In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Muriel Strand <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>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.
I am completely in agreement about the adverse effects of grades.
What is definitely NOT needed is a "transcript". Those who
think that this record indicates what the student knows and
can do is at least badly mistaken. The GPA causes students
to take weak courses, or repeat what they know, and this
leads to great distortions. It also keeps students from
learning, as they go through hoops to get high grades.
By the time they get to college, it might be too late for
many of them already. They have been conned into memorizing
trivia and learning methods without understanding, as that
is what they have been graded upon throughout their
elementary and secondary education.
--
This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558
