1/5 My unpublished letter to the NYT regarding its May 1 story about resistance to suspending grades:
Wildly unequal circumstances while children learn at home is a persuasive reason to suspend traditional grading. Parents who oppose this seem to fear that two things may happen..
Wildly unequal circumstances while children learn at home is a persuasive reason to suspend traditional grading. Parents who oppose this seem to fear that two things may happen..
2/5 in the absence of grades: It will be harder to document the superiority of their own children relative to everyone else's, and students won't be motivated to do schoolwork.
The first claim is morally troubling because it implies that the school's primary mission is to...
The first claim is morally troubling because it implies that the school's primary mission is to...
3/5 sort children rather than to help all of them succeed. The second claim, if true, suggests either that grades have already undermined students' excitement about learning or that we need to create a curriculum that's sufficiently engaging so that kids don't have to be...
4/5 bribed or threatened with grades.
Research consistently shows that graded students think less deeply, choose less challenging tasks, and become less interested in learning as compared with students who are given the identical tasks but without grades...
Research consistently shows that graded students think less deeply, choose less challenging tasks, and become less interested in learning as compared with students who are given the identical tasks but without grades...
5/5 Thus, our current situation offers an opportunity to consider whether letter or number grades ever made sense and how we can find more constructive ways to report students' progress once schools reopen. //
