Rethinking Grading Quotes

“In our relentless pursuit of the almighty A and the perfect GPA, something got lost—learning. Grades became the be-all and end-all, the goal itself, not an indicator of achieving the goal of learning. Grades have become the commodity, the badge of success and smarts, the ticket to college.”
― Cathy Vatterott, Rethinking Grading: Meaningful Assessment for Standards-Based Learning

“Truth be told, we like our norm-based comparisons. As a competitive culture, we like winners and losers and the fact that there is only so much room at the top. It is a way to demonstrate (we believe) that school is a meritocracy—that hard work is rewarded, and that a hierarchy of achievement exists. This system secures the fate of those few at the top, who are then given access to the best high schools and colleges. So the tradition of honor rolls, class rank, and valedictorians lives on.”
― Cathy Vatterott, Rethinking Grading: Meaningful Assessment for Standards-Based Learning

“We reward the modern version of virtue and punish the lack of it. We reward responsibility, effort, hard work, neatness, and homework completion. We penalize tardiness, sloppiness, late work, and cheating. For this noble goal of instilling morality in students, grades have been a most convenient tool.”
― Cathy Vatterott, Rethinking Grading: Meaningful Assessment for Standards-Based Learning

“What if an A student was a compliant one rather than a learned one? What if the premise that high grades were a predictor of success in life was faulty? What if grades, as the marker of success in school, were a flawed, or worse yet, meaningless”
― Cathy Vatterott, Rethinking Grading: Meaningful Assessment for Standards-Based Learning