a bit of empirical evidence i have to offer is about some negative effects of
the use of grading, which i realize is the opposite of what you asked for. when
i was a senior in high school, a chinese girl decided not to take trig/analytic
geometry because she was afraid it would ruin her gpa and affect her college
acceptances.
evidence that non-use of grades may have a beneficial side:
antioch (at one time and perhaps still) has had an open-file policy, such that
any student who didn't like the grade they got in a course could simply remove
from their file the record of that course (grade & credit). this does not seem
to have affected the school's reputation adversely, that i am aware of.
not taking grades too seriously allows one to learn out of interest, which tends
to lead to better retention and recall, as i can personally attest.
Jim Clark wrote:
> snip
>
> Grading is not equivalent to ranking, unless one uses a forced
> distribution. One can grade without any restriction on the
> number of As or other grades other than the achievement of the
> students. I would be interested in hearing about any empirical
> evidence that non-use of grading schemes produces better or even
> as good learning as the use of grades?
>
--
Any resemblance of any of the above opinions to anybody's official position is
completely coincidental.
Muriel Strand, P.E.
Air Resources Engineer
CA Air Resources Board
2020 L Street
Sacramento, CA 59814
916-324-9661
916-327-8524 (fax)
www.arb.ca.gov
