Grading System

Grading System

A grading system in education is a system that is used to assess the educational performance of a child which is entirely based upon points alone. Grading system does not provide an opportunity to make the child think out of the box or freely develop the thinking about any inkling of an idea or get involved with any of the intellectual speculation.

There are many types of grading systems available now. Right from providing an O grade , A  to F grade, to providing a ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ alone, many standards based grading systems are incorporated in various schools across the globe according to their own needs and desires.

In some countries, all grades from all current classes are averaged to create a grade point average (GPA) for the marking period. The GPA is calculated by taking the number of grade points a student earned in a given period of time of middle school through high school. GPAs are also calculated for undergraduate and graduate students in most universities. The GPA can be used by potential employers or educational institutions to assess and compare applicants.

A cumulative grade point average (CGPA) is a calculation of the average of all of a student's total earned points divided by the possible number of points. This grading system calculates for all of his or her complete education career. Grade point averages can be unweighted (where all classes with the same number of credits have equal influence on the GPA) or weighted (where some classes are given more influence than others).

Types of Grades:

Norm-Referenced Grading Systems

One method of grading compares student achievement to that of her peers, a system called norm-referenced grading. In norm-referenced systems students are evaluated in relationship to one another (e.g., the top 10% of students receive an A, the next 30% a B, etc.). This

grading system rests on the assumption that the level of student performance will

not vary much from class to class. In this system the instructor usually determines

the percentage of students assigned each grade, although this percentage may be

determined (or at least influenced) by departmental expectations and policy.

Advantages:

Ø  Norm-referenced systems are very easy to use.

Ø  They work well in situations requiring rigid differentiation among students where, for example, program size restrictions may limit the number of students advancing to higher level courses.

Ø  They are generally appropriate in large courses that do not encourage cooperation among students but generally stress individual achievement.

Disadvantages:

Ø  One objection to norm-referenced systems is that an individual's grade is determined not only by his/her achievements, but also by the achievements of others. This may be true in a large non-selective lecture class, where we can be fairly confident that the class is representative of the student population; but in small classes (under 40) the group may not be a representative sample. One student may get an A in a low-achieving section while a fellow student with the same score in a higher-achieving section gets a B.

Ø  A second objection to norm-referenced grading is that it promotes competition rather than cooperation. When students are pitted against each other for the few As to be given out, they're less likely to be helpful to each other.

Criterion-Referenced Grading Systems:

 A criterion-referenced system focuses on specific information that students attain through the learning process. Definition: In criterion-referenced systems students are evaluated against an absolute scale (e.g. 95-100 = A, 88-94 = B, etc.). Normally the criteria are a set

number of points or a percentage of the total. Since the standard is absolute, it is

possible that all students could get As or all students could get Ds.

Advantages:

Ø  Students are not competing with each other and are thus more likely to actively help each other learn. A student's grade is not influenced by the caliber of the class.

Disadvantages:

Ø  It is difficult to set reasonable criteria for the students without a fair amount of teaching experience. Most experienced faculty set these criteria based on their knowledge of how students usually perform (thus making it fairly similar to the norm referenced system).

Other Systems: Some alternate systems of grading include contract grading, peer

grading, and self-evaluation by students.

Ø  In contract grading instructors list activities students can participate in or objectives they can achieve, usually attaching a specified number of points for each activity (e.g. book report = 30 points, term paper = 60 points). Students select the activities and/or objectives that will give them the grade they want and a contract is signed. It is advisable to have qualitative criteria stated in the contract in addition to listing the activities.

Ø   In some classes, a portion of a student's grade is determined by peers' evaluation of his/her performance. If students are told what to look for and how to grade, they generally can do a good job. Agreement between peer and instructor rating is about 80%. Peer grading is often used in composition classes and speech classes. It can also be a useful source of information for evaluating group work; knowing that group members have the opportunity to evaluate each other’s work can go a long way in motivating peers to pull their weight on a project and to reassure group members that their contributions will be recognized. If used, peer evaluation should always be done anonymously.

Ø  Students can also be asked to assess their own work in the class and their assessment can be a portion of the final grade. This method has educational value as learning to assess one's own progress contributes to the university's goal of preparing our students to be life-long learners. A research analysis found that the percentages of self-assessors whose grades agree with those of faculty graders vary from 33% to 99%. Experienced students tend to rate themselves quite similarly to the faculty while less experienced students generally give themselves higher grades than a faculty grader. Students in science classes also produced self-assessments that closely matched faculty assessment. If self-assessment is used, the instructor and student should meet to discuss the student's achievement before the self-evaluation is made.

