We know grades are fake. If we can admit they’re fake, then we have the chance to get to someplace better for students, teachers, families, and everyone else.
To start, we have to admit that grades are fake. No you say? Grades aren’t fake. I received them my whole life. My kids bring them home everyday. They are super important. They are everything. No. I’m sorry. They’re fake and they’re pretty meaningless.
By saying that grades are fake we’re saying that grades can be manipulated a thousand different ways and almost never represent what has been learned or what students can do as a result of having taken a course. I can think of 100 courses right now that I took in my life that I received A’s in and those grades mean absolutely nothing. They are a letter on a paper somewhere. Grades and grading have not changed in over 300 years. Think of everything else that’s changed in the world and specifically, with teaching and learning during that time. And what we have is a system that evaluates learning based on a 100 point scale that assigns letter grades to performance. We ask; Is this the best we can do? We don’t think so and the Grades are Fake podcast episode dives into what’s wrong with grades and how we can create something that’s so much better.
School is Out! 