The education system and the grading system, in particular, has and continues to face a huge conundrum since there is a divide with regards to the manner in which student performances should be graded. In one corner, there are those that argue grading should be standardized in such a way that a relatively large portion of the class attains the average grade compared to those attaining grades on either side of the average. On the other side, there are those that argue grading should be done on merit and each student is, therefore, allocated the grade they deserve (Berkel, 2010). In the current education system, a lot of emphasis is put on these grades to determine student learning, and this puts immense pressure on both teachers and students to perform, and this has contributed to the preference of the standardized grading system. However, I am of the opinion that awarding grades on merit facilitates better learning and ensures graduate students are well equipped.
The grading inflation being witnessed is as a result of standardization since teachers are more concerned with the test scores of their student’s since these play a significant role in any teacher’s evaluation. For this reason, a teacher is more likely to be lenient when grading a student who has scarcely grasped a concept as it increases their chance of getting an appraisal. Mansharamani notes that graduates from this system are half-baked since even those attaining A’s are average (2016). Through the grading on the merit-based system, education standards are bound to be raised since students will be required to put in great effort in their studies to pass a class. It is a common misconception that a student’s failure is also that of the teacher, but this fails to consider other factors such as interest, stress, lack of school fees among others that may contribute in this regard (Cherif et. al., 2014). Rather than generalize the performance of students, the merit-based grading will help teachers identify those that are weak in a particular subject and put in place measures such as remedial classes to help them improve.
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References
Berkel, J. (2010, March 22). A Look at Grade Inflation. Minnesota Daily , Retrieved March 18, 2017.
Cherif, A., Adams, G., Movahedzadeh, F., Martyn, M. and Dunning, J. (2014). Why Do Student’s Fail? Faculty’s Perspective. Retrieved March 18, 2017, from http://cop.hlcommission.org/Learning-Environments/cherif.html
Mansharamani, V. (2016). Column: Hour an Epidemic of Grade Infaltion made A’s Average. Retrieved March 18, 2017, from http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/column-how-an-epidemic-of-grade-inflation-made-as-average/
