Harvard and other schools soon experimented with public rankings and evaluations, noting that this resulted in “increasing attention to the course of studies” and encouraged “good moral conduct” ( Harvard University, 1832 ).
#EASY GRADE PRO 4.1 CODE#
However, these “merit marks” were written in code and hidden from students ( Bagg, 1871 ). By 1837, Yale was also recording student credit for individual classes, not just at the completion of college studies, using a four-point scale. However, the first official record of a grading system surfaces in 1785 at Yale, where seniors were graded into four categories: Optimi, second Optimi, Inferiores, and Perjores ( Stiles, 1901, cited by Smallwood, 1935 ). Given that universities like Yale and Harvard conducted examinations and elected valedictorians and salutatorians early in the 18th century, some scale of grading must have existed. Some schools also awarded medals based on competitions among students or held regular competitions to assign seats in class ( Cureton, 1971 ). The earliest forms of grading consisted of exit exams before awarding of a degree, as seen at Harvard as early as 1646 ( Smallwood, 1935 ). In particular, does grading provide feedback for students that can promote learning? How might grades motivate struggling students? What are the origins of norm-referenced grading-also known as curving? And, finally, to what extent does grading provide reliable information about student learning and mastery of concepts? We end by offering four potential adjustments to our general approach to grading in undergraduate science courses for instructors to consider. This is followed by considerations of the potential purposes of grading and insights from research literature that has explored the influence of grading on teaching and learning. Below, we explore a brief history of grading in higher education in the United States. Given that the time and stress associated with grading has the potential to distract instructors from other, more meaningful aspects of teaching and learning, it is perhaps time to begin scrutinizing our tacit assumptions surrounding grading. Last time you assigned grades, did you assign an “E,” “E+,” or “E−” to any of your students? Likely you assigned variations on “A’s,” “B’s,” “C’s,” “D’s,” and “F’s.” Have you wondered what happened to the “E’s” or talked with colleagues about their mysterious absence from the grading lexicon? While we often commiserate about the process of assigning grades, which may be as stressful for instructors as for students, the lack of conversation among instructors about the mysterious omission of the “E” is but one indicator of the many tacit assumptions we all make about the processes of grading in higher education.
#EASY GRADE PRO 4.1 PROFESSIONAL#
If your current professional position involves teaching in a formal classroom setting, you are likely familiar with the process of assigning final course grades. When we consider the practically universal use in all educational institutions of a system of marks, whether numbers or letters, to indicate scholastic attainment of the pupils or students in these institutions, and when we remember how very great stress is laid by teachers and pupils alike upon these marks as real measures or indicators of attainment, we can but be astonished at the blind faith that has been felt in the reliability of the marking systems.