The variations in grades given by teachers who determine their own measures and values often reflect uneven treatment of students. Such variations in grading primarily affect low-achieving students whose work is inconsistent rather than the high-achieving students who can rely on strong support systems outside of school and, therefore, consistently perform well (Morsy & Rothstein, 2015; Van Horn et al., 2009). Therefore, inconsistent grading practices remain a troublesome issue, as 21st century schools are expected to educate a larger, more diverse student population. We’ll dive into these issues in the following chapters.
CHAPTER 1
Why It’s Time to Reassess
Ranking students based on their grades became a prominent function in public schools not long after compulsory education became mandatory in 1918 (WiseGeek, n.d.). Ranking students by sorting and selecting them made sense when jobs were available even for those with very little schooling. As long as the U.S. economy was built on low-skilled labor, sorting and selecting those students who should continue on to the next level, be it grades 6, 9, 12, or college, was an important and expected role of teachers and schools.
But the world is different now. Graduating from high school has become a basic step in finding employment. Our own economic survival may well depend on our performing this function at a higher level than we have in the past. There is ample research that it makes financial sense to significantly improve literacy in grades preK–3 (Allington, 2011; Karoly & Bigelow, 2005); and that improvement is critically important if we expect to reduce the number of students struggling with deficits in literacy and mathematics. Increasing the achievement of students living in poverty could be the most cost-effective way to reduce poverty, which in turn could reduce government social services and crime (Gould, Weinberg, & Mustard, 2002). It is cyclical.
Now is the right time to re-examine teaching and grading policies. The job market is different. Education, employment, and poverty are proven to be linked. The grade inflation occurring in many high schools contributes to increased college dropouts (Goodwin, 2011). Standardized assessments make it easier to transition to this change. But first, take a look at how school’s purpose has changed over time.
Education, Employment, and Poverty
U.S. schools began using standardized grading systems during the early 20th century. During this time, attendance became legally mandatory, and the number of public high schools grew from five hundred to ten thousand (Lassahn, n.d.). Personalized descriptive student reports became less feasible. Schools began using percentages and letter grades, which introduced many grading debates around criteria variations and grading-scale variations.
With more students entering public schools and the shifting focus on efficiency, grading in essence became a selection tool to determine who would fail and who would progress to the next educational level. The sort-and-select practice was advantageous for a society that required a relatively low- or semi-skilled labor force. Sorting between the labor force and higher education levels became a public school function.
But now it’s time to reassess our grading practices. By contrast, public schools of the 21st century do not have the luxury of high failure rates. Because of the outcomes—high failure rates and a glut of uneducated employees in a high-skill market—traditional grading practices are no longer acceptable. Now schools are tasked with making more students college and career ready. Why? Because across all age, sex, and ethnicity categories, students who do not complete high school have a poorer chance of securing employment than those who complete high school or receive a college degree; students, along with the families they create, who never receive a high school diploma that prepares them for a career or college are almost guaranteed a life of poverty (NCES, 2008). Undereducated members of our society often suffer from poverty and many require social and health supports; and if they spend time in the justice system, the personal and societal costs are even greater (Greenberg, Dunleavy, & Kutner, 2007; NCES, 2008). That’s why it’s not an exaggeration to say that success in school is perhaps the most important factor enabling citizens to lead financially secure lives, unlike in the past. Educators are living and teaching in a time that demands adjustment. See table 1.1.
You can see in table 1.1 that there is a 26 percent difference in the employment rates for ages twenty to twenty-four between students who do not finish high school (51.5 percent) and those who earn a bachelor’s degree or higher (77.5 percent). Even completing high school significantly improves students’ chances of securing employment, giving them a 16.6 percent advantage over students who do not complete high school.
Table 1.1: Employment Rates Related to Education Levels*
*Expressed as percentages of the U.S. civilian population, excluding military personnel.
Source: NCES, 2008.
Table 1.2 illustrates conditions in earnings and unemployment rates according to levels of educational attainment among those twenty-five and older working full time. A person is defined as unemployed if he or she does “not have a job, [has] actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and [is] currently available for work” (United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014).
Table 1.2: Earnings and Unemployment Rates by Educational Attainment
| Education Attained | Unemployment Rate in 2015 (Percent) | Median Weekly Earnings in 2015 in U.S. Dollars |
| Doctoral degree | 1.7 | 1,623 |
| Professional degree* | 1.5 | 1,730 |
| Master’s degree | 2.4 | 1,341 |
| Bachelor’s degree | 2.8 | 1,137 |
| Associate’s degree | 3.8 | 798 |
| Some college, no degree | 5.0 | 738 |
| High school diploma | 5.4 | 678 |
| Less than a high school diploma | 8.0 | 493 |
| All workers | 4.3 | 860 |
*Per the U.S. Department of Labor, a professional degree applies to students who have attended school full time three or more years post-bachelor’s degree.