The Scale system of letter grade divides the students into a few groups based on the achievement relative to another. For example, the top 5% of the class receives grade A, top 6% ~ 10% receives grade B, and so on. Pass/fail grading provides two options for grading. Pass grade allows students to take consecutive courses and indicates that students satisfy the learning expectation of the course. If students receive a Fail grade, they would not receive credit for the course. I disagree that high-school students should be graded on a pass/fail grade system rather than the scaled system of letter grades. Some could argue that adopting a scaled system of letter grade over pass/fail grade system is not ideal for students since the grading should assess whether or not students have a basic command of the course, not how they fare against others. However, a close examination of the issue reveals that a scaled grading system provides an important measurement of mastery of the concept and creates a learning environment that encourages investment in the course.
It could be seen that grading should focus on a student's understanding of the basic concept not achievement relative to others. Therefore, a scaled grading system is not necessary and high school should be graded with the pass/fail grading system. However, this idea fails to capture the importance to assess achievement relative to others. For college admission or scholarship, it is important to select students who could succeed the most with the opportunity and those who could be the best fit for the opportunity. The dichotomy grading system does not allow evaluators to have full knowledge of each student’s achievement, which could lead to choosing from in an arbitrary way. A scaled grading system is an expedient tool to make comparisons for judgment like college admission and scholarship. Further, a precise and accurate grading system, a scaled grading system, could determine the specific needs of individual students. Everyone learns in different ways at different rates. If a student is struggling on a certain level of the mathematics course, a scaled grading system could easily determine the student such that the faculty could provide appropriate help.
Others could argue that a scaled grade system could result in a toxic learning environment where students are more focused on the competition than learning the concept. Since scaled grade is given relative to the other students, it could cause students to focus on the competition rather than learning the course material. Therefore, people could argue that it is appropriate to use a grading system that only evaluates one’s performance not relative to others such as pass/fail. While it is true that a scaled grade system could potentially lead to competition between students, it is not a toxic learning environment. In fact, the competition encourages students to invest more in learning. Competition is often used to make an improvement over one’s limit. For example, in track and field, having someone to compete improves the athletes’ personal record. Similarly, competition in the learning environment would encourage students to invest more time to learn and have a better understanding of the concept. Therefore, having competition due to a scaled grading system is not a toxic learning environment.
In conclusion, I disagree that high school students should be graded on a pass/fail basis. Instead, they should be graded on a scaled system of letter grades. This grading system is a useful tool for college admission or scholarship assessment and the system encourages students to learn more by creating competition. Therefore, it is more appropriate to grade students with a scaled system.