Should Schools Ditch Letter Grades?

Like many students, 16-year-old Daniel Espinoza often gets stressed about homework, tests, and, most of all, grades. The teen from Rockville, Maryland, thinks it’s unfair that some of his classmates can study for an hour to get an A on a test while he needs to study for days to earn that same grade.

“A single letter can’t convey . . . how hard a student worked,” he says.

That’s one reason Daniel—as well as many education experts—supports doing away with letter grades entirely. In recent years, a number of schools have done just that, replacing traditional A-F grades with a pass/fail or credit/no credit system. That trend accelerated over the past year, as the Covid-19 pandemic has upended traditional schooling, forcing teachers and administrators to rethink their approach to grading.

People who favor ditching letter grades say that students should be evaluated based on their overall performance, with regular feedback from teachers. They say that would help students recognize and work on areas that need improvement without having to stress about grades.

But other people say traditional letter grades are an effective—and efficient—way to track students’ progress. They’re also easily understood by teachers, kids, and parents alike, and set clear goals to work toward, supporters say.

Should schools ditch letter grades? Keep reading, then decide what you think.

Many people say that eliminating traditional letter grades would allow students to focus more on developing new skills and learning new material than on simply getting A’s.

Plus, some experts say, letter grades can be demotivating. A study published in the academic journal Assessment in Education, for example, found that struggling students who received poor letter grades in seventh through ninth grades were less likely to graduate from high school than struggling students who didn’t get letter grades.

Daniel thinks a better grading system would be one that recognizes how hard a student works. Among other things, he says, it would “take into account each student’s circum­stances and reward effort as much as achievement.”

Other people, however, say that letter grades help some students set—and achieve—goals. That was the case for Gauri Mittal, a 16-year-old from Murphy, Texas.

Last spring, Gauri’s school switched to a pass/fail grading system. “Instantly, my entire approach to schoolwork changed—and not for the better,” she explains. “Without the looming pressure of a letter grade, I started spending less time on schoolwork because I knew I’d be able to pass by doing just the bare minimum.”

Before long, however, Gauri found herself struggling to keep up in class because she hadn’t done enough to truly understand the material.

“Like it or not,” she says, “grades are the most effective way of letting students know where they struggle and where they shine. If a student merely receives a ‘Pass’ on a test or paper, they can’t know if they’d fully absorbed the material or just squeaked by.”

Consider the pros and cons of letter grades. Then ask yourself: Are they an effective way to motivate students? What evaluation method would help me do my best?