Progress-Oriented Grading

This post was adapted from something that I had previously written.

I was once asked about how I felt about a teacher encouraging children to go as fast as they can in the books that they had been provided. Without thinking things through, I responded that it’s an improvement but doesn’t go far enough. I didn’t need to think it through because I had already thought about something similar years ago.

The biggest flaw with the schools is their inability to accommodate the needs of the individual. The most visible aspect of individuality that the schools fail to address is pace. There was a time when I was looking at a quick fix that was intended to address variance in pace. The solution was progress-oriented grading.

Let me explain the concept. Currently, schools tend to follow a series of lessons that are expected to be taught to all students simultaneously. Tests, homework, and other factors are used to evaluate how well students pick up these lessons. Progress-oriented grading would evaluate what has been learned rather than how well they perform tasks related to the lessons.

One of the primary ideas behind progress-oriented grading was to push teachers to better support individual needs. While it specifically addressed pace, the hope was that other aspects of individuality would be better supported. If a student proved an understanding of a topic, it shouldn’t matter if they failed to learn the same way as everybody else.

Implementation would be complicated and variable. It’s always possible that a quick adaptation would create a linear path towards development. Ideally, students should be able to receive credit for anything learned, even if it’s out of order.

The idea of progress-oriented grading is flawed. It may be my idea, but I realize that I am not perfect. The primary concern is that it simply doesn’t go far enough. While there may be methods to allow for individual needs beyond pace to be addressed, there would clearly be some shortcomings. Teachers are not going to design a unique scenario for each student, and they are likely to push a common approach to everyone. For example, it is almost certain that every student would be given the same textbooks.

Another problem is that it is too easy to adapt the current system to this approach. They could simply swap grading systems. The general methods used to teach would be adapted to the new system, but they would still be the same methods. They would likely evaluate progress by measuring homework completed and occasionally requiring tests. All of these things would have to follow a specific sequence. Even if they provided some flexibility, frequent evaluations would take priority over actual progress.

Simply put, progress-oriented grading is a horrible long-term solution. Much like the teacher who is trying to provide flexibility in terms of pace, it’s an improvement that still falls short. You might be wondering why I am introducing you to an idea that I do not support. While basing schooling off of progress-oriented grading might be a mistake, simply abandoning the idea is also a mistake. Let me share some of the values that have me refusing to let the idea die.

1. Brainstorming
Even bad ideas can help create good ideas. The attempt to address problems may encourage others to look into the issue themselves. Progress-oriented grading might include some concepts that a better idea might salvage. Even the evaluation of what’s wrong can result in ideas popping into people’s heads that might actually work. I can’t rule out the possibility that a great idea utilizes my bad idea.
2. Finding Flaws Elsewhere
I have identified some of the flaws myself. It’s always possible that someone has ideas with similar problems that may need to be addressed. By providing others with the flaws that I have found, they may find flaws in their own ideas that they have previously overlooked. Depending on the how these flaws affect ideas, some people might improve on their ideas. Others might look for brand new ideas that lack these flaws.
3. Intermediate Step
Some people could have ideas on new approaches that could have negative aspects adapted from the current approach. Since progress-oriented grading forces changes regarding individual needs, it could help with a transition to an idea that I can’t even imagine right now. There could be good ideas that require a shakeup before being properly implemented. It is possible that progress-oriented grading could be a predecessor to something that works well. In other words, progress-oriented grading could have short-term advantages.
4. It’s an Improvement
While progress-oriented grading is severely flawed, it is a huge improvement over what we have in place now. Although we will still fall short, we will be closer to meeting the needs of the individual. As long as it’s an improvement, the idea should not be discarded.