potential doorwary to innovative pathways and the redemption of the tool.

References

Apprenticeship,( 2011). Apprenticeships. Retrieved April 23, 2011, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apprenticeship

Griffin, E. (2009). Communication: a first look at communication theory. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Hartmann, T. (2005). The world's most famous lazy teacher. Retrieved April 20, 2011, from Adolescent Literacy: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alt-edindia/message/5352?o=1&d=-1

McLluhan, M. (1964). Understanding media. Cambridge,MA: The MIT Press.

High School Dropouts in America, 2009. Retrieved April 24, 2011, from Alliance for Excellent Education: http://www.all4ed.org/files/GraduationRates_FactSheet.pdf

Postman, N. (1993). Technopoly. New York: Vintage Books.

History of Apprenticeship, 2011). History of apprenticeship. Retrieved April 23, 2011, from Washington State Department of Labor and Industries: http://www.lni.wa.gov/TradesLicensing/Apprenticeship/About/History/

TED Talks, (2011). Salman Khan’s TED talk on how and why he has built his Khan Academy [Video]. Retrieved on April 20, 2011 from You Tube: http://www.ideahunter.org/2011/03/28/salman-khans-ted-talk-on-how-and-why-he-built-his-khan-academy/