2+Who+Created+This+Grading+Scale+Anyway?

The fact of giving a zero isn't something that people naturally decided to use. It is a system of communication for grading. The chapter leads the reader through the evolution of grading. Grading in its present form developed as way to communicate with parents. As the students numbers increased in schools a way of communicating with parents in large numbers had to be developed.

The authors really attack the system of giving zeros. Zeros disproportianately affect the grade. The authors state (without reference) that 1/3 of students that enter kindergarten will drop out before graduating high school. I question this statement and question even more if giving zeros results in this statistic.

The authors state that giving low scores only affects high achieiving students. I do agree with this. A good analogy would be the credit score that you earn for getting loans. If you have a high credit score and you miss payment on a loan, you want to remediate this right away so you can qualify for future loans at a low interest rate. On the other hand, if you don't have the money to pay a loan, it doesn't matter if that affects your credit score or not. As the saying goes, you can't get blood out of a turnip!

The last item the authors state is that grades should be standards based. Grades should reflect what a students know and can do, not behavior and responsibility. I agree with the statement, but I also have to admit that I have hard time separtating them, especially the responsibility.