Knowledge Based Grading
Join the effort to stop grading students based on behavior.
Schools and colleges need to grade solely on learning and knowledge.
Sign up to learn more.
Sign up to get our monthly emails.
Just give us your email. No cost. No obligation.
The Problem
–Fewer than half of students in school and college receive grades appropriate to their knowledge. This according to Nancy Cole’s research as President of the Educational Testing Service. Some 28% of our smartest students receive grades significantly worse than they deserve, keeping them out of the college education they merit.
–Behavior is unrelated to learning and knowledge. School behavior is no predictor of behavior and success in the workplace. This according to numerous sources, including Department of Labor studies and Columbia University’s Richard Arum in Academically Adrift.
–Many of our smartest students are denied college. Some 2.0 million smart students are denied college every year because of inaccurate grading. As one K-12 teacher explained, “When we include behavior in grading students, we send our ‘C’ students to college and our ‘A’ students to McDonalds.”
Societal Impact
-Colleges now closing. A college now closes once a week. There are now 1.2 million fewer college students than 10 years ago.
–We need more college graduates. The U.S., like other advanced nations, needs 50% of its young people to have a four year college degree for economic prosperity of the 21st century. At just 32%, we are falling further and further behind.
–STEM worker shortage. The U.S. lacks millions of STEM workers. The U.S. has to import college educated STEM workers.
-Other Skilled worker shortages. We don’t have enough food veterinarians, increasing the chances of diseased meat and risk to humans. Courts do not have enough public defenders in rural areas.
–Death by Despair. The suicide rate has tripled in the last 20 years, as has other Deaths by Despair such as drug overdose and intoxication. More than 50,000 young people die from despair every year according to the CDC.
–Diversity. The problem affects black and Latino boys the worst.
-High school grads lose too. The other half of our young people who do not choose to go to college, or who do not qualify, see their wages and financial future decline. According to economist Enrico Moretti’s The New Geography of Jobs, people with a high school degree do better economically when living in communities with a high percentage of college graduates.
Sign up to learn more.
Sign up to get our monthly emails.
Just give us your email. No cost. No obligation.