Grading: A Necessary Evil or A Valid Measure

Grading is a process of implementing standardized measures for different levels of accomplishment in each subject or course. They are the indicators of students’ knowledge, skill, attitude as well as critical thinking abilities. The grades are expected to give an idea about the gap between the programme objective and the programme outcomes. Therefore, it needs to be done very cautiously.

However, no grading system can be perfect or without any limitations as it is not possible to capture the different dimensions of a student’s learning through it. But there needs to be some mechanism to certify the knowledge acquired for the world outside the teaching institute. Consequently, grades are awarded.

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Awarding grades is one of the most debatable issues among degree-granting universities or academic institutes and is considered as a necessary evil embedded in formal education system. Also, not all teachers enjoy it because of its efforts and the time required to read assignments, correct them and then determine the grades, especially when it comes to lower grades.

What makes it debatable are the issues related to autonomy, definitions, standards, and inflation of grades? But the challenge is that not many institutes allow debate on it.

There are certain institutes which post all the grades offered by the different teaching instructors to be seen by all of them to facilitate the discussion, to compare the grades offered by one with another, to discuss the reasons for it, to find out why a particular instructor has offered less of a C grade or B grade. etc. It sounds good to have such debates and discussion as it helps in reaching a common understanding about the assessment of a student This will facilitate in establishing a more rational and common approach among the faculty members while grading the student. It will also be helpful in the cases when the same course is taught by different faculty members to different set of students /different sections.

This discussion should be encouraged as it will enable to bring more originality while assessing the student. But it is easier said than done, despite the fact that it sounds good to be questioned for your assessment and have discussion in open about your judgment of giving a particular grading to the students but in real world it is not that easy to implement or execute. The reason for it may be attributed to the fact that faculty claims that he is the boss of his subject class, and no one can question him about how his student should be graded. This thought process has a basic flaw and instructor should be clearer of the fact the students are not of instructor /facilitator/faculty/ but of the school/university.

The grades offered by the school should be closely monitored, questioned and discussed, because in case the ‘A’ grade is offered to majority of the students, then practically it becomes meaningless as there remain no relative differential among the students and ultimately it will provide access to the best job opportunities not only to the real ‘A’ students but to all the students who may be genuinely worthy.

The inflated numbers give the wrong sense to the student about his potential, and he gets disconnected with reality and starts living with wrong expectations, failing miserably when he faces the real world In the long run, inflated grades are detrimental for the student.

Therefore, while grading the teacher must follow the principle of validity. It is important as the basic objective of grading to communicate to others the level of academic achievement as accurate as possible that learner has attained. These grades are used by the student himself, his parents, other faculty members, university officials, and potential employers. Hence, while assigning grades the teachers must do it with utmost care and validity.

About the author:

Dr Deependra Sharma, Dean, School of Business, MIT-WPU

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha