The Student Voice Forum recently brought you the stories of students reflecting on grading during the pandemic. Some felt their school had become more lenient with grading while others felt hampered by overly strict measures of academic performance, but all agreed that there were serious problems with traditional grading measures, especially during this period of crisis. Now, these same students offer their ideas for improvement: What could grading look like moving forward?

Participants:

Briana, Jefferson County senior (all-virtual)

Maeve, Fayette County junior (all-virtual)

Krupa, Warren County senior (in-person)

Audrey, Franklin County sophomore (all-virtual)

Spandana, Jefferson County sophomore (all-virtual)

Ideas for Improvement

Briana: There have been times when I relayed something back to my teacher to make sure I have it. And I wish I could be graded on that, because if I can explain it to you, like in math or in history, if I can dissect it for you completely, I have it learned and I wish I could be graded on that, because you’re not going to get my best, like what I know, based off a test. And that’s a whole conversation. The whole test thing.

Krupa: This might be quite hard to implement, but I’m almost thinking of this idea of grading on intentionality. Like when I genuinely understand and intend on learning. That’s when I feel like I’ve truly learned something.

Briana: So, my example’s actually from calculus. There was this worksheet, it was like a 20-question worksheet. And I’d say I didn’t understand about 80% of it. I did like four problems and I turned it in. And then I got full credit. And when I saw that I was like, “Yeah. An A. Great, I guess.” But I also was like, well, I didn’t earn that. I still don’t know it. I’m going to have to learn it at some point, because it’s going to be on the AP test. And my teacher didn’t really give me any feedback. And I’m like, “You know that’s not all the questions.” But I know they’re stressed too. It really unmotivated me, because I’m like, I still don’t understand, but I’m getting the credit. But then no one is following up on that. I don’t have like a breakdown plan, but I do know that tests being 50% of your grade needs to go. That just needs to go, because I failed one test last year and I was down to a C. And I was like, “That’s not okay.”

Krupa: I think it’s so interesting though that we are graded on being able to do things without the tools we would normally have in the real world. If I was a professional, I’d feel like I’d use Desmos [a web-based graphing calculator]. In this time, there is so much real-world learning that could happen, but we’re struggling with trying to maintain normalcy and not relying on things that help us in this moment.

Spandana: Some students are just really not good test takers and that’s not their fault. I have a friend who honestly knows the content, but is just bad at taking tests, like can’t focus. It’s just difficult. And she gets really nervous. And I just feel like that’s so unfair, because I know she knows the stuff, but then her grade never reflects it.

Audrey: I think that if we kind of reexamine our pass/fail policies, that would be something to kind of guide the conversation to a district-wide grading approach. I know a lot of colleges have kind of started going that route, like the one that my dual credits are through. They have given us a lot of leeway on whether or not we actually want to count our credits that we’ve accumulated over the last semester or two. I think that definitely a pass/fail policy or maybe weighting things a little bit differently, like you said Briana, not having one test be 50%. That is definitely something. And it puts a lot of undue stress on kids, especially during a pandemic when you’ve got other things to think about and not necessarily just acing that one test, because I mean, it really is hard on students.

Beyond Grading

Maeve: I think one of the skills that I’ve developed is I’ve lost a lot of work ethic when it comes to schoolwork and academic work and stuff like that. But I’ve gained a lot of… I don’t know what you’d call it. It’s not work ethic, but it’s still, like, ethic. I’ve started joining organizations that I’ve always kind of wanted to do around student activism and stuff like that. A big reason why I’m here was that I just got passionate about things that weren’t my schoolwork anymore. So, being able to join organizations like this is like a skill. I’m learning a lot of new things, but it’s not really in relation to academics. It’s in relation to, like, how do I cope with my mental health? How do I still pursue things that I’m passionate about in a virtual environment?

Audrey: Yeah. I want to second that completely. I have definitely gained a lot of skills outside of my school. Things that could be applicable in school, but just aren’t right now. I mean, research has definitely been one. I’ve learned a lot about the research process and academic studies and things like that. Learning to cope with your mental health is something that schools touch on or want to think that they touch on, but I don’t think that they necessarily try to foster growth in that in any kind of way. Mental health and learning to cope with it the best way you can is something that’s really hard for a lot of people. And it’s not something that you can bubble in for a good grade. It’s something completely personal and you can’t get a letter for that.