Advantages of Grading System in Education:

Let us now look in detail the advantages of grading system in education which is used as an inevitable tool for assessing a student’s performance at least in the school life.

1. Takes the pressure off from the students at certain levels:

In a general grading system as considered above, a student’s real scores and it’s associated marks are not accounted on the official transcript, which denotes that their GPA will not have an effect on either a pass or a fail mark category.

This spares the students from getting preoccupied and become fussy about getting an elevated letter grade like that of an O, and permitting them to unwind. It still provides the necessary educational prerequisites for them to land themselves comfortably on a good job and also mold themselves to become more responsible citizens in the future.

2. Grading Pattern description:

One of the main advantages of this method is that the studious children are clearly discriminated from the average and below average type of students but this led to the development and mounting up of an intense pressure amidst the students.

The learning was not thought of a process that is revered to be a fun task, but rather as a hard task which they had to properly deal with in an obedient manner.

The advantages of the grading system are that the development of pressure upon the students in terms of studying has appreciably reduced.

3. Gives the students an obvious idea about their weaknesses and strengths:

Knowing precisely which subject(s) are their weak spots, students can easily decide where to toggle their focal point on. In a grading system where the alphabets are the scales, a grade of C or grade of D is known to speak a lot. So, when the total grades arrive these students can easily get to know their forte.

4. Make class work easier:

Suppose if a student knows that getting a D is enough to scrape through the class assignments section in the marking division, he or she will only focus on getting a D without any fuss. Of course, getting a higher grade than a D lies with the student’s prerogative only. The point is that the student does not need to toil them to achieve the necessary minimum.

Disadvantages of Grading System in Education:

Also, the following points can be considered as worthy of our importance while considering the disadvantages of grading system in education. They are,

1. It doesn’t instill a sense of competition:

When all that required is a mere pass mark, we would neither have the urge to outperform others nor do we want to excel with the overall grades. The A grade speaks a lot about our caliber than a D or an F. With a D or an F, we can be only satisfied that we are okay enough in studies, which will make us go lazy.

2. Not an accurate representation of the performance and the knowledge gained:

As we have said already, passing in an examination cannot be considered as plausible enough to declare that the same student has gained an immense amount of knowledge by these exams. An alphabet cannot explain the inner knowledge gained by a student and there is no easy way of gauging a student’s level of performance and knowledge in the examinations.

3. It is not an exact scoring system:

Suppose, let us consider that the science subject is your weak point and with a tremendous effort, let us say that you got an A or a C for all your attempts, which would have made a vast disparity in your sense of accomplishment. Still, the inner knowledge you have gained via these grades can be nil, as you may have attempted for learning without understanding the concept, with the sole perspective of getting an A or a C.

4. Lack of incentives:

The traditional letter grade system considers that every alphabet is an inducement to perform good or better or the best. Getting a B could kindle the students to put an extra effort to get an A and is a step closer to getting the highest mark in a class. But, the highest rank in class tag is going to do no good for the students. To get the tag, the students will only go for rote learning rather than be exploring and explaining the concepts on their own.

Application of grading system:

Students of class IX and X will be evaluated on a 9-point grading system. Each grade, given on the basis of both formative and summative assessments, will correspond to a range of marks.

The nine point grading scale for measuring Scholastic achievements is reproduced below: -  

Marks Range	Grade	Grade Point
91-100	A1	10.0
81-90	A2	9.0
71-80	B1	8.0
61-70	B2	7.0
51-60	C1	6.0
41-50	C2	5.0
33-40	D	4.0
21-32	E1	C
00-20	E2	C

A common grading scale in the United States is

· A– 90 to 100

· B– 80 to 89

· C– 70 to 79

· D– 60 to 69

· E– 0 to 59

In case of India the general pattern is as follows

· A1: 91 to 100

· A2 : 81 to 90

· B1: 71 to 80

· B2: 61 to 70

· C1 : 51 to 60

· C2 : 41 to 50

· D for 33 to 40

E’ for less than 33 

Grade	10 Point Scale	7 Point Scale	GPA
A	90-100	93-100	4.0
B	80-89	85-92	3.0
C	70-79	77-84	2.0
D	60-69	70-77	1.0
F	Below 60	69 and below