Did you know that the number one reason

Erin Petrucelli
Mrs. Lohmeyer
5/14/13

Education problems with easy fixes
Did you know that the number one reason many school age children are stressed is parental pressure on grades. Yes we can say that the parents need to learn not to care so much about grades but, really is that ever going to happen. With colleges looking more and more on academic grades it becomes increasingly important that we keep those grades looking sharp. Though that may sound easy to many parents who forget what school was like or didn’t struggle like their kids seem to be. Parents today however fail to look at the breakdown of why their kids receive the grades they do. It could be a whole hostess of reasons why from the kid just won’t do the work to the kid just really doesn’t understand the material being presented. And if parents directly ask their kids they will make up just about any excuse to justify their not so good grades. Some will say “the teacher just hates me.” Or “the teacher grades hard”. Now some would be honest and say “I just dot like (subject) and I just chose not to do it” or “I just don’t get it.” However many parents and educators fail to look at the fact that it might not be the teacher or the parent or even the work material itself. Parents and educators never stop to think if the way we give our grades and our whole grading system is “out of whack”. Is it fair, right or even justifiable that those who just crack under the pressure of a test or just can’t seem to retain the material of a particular subject fail when they do all the classwork and try to learn? Should those who excel at testing and just hear or read something once or twice and have it on “instant recall” not have to do any of the classwork or even attempt to pay attention in class still attain a C/B average? No. This is not fair and this just shows how our whole grading system is “upside down” and in need of a “total makeover”. A perfect example of this is when my friend we will call her Donna (just to keep her identity safe) did not get into any four year university because she had bad grades. She didn’t have bad grades due to not doing her work but due to the fact that she could not take a test to save her life. She had really bad GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) and before every test would get herself so worked up that everything she knew would just escape her brain and she would end up failing the test. She would do every other classwork, homework assignment and extra credit assignment but even all that wouldn’t even pull her to a C. And by the time she started to apply for college none of the four year universities would even glance her way because her grades were not up to par. Her grades in no way reflected her work ethic or the effort and countless hours she put in studying or doing extra credit projects. This once again shows how our while grading system is “upside down” and in need of a “total makeover” Parents and educators need to stop and look at the problems with our current educational grading system. They fail to realize that test are horribly overweighed and other class assignments don’t help you get your grade up very much. Many of the children who are in school from kindergarten to college are affected in some way shape or form. But mainly the stress from your parents starts in sixth grade and continues till you graduate from high school. That is a whole six years of stress enough to make anyone crack. Many parents and educators would agree that the educational grading system has its flaws and one of the major flaws is that test grades are unfairly weighted more than other assignments. In an article on natural test takers in The Teachers.net Gazette it states that “only 2-5% of all students are “natural” test takers”. This means that 98-95% of students are not natural test takers and the educational grading system is indirectly set up to accommodate those who are “natural” test takers. Many now reading thus far wonder what is the educational grading system? Well according to wiki it is this:
“The typical grades given in a course are (from highest to lowest) A, B, C, D, and F, where F stands for "failing". Sometimes these are appended with + or −, giving the grades A, A−, B+, B, B−, C+, C, C−, D+, D, D−, and F. The grade A+ is unusual in American education. D− is also sometimes omitted, under the assumption that anything less than a D is by definition failure.”
Basically wiki is saying that an A means that you know the work and understand what is being taught. However if you make an F you have no understanding of the subject. In many cases this is not true many times students forget to do homework or simply as a senior in high school just know that even if they fail they will still graduate and just don’t do the work.
Often we look at an F as the symbol of not knowing the work when often times that is not the case. And in many cases we do the same for an A. In a recent article on yahoo.com it tells us that “Many of the students who receive an A on a report card did only about 25-40% of the work themselves without copying or “help” from a fellow student.”
If we look at this chart made on poll results.com:

We see that 50% of people mainly in the high school demographic agree that there is a problem with the current grading system. However 15% of people just don’t care. This shows that majority of high school students recognize and understand the growing problem with the grading system and it is time for parents and educators to open their eyes and do something about it.
Speaking of doing something about it. What are we to do? we can’t just get rid of grades all together. We must come up with a way to first and foremost bring it to educator’s attention. In the article on greatschools.org it says:
“If you, as parents, continue to feel there is inequity in grading scales, I would highly recommend that you try one of the following:
•Email or call the teacher in question and request a meeting of you, your teen and the teacher.
•Email the principal and request a meeting.
•Request that the principal make a presentation at a PTA or PTO meeting about the school's grading system.”
And sometimes we have to just de-emphasis grades and wiki says:
“A number of reputable liberal-arts colleges in the U.S. either do not issue grades at all (such as Alverno College, Antioch College, Bennington College, The Evergreen State College, New College of Florida, and Hampshire College) or de-emphasize them (St. John's College, Reed College, Sarah Lawrence College, Prescott College, College of the Atlantic). In all cases, the rationale is that grades alone do not provide a clear picture of academic aptitude or of potential for success, and that learning, not achieving the highest score, should be the goal of a liberal education as is the case in graduate programs. In many cases, narrative evaluations are used as an alternative measurement system.”
What is narrative evaluation well in my opinion it is the way grades are heading or rather should be. Unlike a tradition grading system students are not striving to get a good number but to be described by there teachers as curious, independent, hard worker, knows the material. Basically they have to convince the teacher they know the material not an answer sheet. And I feel anyone can guess on a multiple choice test and make a D or a C. however if you can make the teacher feel like you know the material you really truly understand it and that will show on your evaluation. Also on a narrative evaluation it can tell that the student tried and that’s all colleges really want someone who will try to obtain the knowledge. However if we look at the textbook definition of narrative evaluation we see that:
“narrative evaluation is a form of performance measurement and feedback which can be used as an alternative or supplement to grading. Narrative evaluations generally consist of several paragraphs of written text about a student's individual performance and course work” Although the problems with the grading system don’t directly affect everyone except those in school. I hope after careful persuading and statistical research you can see that the problem with the grading system can affect every American citizen living in the U.S. today. Because if our grading system is faulty that mean more kids who try can fall short. Thus not earning the qualifying grades to enter a 4 year university or for that matter anything after high school. Soon those kids who tried and didn’t make it in high school can have a hard time finding a job paying more than minimum wage. So then these kids grow into the adults standing in line to collect welfare and/or unemployment. Which in terms causes them to become a contributor to Americas national debt. So all in all if we fix Americas educational grading system we can ultimately reduce Americas debt.