Maeve: This is a quick rant, but schools do not address mental health nearly as much as they should. My school practically abandoned helping its seniors — like college applications, mental health, they were just not doing it. The only thing that they do is that they release a newsletter and then they have five tips for a better mind. And it’s like, “Spend more time with friends.” And I’m like, “We’re in a pandemic. Get in the moment, dude.”

“I’m learning a lot of new things, but it’s not really in relation to academics. It’s in relation to, like, how do I cope with my mental health? How do I still pursue things that I’m passionate about in a virtual environment?”

Briana: During COVID, I’ve really developed the skill of taking control of my own learning. Like I can’t just trust that my teacher is going to give me everything I need. I’m not going to trust that my counselors are going to reach out to me, check in on me. So, I’ve been calling people. I’ve been bugging the crap out of my teachers. Like, “Okay, when are you free? When’s your office hours? Okay. Let’s go over this.” And my counselors, they really dropped the ball. Like they’re just now making the thing where seniors can schedule Zooms with them. There were times where I had to email Common App. I had to email an admissions place to answer my questions because my counselors didn’t make themselves available. I take care of myself. Trying to. But I’m still trying to figure out how to balance everything and take my time for myself. And just because I didn’t get this good of a grade or I’m not finishing everything doesn’t mean that my value or worth has gone down.

Krupa: I think something that I’ve been working on during the pandemic is taking care of myself. I’ve really learned to take time for myself and my mental health, engaging in mindful practices.

Maeve: I used to have like 4.0 typical GPA, whatever. I used to have a really good reputation with my school’s administration and my teachers. And now, I’m just a lot more confrontational and they don’t like me. And I’ve noticed that they kind of just stopped engaging in that because I’m holding them accountable now and many students like me are doing similar things, because we’ve had to toughen up, essentially.

Briana: I think these new skills should be assessed. I don’t know if they could be. I mean, if teachers really tried to brainstorm a way, I bet they could, because it’s their job.

Maeve: I just have to second that. I do have, I feel like, a relatively large leeway compared to some of my fellow students when it comes to teachers. I understand that their work is under-appreciated and I understand that they’re going through a change as well. But high school is such a critical developmental time for students. With teachers, they’re going to be often in this job field for 20, 30 years. For us, it’s only four. And those four years are some of the most important years in our life. They determine where we go to college, where we get a job. It’s very, very conditional.

Briana: This is going to sound so far-fetched but hear me out. I think teachers should have one-on-one meetings with students. Then in these meetings, they ask you about the content. Maybe you walk them through a problem, exactly how to do it. And that could be a test grade. Or they just need to take away the 50% of your grade [being] testing. I think that needs to be a thing. Either take it down to 30%, 20%. We could band together and make it for all schools. I think we can do this, guys. I think we can.

Audrey: I think that we need to make our grading policies more reflective. We need to let students reflect on what they’re learning, how the content’s being taught, the content itself. At my school, we do project-based learning, so we do have that reflection element. Some teachers will say, “What grade do you think you deserve on this project? And why do you think you deserve that? What grade would you give this person on their project?” Things like that where we’re self-grading. And I used to think that that was kind of like a lazy thing on behalf of the teacher, that they just didn’t want to read my whole paper or something like that. But really, when I look at that reflection, I think, “If I actually sat down and spent a few minutes thinking about this project and how much I’ve gained from it and how comfortable I feel with the material, I would give myself this grade and this is why.” And I think that would definitely help me understand my grades and kind of my learning style better. And I think it would also help my teachers better understand what’s going on in our classrooms right now.

“I think that we need to make our grading policies more reflective. We need to let students reflect on what they’re learning, how the content’s being taught, the content itself.”

Briana: I think part of your grade should be how much time and effort you put into it. I don’t think that that should be discounted. And I think that’s something that is being swept under the rug during this whole COVID thing, because teachers are not seeing the effort that is going on when the screen is turned off, when we’re in our room trying to go back to these videos and trying to understand or asking somebody else for help.

Maeve: Yeah. Just completely agree with that. We have to remember that we put in all this effort. And 20 years from now, none of it will matter, unless Briana chooses to pursue a career in calculus, which is looking unlikelier by the minute.

This is Part Two of a two-part series on grading during the pandemic. You can find the first installment here. Rachel Belin transcribed this conversation, which took place on February 12, 2021.

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